Prem Singh announces retirement as DCHS chair
Following 47 years’ public service in the NHS and social care, Prem Singh has decided to retire as chair of Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust.
Prem and his wife Kathryn, who also works for the NHS, plan to focus on their family and the next chapter of their lives together. Prem has been the chair of Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust (DCHS) for over eight years and will stay in post until December 2022, allowing time to recruit a new chair.
In making his announcement today (15 July), Prem said: “Being the Chair of DCHS for the past eight plus years has been the highlight of my career and one which has been both an honour and an absolute privilege. I have had the pleasure of working with some incredibly talented people who have both inspired and humbled me in equal measure.
“Having helped to lead the trust to becoming an FT and achieving an Outstanding rating, I am particularly proud to have created a unitary board with a clear common purpose, bound together by shared values and a strong focus on doing the right thing for patients, communities and staff alike. They say that if you find a job you love, you’ll never work again and this for me sums up my time here. Whilst I am looking forward to my retirement, as you can imagine, leaving DCHS will be a real wrench and one of the hardest things I do.”
We will have plenty of opportunity over the next five months to mark Prem’s long service and amazing contribution, not just to DCHS but to the NHS as a whole at local, regional and national level.