A stalwart of Farnham’s healthcare services and long-serving NHS employee has spoken of his complete and utter disbelief at being recommended for the honour of MBE in the New Year 2021 Honours List - for services to the NHS, community resuscitation and the wider primary health care provision.Peter Glover said: “I’m gobsmacked and humbled. I still don’t really believe it’s true! I sat on it for weeks; it was only when I got a confirmation email reminder, and then a telephone call from someone who had all my details asking whether I would accept, that I thought it might be genuine.”
Peter’s day job is within the Integrated Care Team for the local GP Federation in Farnham where he has been instrumental in helping to shape and create new ways of caring for those most at risk.
In addition to visiting, co-ordinating and caring for complex, frail or patients with long term health conditions, or those who may be recovering from a recent hospital stay, Peter, aged 46, works tirelessly to identify other frail, elderly or at-risk groups for pro-active care and interventions. This enables plans to be put in place to provide holistic care, depending on their individual needs, ensuring that they receive the right care at the right time.
A qualified ambulance technician with South East Coast Ambulance Service for 20 years, Peter still works regular front line ambulance shifts at weekends or evenings. He put his name forward to work during the recent Christmas week to play his part in supporting the full-time crews, during what is traditionally one of the busiest times of the year.
He said: “I do it because I love it. I’m so proud of my ‘family in green’, who do an incredible job day-in, night-out. Every 999 or 111 call ambulance staff respond to is a call for help. Community Responders, ECSWs, Ambulance Technicians, and Paramedics all respond uncertain what they will face. To be a tiny part of that is something I care deeply about it and I’m honoured to be a part of it.”
But it doesn’t stop there - Peter has been a committed volunteer since he was twelve; In the last ten years he has focused on supporting the ‘Farnham Heart Start’ team under the British Heart Foundation, which he helped set up and get off the ground (the team delivers free basic life support training, to the public); promoting the work of Community First Responder teams; helping organise promotion of and publicity for public access defibrillation and basic life support, and providing Basic Life Support (First Aid) and defibrillator training for members of the public. In the last year alone Peter has helped place four defibrillators in the local community.
He is also a community “Good Sam” Responder, responding to cardiac arrests local to him. Plus there is his weekly work in support of the Salvation Army, and at Farnborough Rugby Club, managing the first aid cover across the different age groups for the children’s teams during weekly training practice, matches and tournaments.
His enthusiasm for his day-to-day job within Farnham Integrated Care Service is evident, as is his gratitude for those who allow him to do what he does.
He said, “I’m really honoured that in Farnham we have invested for the future by creating a role specifically to be proactively supporting people before they become unwell or, having become unwell, to support them in a different way.
“Our creed is to ensure we see the whole person, not the individual symptom or problem, and we work to minimise the impact of their condition on them based on their overall health and individual situation as a person.”
He added, “The NHS is the single greatest thing I’ve ever been part of, apart from being a husband to Penny, a dad to Cameron and Benjamin, and stepdad to Lizzy.”
“Farnham has inspirational leaders, incredible doctors, smart paramedics, dedicated nurses, hardworking administrators. This skilled team are all really focused on what needs to be done for local people. I’m so lucky to be doing what I love doing, surrounded by such an amazing group of people, all playing our small part to improve the bigger service for everyone. This recognition is for all of the team.”
Dr David Brown, Chair of Farnham Integrated Care Services (FICS), said: “I’m very pleased for Peter. He really deserves this. He does a lot of work that is above and beyond his role in FICS, not only helping out in the community with his work on resuscitation and with the Salvation Army, but he also gives much more of himself to his job than is expected.
“He has a lot of energy and many ideas on what he can do to help improve people’s health and wellbeing, both from an overall population viewpoint and an individual perspective. Our patients will have appreciated how much care he shows towards them. For example he visits patients in hospital after they’ve been admitted. He’s a busy person but he finds the time because it means so much to him.
“He’s very generous with other people and he spends a lot of time validating the team that he works with, as well as forging relationships across the health, social care and voluntary sectors. Self-deprecating by nature, it’s right that Peter should see himself as someone who has achieved so much for the people of Farnham, for our local health and care organisations, for the GPs in Farnham, and also for helping to spread our learning into other health systems.
"We are very proud that he has received this honour.”
