Committed hospital staff who clocked up 900 years of service between them were honoured at an awards ceremony.

West Middlesex University Hospital’s annual long service awards recognise and reward staff members who have put in more than ten years of service at the hospital.

This year 56 employees achieved one of the significant milestones of 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 years and were celebrated at an event on Wednesday, February 5.

Karen Beck from Teddington has worked as a midwife at West Middlesex for more than 20 years and is now midwife on the new dedicated homebirth team.

She said: “I trained as a midwife at West Middlesex and then went on to have both of my children here.

“I’ve always found West Mid a friendly place to work and have enjoyed being able to specialise and promote breastfeeding and home birth.”

The longest serving staff member at the ceremony was patient affairs manager, Chris Lewis, from Shepperton, who has worked at the trust for 41 years, this April.

He said: “I have carried out many roles in my time here; I started out in the x-ray department as a messenger, then a clerical assistant before joining the finance department where I have had various roles before working in the patient affairs office.

“It has certainly gone very quickly and I’ve always enjoyed working here.”

Other long-servers included Diane Pursglove, from Chiswick, who has worked in the hospital pharmacy department for 30 years, staff nurse Ann Brown, from Staines, who has worked at the hospital for 40 years, and Susan Nugent, from Isleworth, who collected an award for more than 15 years’ service as a midwife.

Chief executive Jacqueline Docherty DBE praised the teamwork across the hospital and the wide range of roles that play an important part in patients receiving safe care.

Nina Singh, director of workforce and development, said: “West Middlesex is a hospital where many staff choose to stay with us and form part of the local community.

“That’s quite special for a London hospital and we hope to preserve that. We see the importance of formally recognising the achievements and loyalty of our workforce and this ceremony gives us the opportunity to publicly thank staff and acknowledge the service they have given over many years.”