Healthcare leaders including ICB chairs, GPs and nurses have been recognised in the King’s New Year Honours list for 2025.
Those honoured included the chair of the NHS Race and Health Observatory and chair of North East London ICB, Marie Gabriel, who was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Dame Marie Gabriel said: ‘This recognition is an illustration of the importance of the ongoing work we do to further equity and improve health outcomes.’
Former health secretary under Tony Blair, Patricia Hewitt, who is currently chair of Norfolk and Waveney ICB, was also made a Dame for services to healthcare transformation.
Dame Patricia Hewitt said: ‘I am deeply humbled and honoured to receive this award. Working to improve health and wellbeing, first as Health Secretary and now in the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care System, has been the greatest privilege of my life.’
Five GPs also made the list for 2025, which ‘recognises the achievements and service of extraordinary people across the UK’.
RCGP Wales chair Dr Rowena Christmas, who is also a GP principal at the Wye Valley Practice in Gwent, was awarded an Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for her services to general practice.
Dr Matthew Kearney, a GP in Shropshire who is also the former NHS England clinical director for cardiovascular disease prevention, received the honour of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2025 list.
He said he was ‘deeply honoured’ to receive the award, which marked his services both to health and to CVD prevention.
NHSE said Dr Kearney has founded ‘several major resources driving prevention in primary care’, including the national primary care audit CVDprevent.
In response to the award, the GP added: ‘My work has grown from the conviction that we could do much better at preventing the devastation of heart attacks and strokes.
‘But none of it would have been possible without the support and creativity of friends in UCLPartners, NHS England and the Department of Health who all share the passion for transforming CVD prevention.’
Three other GPs also made the list, becoming MBEs. This included Professor Clare Wilkinson, who is the emeritus professor of general practice at Bangor University. The King recognised her services to primary care research, teaching and practice.
The other GPs recognised were:
- Dr Stephen Reaney, a GP in County Armagh who was recognised for his voluntary service to the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS); and
- Dr Chris Robinson, a GP in Inverness-shire who was honoured for his services to the community in Lochaber.
Other honourees included Dr Marion Shirley Andrews-Evans, lately executive chief nurse at NHS Gloucestershire ICB; and Matilda Asante-Owusu, sickle cell community matron at the Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia Centre at Whittington Health NHS Trust, who were both awarded OBEs.
The former chief nursing officer (CNO) for Scotland, Professor Alexander McMahon, was also awarded a CBE, and Zoe Amanda Packman, deputy director of nursing service delivery, transformation and resilience at NHS England, received an MBE.
The former chief pharmacist for Healthcare Improvement Scotland, Laura McIver, was given the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to the pharmacy profession and to patient safety.
Meanwhile, chief executive of medicines trade body PAGB Michelle Riddalls has become an officer of the OBE for her services to consumer health.
A version of this story was first published on our sister title Pulse.
