One of Berkshire’s most celebrated critical care professionals has been recognised this year on the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

Suman Raj Shrestha, 43, will become one of the few in the South East to be awarded an MBE for his service within his specialised field.

This Nepalese national moved to the UK in the 1990’s after watching his parents set up a day centre for disabled children, including his sister who suffers with cerebral palsy. His hope was to continue his parents legacy.

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He soon began to establish himself within Intensive and critical care in both the UK and his home country of Nepal.

Through many years of hard work, he became the first regional Advanced Critical Care Practitioner in intensive care at the Frimley Park Hospital and developed the clinical nurse outreach teams.

Suman said: “I’m really honoured and thrilled to receive the award. I really want to mention my family and friends and colleagues who supported me to improve and progress my career.

“It’s all down to them so I would really life to dedicate this MBE to them.

“What I really want to highlight is that we have had a really tough time over the last couple of years, and I’ve been working in intensive care for 21 years. The last 2 years have been really challenging and tough for everyone, especially in healthcare.

“So, to receive this award is really special because it just shows the recognition for all the hard work and contribution that I have made to my profession and to the NHS, and particularly to intensive care.”

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In 2020, he also became highly influential in the development of critical care across Frimley Park, moving the hospital from special measures to being rated as outstanding by CQC.

The Crowthorne resident said that his ambition is to improve healthcare and patient safety, not just within the NHS but nationally and internationally too.

During the last few years he has been working with Nepal critical care communities in Nepal and South Asian countries to improve intensive care services. As well as supporting them financially, he also provides supervision, teaching and support to nurses internationally through conferences for nurses in South Asian countries.

Suman added: “The patients that I work with are the sickest of the sick throughout the hospital. They are in intensive care, and they are probably having the worst day of their lives and I feel very privileged to be there looking after them in the toughest time.

“Not just them but also their families. My real drive has been to make things better for these patients who have become critically unwell and just to improve care for them.

“I want to use this recognition to build on things such as patient safety in healthcare nationally and internationally. I‘m quite an ambitious person and I want to carry on working hard and this has given me a boost to carry on what I do.”

As well as his teaching internationally, he completed IV guidance for the Royal College of Nursing in 2016, is the former chairman of the of the UK Critical Care Nursing Alliance (UKCCNA) and is a visiting lecturer at the University of Brighton on the intensive care course.

This is man that truly deserves recognition for the work he has done throughout the years and we at The News congratulate him on his MBE.