AS the chief executive of Bolton’s biggest employer Dr Jackie Bene is surprisingly low-key.

Yet, the CEO of Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Royal Bolton Hospital, has achieved much in the past five years and made a major impact on local health services, helping turn around the Trust’s financial fortunes and future.

Not that she foresaw any of this as a youngster growing up in Keighley, Yorkshire, and moving around the country with her parents’ work. “I wanted to be a policewoman when I was younger,” she said. “Then later, I wanted to be involved in some sort of service, helping people perhaps as a nurse or occupational therapist.”

In fact, when she attended New Mills Sixth Form College her grades were good enough for teachers to encourage her to study medicine so she took her degree at Sheffield University on the road to becoming a doctor.

Her childhood had strongly featured her grandparents and she believes this may have influenced her eventual choice of elderly medicine.

When she qualified, rather than stay in Sheffield she decided to go to Cornwall, where she had enjoyed family holidays, and spent three years working in Truro then another year in Exeter. She specialised in cardiology and elderly medicine and then came on a training scheme to Manchester.

At that time, Dr (later Professor) Arup Banerjee had overhauled services for the elderly at what is now the Royal Bolton Hospital and was also lecturing. “I was inspired by him”, stated Dr Bene. “I wanted to work improving health and social care and I really liked the Bolton hospital, its warm atmosphere and what it had achieved.”

In 1998, she came to Bolton, taking over the role of Clinical Lead for Older People’s Services when Prof Banerjee retired. Here, she worked on the integrated health and social care service she felt so strongly about and is proud of what has been achieved.

In 2005, she became the leader of the division of acute medicine and A & E and in 2008, she was appointed medical director. Then, in 2013 – at a time when the Trust was suffering major problems and deemed “failing” – she was appointed chief executive.

“With the help of the executive team, we built up the Trust to a better place,” she stated. Dr Bene spearheaded a turnaround of the Trust to allow it to deliver financial and clinical sustainability.

As a result, by 2016, the Bolton Trust was cited by the CEO of NHS Improvement as the best stand-alone turnaround of an NHS Trust. It has delivered a financial surplus for four consecutive years in a challenging environment and was rated “Good” by the CQC (Care Quality Commission).

Dr Bene herself was awarded an OBE for services to healthcare in the 2018 New Year’s Honours list and was also given an honorary doctorate for her outstanding contribution to medicine.

There is no suggestion of laurel-resting for this busy CEO, however. Dr Bene recognises that, although local people have a genuine warmth for the Royal Bolton Hospital and its staff, experiencing its services can lead to very individual assessments of its success.

“We tend to expect everything immediately today – whether that’s food, communication or services like healthcare,” she said. “Those expectations can be difficult to fulfil.

“We do get letters of criticism from people but, in fairness, we also get an equal number of those praising the service and thanking us.”

She believes that Bolton has come a long way in integrated health and social care and plans are underway for much more.

“The Trust, the CCG and the council are all working together well to do this,” she said. “We all want to get people home and able to access all the right services in their community. And that is what we are working towards.”