Page 24 - The Gazette Autumn 2023

24 The Gazette QARANC Association
Col Commandant Carol Kefford:
A time for reflection
By the time you read this I will have handed over to Colonel Andrea Lewis after six years as Colonel Commandant QARANC. I am writing this during my final month and so perhaps a good time for some reflection.
When Colonel Karen Irvine invited me to take over from Colonel Sue Bush I was incredibly honoured but took my time deciding. Partly because 15 years had passed since I left the Corps, partly because I was working full time in a busy role as Chief Nurse of Nuffield Health and very much because I knew what a great job Colonel Sue had done so there was a lot to measure up to!
Karen and Sue wore down my concerns and were particularly clear that it was my experience and network in the wider world of healthcare that would bring value to the role. The fact that I was out of date with the Army and the Corps worried me but nobody else. And they were right.
My first observation is that we should not lose sight of the value that diverse experience brings, nor think that we all need to be experts in all things. That is why teams work and it has been a real pleasure to be part of ‘Team QA.’
Healthcare is changing rapidly and will continue to do so and those changes, I think, are best navigated in partnership with others; relationships and collaboration beyond the traditional boundaries serve us well, indeed I think are essential to remain visible, understood, share expertise, learn with and from others. The widest possible view is needed to anticipate challenges and opportunities in order to mitigate the former and seize the latter.
Working alongside first Colonel Jane Davies and then Colonel Kevin Davies as my fellow Colonels Commandant has been inspiring and I have personally learnt a great deal from their incredibly broad experience as well as watched
how they have brought that experience to benefit the Corps.
I’m pretty sure that any Colonel Commandant will tell you that a favourite element of the role is spending time with our soldiers and officers be that during unit visits, at an educational event or socially. I have loved listening to your experiences and stories, watching your skill and enthusiasm and celebrating your loyalty and commitment. We have incredibly talented people who adapt and thrive whatever the challenges.
The challenge we will never forget from the last few years of course has been the COVID pandemic. The response
from the Corps as part of the
Army Medical Services, the Army and indeed healthcare as a system in UK was phenomenal.
It really was a time when nurses and
Third from right, with QAs at Royal Hospital Chelsea on Corps Day 2022
healthcare assistants gave everything and used every last skill caring for our patients and for each other. Colonel Commandant visits became virtual so we were able to stay in touch and listen to the stories of your contribution.
Nurses who had worked in field hospitals in Iraq, Kosovo, Afghanistan, the Sudan and at the very sharp end in Sierra Leonne during the Ebola crisis told me they had a sense of going on an operational deployment, only this time without leaving home. Not
leaving home brought its own challenges because, on deployment you are fed, the laundry is done, and personal admin is minimal. During COVID the deployment part kicked in but there was still everything else to be done as well to
keep our home lives going.
I watched and listened with immense
pride as our nurses and HCAs working across the NHS pulled on their inner reserves of experience and their certainty that they could do this so that their calming confidence rippled out; their presence in wards, theatres and critical care units made
others feel “We’ve got this, we can do this.”
The Corps brought very bright spots individually and collectively illuminating dark corners in difficult days and our
contribution has been immense. The Association has gone from strength to strength under the superb leadership of Sue McAteer and the office team alongside Colonel (Retired) John Quinn as chairman with the support of committed and