An accident and emergency specialist who worked in Salford through challenging times celebrates his retirement after 35 years.
Jimmy Tunn who started his career in Salford in 1992 was able to work through many major events in the area, and was able to share his story in the NHS.
His journey in the NHS began in October 1989 as a student nurse, before qualifying in 1992 with a desire to work in accident and emergency.
Jimmy spent 16 years in accident and emergency, the first six being spent at Salford Royal Hospital.
After the first six years in his career he would eventually move to Royal Bolton Hospital, where he would spend the next ten years of his career.
Working in both hospitals he was able to care for patients who came in with acute illnesses and injuries, being on what many refer to as the frontlines.
In 2008, Jimmy stepped away from the Emergency department, and became Emergency Planning Manager, a role that helps the organisation to prepare for a crisis and ensure its able to deliver life-saving care for people in and around Bolton.
Jimmy worked through many major events, including Coronavirus, the swine flu and the Manchester arena attacks.
Although the swine flu did not break as badly as the Public Health England thought it was going to, Jimmy spoke about how the trust were still prepared, he said: “The Trust were asked to prepare and get lots of supplies and stock in, and to start training staff in certain levels of PPE.”
During the coronavirus, Jimmy was part of the Covid-19 response team, put together to help coordinate the operational responses across the Trust.
He helped coordinate FIT testing, masks and personal protective equipment (PPE). Jimmy was taken away from his usual job for 18 months because of this, describing the time as “a big challenge for everyone, it was quite a difficult time.”
Jimmy also described how as Emergency Planning Manager during the Manchester arena attacks his role included setting up the control room, for the clinical staff to come for resources and information.
Jimmy described how “even though it was a major incident, and we were seeing patients coming through quickly, at the end of the day the A and E nurses are very professional, and they dealt with that situation very, very well and everything was very calm”.
“I think the overriding sense we had at the end of it, was how proud we were, how well everyone did during the incident because it was challenging”.
Jimmy finished his 35 years on Friday 29 November, and said how: “I’ve enjoyed coming out at the end of the 35 years… I’ve enjoyed what I’ve achieved in the 35 years.”
“Not all of them have been easy… but I’ve certainly enjoyed getting to the end of them.”
The story of Jimmy Tunn on his journey in the NHS can be found here.
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