Critical care nurse awarded MBE

UCLH critical care consultant nurse John Welch has been awarded an MBE for services to nursing and patient safety in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours List.

John is a familiar face around our hospitals having worked at UCLH since 2009. He set up one of the first critical care outreach services in the UK, was the first chair of the National Outreach Forum, and, more recently, president of the International Society for Rapid Response Systems.

John has worked at UCL Partners where he co-led programmes that improved care for patients with sepsis and other acute illnesses across the region and is also honorary clinical lecturer in advanced critical care practice at UCL.

He was part of the senior team on an EU project developing world-leading wearable patient monitoring systems now being used to enhance care of surgical patients at UCLH and within the UCLH Hospital@Home programme.

​John was national clinical advisor for acute deterioration at NHS England between 2022 and 2024, co-leading the national Patient Worry and Concern programme (the precursor to Martha’s Rule) and was co-author of the NEWS and NEWS2 guidelines.

During the first phase of the pandemic, he was clinical nurse lead for the hospital’s High Dependency Respiratory Unit that took critical care into general ward areas, before re-joining the ICU team for the second phase.

John said: “Serving in our NHS for the past 40 years has been an honour in itself, but I am also honoured to have my contribution recognised in this way.

“It is a privilege to care for some of the sickest people in the hospital alongside so many brilliant and dedicated staff working to find better ways to help critically ill patients and their families.

“This award is definitely not just for me but for all the outstanding individuals I have worked with. Anything I have achieved has only happened with the support of a great many kind and clever colleagues and patients.

“There is no space to list them all, but I am particularly indebted to Elaine Thorpe, Chris Subbe, Alison Phillips and Jillian Hartin who have helped me be the best I can be over many years.”

John’s recognition was welcomed by UCLH chief executive David Probert who said: “John is a much loved and hugely respected colleague. Only last year I was delighted to present him with the chief executive’s award at UCLH’s Celebrating Excellence Awards.

‘John works tirelessly for his patients and his achievements have made a great impact. We are extremely proud of him at UCLH and very happy that he has been recognised in this way.”