Heartbeat: Top honour for devoted doctor
February 13, 2020
One of our leading clinicians, Professor Elizabeth Hughes has been awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours List.
The consultant in chemical pathology and metabolic medicine was given the award for services to healthcare, education and training, both nationally and in the West Midlands, it was announced just before the New Year.
Speaking of the honour, she told Heartbeat: “I was amazed when I found out. The envelope arrived, and when I opened it, I couldn’t believe it. I just kept looking at the letter.”
Professor Hughes has worked for the Trust for 30 years and she remembers her first day vividly. “The earth literally shook on my first day at Sandwell Hospital,” she laughed. “There was an earthquake that day. The desk started shaking and there was this rumbling noise. At first, I thought someone was moving furniture around, but then we all discovered there had been an earthquake.”
From that point on, Professor Hughes has been shaking things up by bringing in a wealth of new ideas – all to improve patient care. Her role involves monitoring bodily fluids like blood and urine to detect important changes in the body’s chemistry. Metabolic medicine is concerned primarily with the clinical management of disorders, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and lipid (fat/hormone) disorders.
“I was the first to take clinics analysing bloods into the community,” she explained. “It was hugely beneficial because we were taking the care directly to our patients, rather than them having to trek to the hospital.”
“I had an interest in patients with genetic disorders and so became the first to start up research into this as well as managing their conditions. Our research in lipids became one of the foremost in the UK.”
Professor Hughes didn’t stop there. She saw how the south asian community suffered from cardiovascular diseases. At the end of the 1990s, she started research into this area. “There was a very high incidence of diabetes in people in the area and so we started offering a screening service outside of the research.”
“We checked bloods for diabetes and high cholesterol and we found that many of the community had issues around this. My team became embedded into the community and were visiting temples, mosques and even West Bromwich Albion FC, and engaging with those hard to reach groups.”
“After they were diagnosed a nurse or doctor would give them lifestyle advice and arrange further treatment. We found that over 50 per cent were at risk of cardiovascular disease. Sandwell was then 40 per cent above the national average of those at risk of a heart attack. In total, we screened more than 8,000 people over 10 years.” As a result, she set up the charity Healthy Hearts, to carry on the good work in educating the community as a whole about the risks around cardiovascular diseases.
Over the years, Professor Hughes has been commended for her research but she has also been recognised for the work she has done in the education of junior doctors. Her work led to the Sandwell site becoming a teaching facility.
“When I came here the old learning and development building used to be the postgraduate centre. I project managed the rebuilding of the new centre and then oversaw the development of the library. It meant that we became the fourth teaching hospital in the Birmingham area and could bring in medical students.”
As with her work around cardiovascular diseases, Professor Hughes has continued her passion within education. She is now Deputy Medical Director of Health Education England having risen through the ranks, on a part-time basis. “I continue my work within a healthcare setting and I’m based at Sandwell Hospital,” she added
It’s surprising to learn that despite her hectic career, she still has various hobbies she indulges in outside of work. “I am a long-distance swimmer, I sing in a choir and I also enjoy floristry,” she laughed.