After 12 years in divisions across the Trust car-plate obsessive Saj Azeb is on the move.
He’s off to Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust to progress his career as Assistant Director Operations and Performance but not before a “do” in the Boardroom at HRI attended by colleagues from down the years.
Medicine’s Clinical Director Ashwin Verma, led the tributes saying Saj had brought stability and calmness to the division and worked “unbelievably hard” for the Trust.
He said: “You have been visible, people know who you are. People are here from outside the division which is indicative of how much you have contributed to the whole Trust.”
On his move to Leeds, he added with a jokey warning: “Don’t forget your roots and don’t send your s*** this way!”
Saj – renowed for once delivering a 61 page power point (!) – talked about his progression through the Trust and recounted fond memories of colleagues from each step of the way. He also revealed his “geeky if bordering on the criminal” obsession with car number plates and threw in car plates along the way.
He has been in medicine for nearly three years with Zoe Akesson as his PA. He said: “Zoe has supported me all the way through. She has super powers and knows what I am thinking!” Zoe later presented him with flying vouchers and other gifts as a farewell pressie. He said a plane would come in handy to avoid the M62 every day!
He also thanked Lindsay Rudge and Donna Cassidy dubbing them “ the other ladies in my life” and how his wife is used to their work calls and texts. And apologised to Maureen Overton for cutting her up recently on the motorway.
From his earlier career he called fond memories working with Martin deBono (car plate DI 8 ONO) in CWF and Alison Lovatt and Yvette Oade especially during maternity reconfiguration.
He also told how he hid matron Jane Frost under his desk when Judy Moorhouse was "on the warpath" He recalled: “Judy’s bark was worse than her bite and her heart was so in the right place,” he said.
He also worked for Lesley Hill ( reg PF 13 PNE) in service development where he teamed up with Lisa Williams. He recalled getting fashion advice from Lisa and reminding her about her hair and beauty appointments in between a lot of hard work.
He briefly, on his own admission, "went off the rails" and went on secondment to the then Strategic Health Authority but returned to CHFT after 18 months.
He ended saying he hoped he would be back at CHFT in a few years but the time was right now for a move, adding: “It has been hard work, it’s been fantastic and it’s been fun.”