Dame Eileen Sills, DBE FRCN (born June 1962) is the Chief Nurse, Director of Patient Experience and Infection Control and a member of the board at

Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust is an NHS foundation trust of the English National Health Service, one of the prestigious Shelford Group. It runs Guy's Hospital in London Bridge, St Thomas' Hospital in Waterloo, Evelina London Childr ...

. She was also, briefly, the first Freedom to Speak Up National Guardian.

Career

Before taking up the National Guardian post, she was additionally senior nursing advisor at the

Nursing and Midwifery Council The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the regulator for nursing and midwifery professions in the UK. The NMC maintains a register of all nurses, midwives and specialist community public health nurses and nursing associates eligible to prac ...

and Chair of the nurses group for the

Shelford Group The Shelford Group is a collaboration of ten of the largest teaching and research NHS hospital trusts in England. The ten members collectively employ over 140,000 people and account for over £12.5 billion of the NHS budget. The member organisat ...

of leading

NHS Foundation Trusts A foundation trust is a semi-autonomous organisational unit within the National Health Service in England. They have a degree of independence from the Department of Health and Social Care (and, until the abolition of SHAs in 2013, their local st ...

. She was previously the Clinical Director of London’s Strategic Clinical Network for Dementia. She qualified as a nurse in 1983 at Stepping Hill Hospital. She moved from there to work in A&E at

North Middlesex Hospital North Middlesex University Hospital, known locally as North Mid, is a district general hospital in Edmonton in the London Borough of Enfield. The hospital is managed by North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust. History The hospital was e ...

as a Sister and then became director of nursing at the

Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) is a specialist orthopaedic hospital located in the London Borough of Harrow, United Kingdom, and a part of Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust. It provides the most comprehensive range of ...

and then

Whipps Cross Hospital Whipps Cross University Hospital is a large university hospital in the locality of Whipps Cross in Leytonstone and is within Epping Forest in the London Borough of Waltham Forest, London, England. It is managed by Barts Health NHS Trust. Histo ...

. She chaired the London Standing Conference group on Homelessness. She trained medical practitioners to be “dementia friends”. Sills was appointed Chief Nurse at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in 2005.

Honours

She was elevated to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the

2015 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2015 were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebratio ...

having been appointed a CBE in the 2004 New Year Honours. She was awarded Fellowship of the

Royal College of Nursing The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is a registered trade union in the United Kingdom for those in the profession of nursing. It was founded in 1916, receiving its royal charter in 1928. Queen Elizabeth II was the patron until her death in 2022. ...

in 2012.

Controversy

In January 2016 she was appointed as the first Freedom to Speak Up National Guardian for the NHS. Some reactions were hostile as she would be working two days a week while retaining her three roles at the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust for the other three days. Activist Julie Bailey described her appointment as "disappointing". Roy Lilley described her appointment as "an affront" and "waving two fingers". On 4 March 2016, she resigned from her National Guardian post as she felt unable to do it justice together with her other responsibilities. On 20 February 2020, it was announced that Dame Eileen would step down from her chief nurse post towards the end of the summer.

References

Links

Profile
checkcompany.co.uk; accessed 16 June 2016. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sills, Eileen 1962 births Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Administrators in the National Health Service English nurses Place of birth missing (living people) Date of birth missing (living people) People from Stoke Newington Living people Fellows of the Royal College of Nursing British nurses