Elizabeth Fradd ignored her school’s advice that “you will never be a nurse” and applied to train at Westminster Hospital in London in 1967. Fradd, who has died aged 75, graduated at the top of her class and rose to the top of the profession, becoming Assistant Chief Nurse for England (1999-2000) and making significant improvements in children’s and community care .
Shocked by the case of Beverley Allitt, the nurse convicted in 1993 of murdering four babies and attempting to kill or seriously injure a further nine, Fradd helped set up the Commission for Health Improvement in 2000 ( now the Care Quality Commission) to investigate major system failures. in hospitals, and subsequently became the chief director for assessment and inspection.
In the 1970s, Fradd, who had specialized as a pediatric nurse, was a ward nurse at Westminster Children’s Hospital, caring for children with bone marrow transplants. One of her patients was Anthony Nolan. After his death in 1979, Fradd helped his mother Shirley set up a charity in his name, which has saved thousands of lives through the stem cell registry program.
Between 1983 and 1999, Fradd held increasing senior pediatric nursing positions in Nottingham and the West Midlands, which gave her the space to implement her ideas. One of these was setting up an overnight unit where parents could stay. “Families who come into the hospital,” she said, “are guests in our home and we must welcome them.” She also implemented ‘negotiated care’: parents were asked what they wanted and could participate in tasks such as eating. She even allowed pets into the wards.
While in Nottingham, Fradd started a community nursing service for children, so that children at the end of life, or with diabetes or cystic fibrosis, could leave hospital and be cared for at home. Her colleague Dr Sheila Marriott said Fradd had enormous energy and worked incredibly hard to organize the service. Community nursing was extremely important to Fradd, and she worked with the Nursing and Midwifery Council in the 1990s to create a set of community nursing standards and a postgraduate program.
However, Fradd’s biggest challenge was leading children’s nursing in Grantham, Lincolnshire, in the wake of the Beverley Allitt scandal at Grantham and Kesteven Hospital in 1993. Staff in the hospital’s children’s department were shocked and demoralised, and Marriott described Fradds leadership this time as “extremely kind and intuitive in a terrible situation.”
The experience set her career on a new path. Fradd said, “You can’t be involved in something like this without asking over and over again, ‘How did this happen?'”
She had a talent for problem solving and wanted to prevent such failures within the NHS. In 2000, she was instrumental in establishing the Commission for Health Improvement; as Chief Director for Assessment and Inspection (2000-2004) she oversaw 700 reviews of NHS hospitals and investigations into failures.
From 2004 to 2016, Fradd was an independent health advisor involved in many Department of Health projects, including chairing the Health Visitor Taskforce in 2011, with a remit to rejuvenate the service, and contributing to the Front Line Care report (2010). about the future of nursing and midwifery.
She also helped set up the children’s charity Together for Short Lives, of which she became vice-president in 2011, and has been a trustee or patron of many other charities including Sue Ryder Care and Rainbows Hospice. In 2009, Fradd was made a Dame.
Elizabeth, one of four children of Harriet (née Abey), a former teacher, and the Reverend Allen Birtwhistle, a Methodist minister, was born in Worcester Park, Surrey. She attended Farringtons, a Methodist boarding school in Kent, where she was unhappy and longed for her father’s visits (he was the school’s minister). Despite the school’s gloomy assessment of her prospects (they said she had only ‘manipulable skills’, i.e. needlework and cooking), she applied to study nursing, encouraged by a surgeon friend of her parents, and qualified in 1971.
Shortly after qualifying, she met actor Glenda Jackson at an art gallery in London. Jackson was going to film in Spain and needed a babysitter for her son Daniel. Elizabeth jumped at the opportunity, not least because it gave her the chance to care for a child who was not sick and developing normally. It was the beginning of a long friendship and Jackson’s quiet confidence and undying integrity impressed Elizabeth.
She returned to London with new confidence, and six months later she rose to become a ward sister. She studied throughout her career, qualifying as a health visitor and midwife, gaining an MSc in healthcare policy in 1994.
In 1976, Elizabeth married Dr. Simon Fradd. They divorced in 1998, but remained on good terms. She enjoyed staying active and skiing into her 70s, but also played an important role in Nottingham’s civic life: in 2020-2021 she was the city’s High Sheriff. She lived in the south-east village of Tollerton for thirty years and opened her beautifully maintained garden to the public in 2002-2004 as part of the National Gardens Scheme to raise money for nursing charities.
She is survived by her brothers, John and David, and her sister, Rachel.