Happy retirement Mr Harris
Date of release: 20 December 2024
A golden servant of Wolverhampton healthcare with six decades of NHS service is retiring, insisting: “I’d do it all again”.
John Harris (wearing a tie) with colleagues wishing him a happy retirement at his celebration held at the Wolverhampton Medical Institute at New Cross Hospital
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 81, John – which he insists on being called despite being known universally as ‘Mr Harris’ – still starts work at New Cross Hospital at 6.30am and never works from home.
John 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 General Hospital.
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 Hospital Secretary.
“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.
“Over the years I have been interviewed on several occasions as the health services have been reorganised and thankfully I have been successful,” he said.
Health reforms in the mid-1990s and various enquiries have meant his legal activity has rocketed.
He still teaches medical law to first and second-year Doctors, middle-grade Doctors and trainee Endoscopists.
John’s favourite moment brings it back to what matters – the patient – however: “One Easter weekend I was asked to help a lady with her will. She was very unwell, and I was told she hadn’t got long to live.
“It was a particular set of circumstances, but she was able to nod and give consent and signed her will, albeit very faintly.
“She reached out and squeezed my hand. It gave me a lot of satisfaction being able to do that for her. She died a few hours later.”
He 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, of 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.
Caroline Walker, Interim Group Chief Executive, surprised him with the award. Watch it on YouTube
ENDS
- For further information, please call Tim Nash on 07714 741097 or email tim.nash2@nhs.net
