Hospital Hoppers named after local healthcare heroes

15 August 2024

Our fleet of four Hospital Hopper buses have been named after Leicester’s Hospitals colleagues past and present, in honour of their outstanding contributions to patient care.

The electric Hopper shuttle buses regularly connect Glenfield Hospital, Leicester Royal Infirmary and Leicester General Hospital, seven days a week. Now, the four green vehicles will proudly bear the names of local healthcare heroes, who were chosen to mark their significant contributions to patient care and science.

Following a public competition, the names chosen were:

• Dr Sanjiv Nichani – Dr Nichani spearheaded the creation of Leicester Children’s Hospital, which is now one of the busiest children’s services in the Midlands, caring for children from the Midlands and beyond. He is one of the founding clinicians of the East Midlands Congenital Heart Centre, Children’s Intensive Care Unit and High Dependency Unit in Leicester Children’s Hospital. Dr Nichani is also the founder of Healing Little Hearts Global Foundation, a charity which sends teams of surgeons and specialists around the world to perform life-saving open-heart surgery on babies and children, free of charge. It is one of the busiest children’s heart charities in the world, having performed more than 8,000 operations in 23 countries across six continents over the last 15 years.
• Professor Sally Singh – Professor Singh is our Head of Pulmonary and Cardiac Rehabilitation and also holds a role in the Department of Respiratory Sciences at the University of Leicester. Sally worked with national clinical leaders to build the ground-breaking ‘Your Covid Recovery’ online service, which was designed to help people recover from the long-term effects of Covid. Her research has also involved rehabilitation interventions for chronic lung disease with partners in Uganda, Malawi, India, Sri Lanka and Kyrgyzstan. She is a member of the World Health Organisation’s Development Group for COPD rehabilitation and the clinical lead for the Pulmonary Rehabilitation workstream of the Respiratory Audit Programme, hosted by the Royal College of Physicians.
• Professor Tony Gershlick – Professor Gershlick was a Consultant Cardiologist at Glenfield from 1989 and Professor of Interventional Cardiology at the University of Leicester since 2018, until his death in 2020. He was involved in practice-changing research, conceiving, initiating and running major national and international trials that have changed the way patients are treated. His research output and pioneering work in multicentre randomised trials in the UK made significant contributions to the Glenfield Hospital being recognised as a world-leading cardiorespiratory centre. He was the first-ever recipient of the inaugural British Cardiovascular Intervention Society (BCIS) Lifetime Achievement Career Award in 2017.
• Frances Deacon – Born in Kibworth Beauchamp in 1837, Frances Deacon broke new ground when she became the first woman to pass tough qualifying tests to become a pharmacist. Frances registered as a Chemist and Druggist on February 5, 1869 after passing the Pharmaceutical Society’s exam with flying colours. Despite paying her subscription and complying with all the Society’s rules and regulations, as a woman Frances was not allowed to become a member of the Pharmaceutical Society until a decade later in 1879. The mother-of-one worked alongside her father William at his chemist’s on Leicester Road, Kibworth, before going on to open her own highly-successful pharmacy in Fleckney (biography source – Harborough Mail). Frances was represented at the event by a modern-day female pharmacists, Hana Husain and Anna Murphy.

The Hospital Hopper buses were made electric in 2022 thanks to an investment of £1.05 million from Leicester City Council’s Transforming Cities Fund programme, which is backed by £40 million of government cash, are part of the city’s Greenlines electric network. The electric Hopper buses replaced a fleet of diesel vehicles, saving 210 tonnes of carbon emissions per year in the process. As part of the city’s Leicester Buses Partnership, half of the city’s bus network is now electric with ambitious plans to have a fully electric network in place by 2030.

Chief Operating Officer at Leicester’s Hospitals, Jon Melbourne, said: “This is a gesture of heartfelt thanks and appreciation for the achievements of these four outstanding individuals, in honour of everything they have done for the people of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

“Our sustainable fleet of Hospital Hopper buses serve the local community every day. Naming them after people who have achieved so much, with legacies felt not just here but around the world, is a fitting tribute to their dedication and trailblazing spirit.”

Please email [email protected] for more information.