A NURSE leader with Symphony Healthcare Services (SHS), which has medical centres in Wiveliscombe and Dulverton, has won a prestigious award from NHS England’s Chief Nursing Officer for the Westcountry

Kate Williams, nursing and allied health professions director for SHS, was judged winner of the primary care nurse leadership award at the recent Community and Primary Care Nursing Awards.

The judges said they were ‘blown away’ by her commitment to improving patient outcomes and supporting her workforce and that she ‘embodied the qualities of a transformative leader in healthcare’.

Her role involves looking after all professionally registered non-GPs within Symphony and unregistered clinical colleagues, such as healthcare assistants and phlebotomists.

She also leads on research for the organisation, having previously been clinical director for the South Somerset West primary care network.

Qualifying as a nurse in 2008, Ms Williams has led on large scale service transformation programmes including the COVID-19 vaccination programme for Somerset, and joined Symphony in 2023.

Ms Williams said: “The award is very much about championing teams, leadership within nursing, making sure all those voices count and are heard and that we’re doing the right thing by our people.

“I was totally surprised to win the award, I have never won anything in my life.

“To be honest, it is really humbling for me that somebody has gone to the trouble of putting in a nomination, so I feel really proud, while knowing there is more to do to raise the voice of all my colleagues whom I represent.”

Somerset NHS Foundation Trust chief nurse and midwife Deirdre Fowler said: “Kate’s achievement is a testament to her exceptional commitment to patient care and her outstanding leadership.”

SHS runs the Lister House GP surgery, in Wiveliscombe, and the Exmoor Medical Centre, in Dulverton.