A midwife who has retired after 33 years service for the NHS was piped away from the Maternity Unit at St. Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey by one of her colleagues.    Pat Wood qualified as a nurse at Westminster in 1975, and then moved on to St. Thomas’s, London in 1978 where she became a midwife.  Pat then moved on to Ashford and St. Peter’s in 1981, where she has worked as a Sister.    In 1985, she became a Community Midwife and the rest is history.

Pat enjoyed being a Community Midwife most and took pleasure in being in charge of home births and in the last year there were 104 home births facilitated by Ashford and St. Peter’s.   She felt lucky that she made so many friends working at St. Peter’s, and was very touched that past colleagues who have not worked at the Trust for years attended the party to say goodbye.

Chris Nelson, a male midwife at the Trust, played his bagpipes in full regalia outside the Abbey Wing to send Pat off.   This was extremely brave considering around 30 women were watching him through the window at the party, along with other staff in the Abbey Wing and people in the street!

Pat is planning on doing some travelling and plans on purchasing a computer as she has never had one before. She was very pleased with her new garden swing bought for her as a retirement gift, and will be spending a lot of time in her garden on it this summer!