AN NHS director from Appleton who was a key figure in building several new hospitals has been given an OBE.

Thomas Whitfield, more commonly known as Tony, was influential in the building of St Helens Hospital as well as redeveloping Whiston Hospital and Salford Royal Hospital in his roles as finance director and deputy chief executive.

The 59-year-old now been awarded an OBE for his services to the NHS, having recently retired after nearly 35 years working in the health service.

Tony, who is originally from Orford but now lives in Appleton, said: “It was a complete shock and I was really touched.

“I’ve been amazed how many people have been in contact with me since the news broke.

“My late mother was a nurse so the NHS was a part of our lives throughout my childhood.

“In 1983 jobs were hard to come by so I stumbled into the NHS, but it was the best thing that I ever did because there’s never been a time in all of those years that I’ve not felt I was in the right place.

"You feel that you can help to make things better for patients.”

Tony worked at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust for 20 years between 1983 and 2003, before spending more than a decade at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust.

Moving on to Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust three years ago, Tony recently retired.

He added: “People quite rightly give praise to the frontline staff but without the back room people doing their stuff the whole thing wouldn’t happen.

“The NHS is a huge team of people doing all sorts of jobs and when it works well it’s able to do really fabulous stuff."