'I would do it all again' - Wolverhampton hospital stalwart John, 81, finally set to retire after six decades
A servant of Wolverhampton healthcare with six decades of NHS service is retiring and insists “I’d do it all again”.
John Harris, Legal Services Manager at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, is finally putting down his pen after 60 NHS years, 56 in Wolverhampton.
Now aged 81, John still starts work at New Cross Hospital at 6.30am and never works from home.
He joined The Mid Worcestershire Hospital Management Committee – now Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust – on 14 December 1964, working for the Hospital Secretary, based in Bromsgrove.
Appointed as deputy hospital secretary at the former Royal Hospital and Sub Group, Wolverhampton in February 1968, he passed the final part of his Institute of Hospital Management exams, and four years later, became secretary.
He said: “I regarded myself as very fortunate because it was a plum job,” said John, whose extraordinary career will finish on New Year’s Eve.
“Wolverhampton was strategic and very important operationally in the West Midlands, because of the excellence of its medical services.”
The first of several reorganisations of the NHS in 1974 saw The Royal become part of Wolverhampton Health Authority. This meant John had to re-apply for a job in the new service.
He said: “Over the years I have been interviewed on several occasions as the health services have been reorganised and thankfully I have been successful."
Health reforms in the mid-1990s and various enquiries meant his legal activity rocketed.
He still teaches medical law to first and second-year doctors, middle-grade ones and trainee endoscopists.
John has never looked back at his choice of career, recalling: “I’ve always enjoyed law. My mum said to me ‘you have been arguing since you were born so you might as well be paid for it!’
“I would do it all again because it’s been so varied and personally satisfying.”
John met Jo, his wife of 52 years, when she was a Sister at the Royal.
“I’d been working till late, returned to my lodgings in Oxley, and she made a call at 4am to the telephone in the hall,” he said.
“There was a patient where the police were informed and she had to make a statement and had to write a report. From there we went out for a meal, which was the beginning of a lifetime together.”
The couple, who live in Codsall, have a son, Tim.
John was a former chairman of governors of Kinver High School and now serves on the members board of Invictus Multi Academy Education Trust.
He also chairs the Biennial Codsall Community Arts Festival.
Signing off on a high, John is RWT’s Exceeding Expectation Award winner for December, recognising staff for consistently going the extra mile.
Interim Group Chief Executive Caroline Walker surprised him with the award.
