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Over the next several months, we will celebrate winners of the 2022 Star Awards, recognising them for their hard work and the positive impact this has had on our people, patients and population. We’ll be speaking directly with the winners to get their views and hear what winning meant to them.

For this month’s Our Winners, we spoke with the winners of the Distinguished Service Award and Learner of the Year.

Distinguished Service Award

2022’s Distinguished Service Award recipient is Siten Roy. Siten joined the Trust in September 2002 as an orthopaedic consultant, with an initial interest in shoulder surgery. However, owing to the needs of the Trust, he moved to hip and knee surgery and added paediatric orthopaedics from 2007. He began working on the management side of the Trust from 2008, initially in a somewhat informal way. During this period, alongside working full time clinical hours, he worked with GP surgeries and commissioning groups, providing education and training. He formally moved over to management in April 2012, when he became clinical director of trauma & orthopaedics, and then the clinical director of Theatres in December 2015. In April 2018, Siten was appointed the group director of surgical services. He retired in June 2022, but continued in this role until November 2022.

Siten’s long career has involved extensive training and participation in multiple aspects of healthcare. To understand the management and leadership side better, he did his masters in Healthcare Management and Leadership from 2013-15. He recalls this as a tough period, as he was doing full clinical work, clinical director work, teaching, training and the masters. He also became a part of the West Midlands Leadership Academy in 2015, an arm of the National Leadership Academy, serving as a Board member till 2020.

Siten was not expecting his Star Award nomination, stating “It was a surprise because I always thought of these awards as reserved for people who have really gone above and beyond. I had always felt I was just doing my job as a clinician, a manager and a leader. However, I do agree that I’ve gone outside my comfort zone in my career, and it hasn’t always been easy. I moved from clinical to management side without much defined or structured training in management or leadership, other than some generic exposure. It was a tough jump: I moved out of a purely clinical area and worked with other directorates and commissioners. I am thankful to the colleagues who supported me in my move into this role.”

Roy, Orthopaedic Consultant

Siten believes it’s this move outside his comfort zone that may have contributed to the win. He further says: “The nomination was completely unexpected, and the shortlisting even more so. All the nominees had achieved so much in their careers and I thought they all deserved to win! On the night itself, winning was a huge surprise”.

Siten is now retired, but spends around 40 per cent of his time working in paediatric orthopaedics. He continues to use his time to work with the Trust and other healthcare organisations to contribute to the wellbeing of patient, and is so looking forward to the opening of MMUH next year.

“Winning this award, which is usually for people who have reached the end of their career, feels good. It is great to feel that some colleagues in the Trust have noticed what I have been doing and how I have been trying to make a difference. You don’t go to work for awards, but it does feel good to be recognised.”