One of Blackpool Hospital Trust’s most recognised and respected members of staff took her well-deserved retirement this week when Outpatients Manager, Elaine Fishwick, brought down the curtain on her long and distinguished NHS career.
Elaine began her career training as an enrol nurse in the late 1970s and had a long career working at Lytham Hospital before moving to Blackpool Victoria in 2007. As Outpatient Manager, Elaine is responsible for managing eight separate teams and her work impacted many staff and thousands of patients during her time at the Trust.
“I’ve had lots of experience. I’ve been very lucky to have had the chance,” Elaine said on her last day in her office this week.
“I’ve made lots of friends. I have had a lot of support. It has not been easy, because it can be quite difficult when you are managing a lot of people. I have been very lucky to be well supported.
I’ll miss the people – both my colleagues and the patients.
“I need to go on holiday. I need to catch up with my friends, because they are retired as well. I have got four grandsons so I need to spend some time with them. I might even do a bit of vaccinating.”
Speaking about the huge impact Elaine has made on outpatients, Sam Drury, Assistant Director of Nursing said: “She is obviously very well loved and very well respected. She is part of the furniture here, she is in the wards and she lives and breathes outpatients. She is going to be greatly missed, I think Lisa Ogden who is following her is going to have some big shoes to fill.
“She is vastly experienced and has a lot of knowledge and you can’t make 40 years nursing experience overnight. She has retired once and come back, so now she is making that final step. She has talked about maybe doing some vaccinations, and you can never take that nurse out of someone, it is always in you. She’ll maybe get itchy feet and want to come back.”
Elaine managed to take part in a socially distanced celebration of her career on Thursday, with every area of outpatients showing their appreciation for her work at the Trust.