Professor Stephen Eames has been awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2019 published on Saturday 8 June 2019.
The Queen’s Birthday Honours List recognises the achievements of a wide range of people across the United Kingdom each year with Stephen being recognised for his contribution to the National Health Service.
Stephen has spent 47 years working in the NHS, having started as a trainee administrator and working his way to becoming a Chief Executive. He has over 30 years’ experience as a Chief Executive and has successfully improved services for patients and communities in some of the most challenged trusts and health economies in England.*
Since 2016, Stephen has been working in Cumbria when he took up the position of Chief Executive at North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust (NCUH). When he joined, NCUH had been in Special Measures since 2013. Under Stephen’s leadership, the Trust was taken out of special measures in March 2017 by the Care Quality Commission with the best ratings the Trust has ever had.
Stephen also led the Trust through the Success Regime and subsequent public consultation in 2016, taking a leading role throughout the consultation. Since then, as well as collaborating with partners to progress the commitments from the public consultation, he became the system lead of the North Cumbria Integrated Care System. In September 2017, he also became the Chief Executive of Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust which enabled the two trusts to work together closely in order to provide more seamless patient care between hospital and community services. The trusts are now working towards merging later this year.
The progress that has been made led to North Cumbria being confirmed as one of the 14 national pilot integrated care systems in May 2018 and is now regarded by NHS England as one of the most rapidly improving health systems in England with fantastic progress in many areas across the system.** This way of working has been endorsed nationally in the newly published NHS Long Term Plan which sets out integration as one of the requirements to drive an NHS fit for the future.
Speaking of his CBE Stephen said: “It is a great privilege to have this honour bestowed upon me. My passion and drive since joining the NHS 47 years ago has always been to ensure that we are doing the right thing for our patients and that is still what drives and motivates me today.
“I have worked in some of the most challenging areas to deliver healthcare but, without exception, the staff I have worked with have never failed to show true commitment and dedication. I have also never underestimated how much our communities care about their local services.
“I know there is still work to be done and that the journey to truly join up health and care services is a long one but we are making steps in the right direction.”
Stephen has recently been rewarded for his leadership and support by the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) with an Honorary Professorship and it was also confirmed last week that he will undertake an additional part time role as independent chair of Humber Coast and Vale (HCV) Health and Care Partnership. HCV Partnership is a collaboration of 28 health and social care organisations working together with the aim of becoming an Integrated Care System (ICS).
