Wendy Matthews OBE, PhD, RN, RM

Wendy began her student nurse training at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge in 1981, which she chose because she wanted to work in an environment where she could help others and make a real difference. She started in the transplant and neuroscience ward and gained expertise in other specialist areas, as well as generalized hospital and community care. After qualifying as a nurse, Wendy’s passion for partnership working with patients took her into midwifery.

Wendy worked as a qualified midwife in various hospitals and in 1997 became Director of Women and Children Services at The Princess Alexandra Hospital. In 2012, Wendy was appointed as the Director of Midwifery at Barking, Havering, and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, which had one of the largest maternity units in the country.

Within three years, Wendy and her team had transformed the service, taking it from a being in special measures to a ‘good’ rating with the Care Quality Commission. During this time, she also led a reconfiguration of the service’s community boundaries, working with commissioners and neighboring providers; opened a co-located midwifery birth center; and reconfigured inpatient maternity services onto one hospital site. In 2015, Wendy was asked to become the Interim Chief Nurse at the Trust. She was later appointed Deputy Chief Nurse, a job she performed in addition to her position as Director of Midwifery and lead for patient experience and engagement.