A MIDWIFE who never fails to deliver has been awarded with an honorary degree.
Kath Hinchliffe, from Oldfield in Honley, was made an Honorary Doctor of Huddersfield University yesterday.
She was nominated for the prestigious accolade by the Dean of the School of Human and Health Sciences Sue Bernhauser, after her 38 years in the NHS.
Kath’s proudest achievement throughout her career was to establish the Northern School of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy in Leeds.
The 55-year-old, who is married to West Yorkshire coroner David Hinchliff, said she has seen dramatic changes in nursing since she first started working at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary in the 70s.
She told the Examiner: “The principles of nursing haven’t changed – the compassion, the caring and the kindness.
“We learned on the job in the hospital and it was all very practice-based.
“It’s still very practical health care but now it is much more complex.
“Nurses have high levels of decision-making and make more professional decisions.”
But Kath, who was nursing officer at Holme Valley Memorial Hospital in the 1980s, said she is worried about the new Coalition Government cuts to the NHS.
She said: “I am very worried because I think it will be very destructive to what is the best health service in the world.
“It has had a very demoralising effect on staff working in the health service.
“It’s thanks to the NHS that I have had this fantastic career. I’ve been supported through qualifications which have helped me develop professionally.”
Kath worked in senior nurse management roles in Huddersfield and Halifax and completed a Master of Science degree in management in 1995.
In 1999 she moved into education commissioning for the NHS, overseeing the education and training of healthcare staff in West Yorkshire.
Kath was inspired to become a nurse after being admitted to hospital for an eye operation when she was six.
She said: “It left a lasting impression on me and that’s when I knew I wanted to be a nurse. I never wanted to do anything else.”
In six weeks Kath will be taking on the biggest challenge of her career to date.
The experienced nurse will be flying to Cambodia after being accepted onto the Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) health program.
She will take a prominent management role in a hospital in the capital Phnom Penh, helping to improve standards of nursing and midwifery.
Kath will be working in the country, which has the highest infant mortality rate in the whole of Southeast Asia, for over a year.
She said: “I’m so excited, I now feel like I’ve got the confidence and expertise to be able to do something like this and really make a difference.
“My husband David and daughter Sally are just going to have to learn how to cook.”
