News

Colleagues set up scholarship in name of retiring infectious disease expert

 A retiring expert in infectious diseases and tropical medicine who played a key role in establishing Sheffield as a leading centre in the treatment of and research into such illnesses has had a scholarship set up in his name by his colleagues.

Professor Steve Green has retired from Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust after working in the city for 28 years, and colleagues in the infectious diseases and tropical medicine department have set up the Steve Green Tropical Medicine Exchange Scholarship in his honour.

The scholarship will enable clinicians and researchers from low or middle income countries to come to Sheffield for a short period to develop their studies and careers in tropical medicine and global health at a major specialist centre.

Sheffield is one of only four high consequence infectious disease centres (HCIDs) and one of five airborne HCID centres in the UK, which means it has particular expertise in treating safely a range of extremely serious infectious illnesses.

Professor Green, who was Lead Consultant for infectious diseases from 2014 to March 2020 and the Clinical Director for Communicable Diseases & Specialised Medicine since 2019, played a key role in establishing of Sheffield as a HCID centre, and during his time at the Trust he also conceived and helped colleagues to set up and establish significant new services, including the travel and vaccination clinic (a ‘one-stop shop’ for travel health), the Outpatient Parenteral Antibiotic Therapy (OPAT) Service, which enables patients to receive antibiotics in the community without the need for an inpatient stay, the standalone HIV service, the standalone viral hepatitis C service, and the Rapid Access Service (RAS).

The scholarship will represent a continuation of Professor Green’s legacy, as in the late 90s he set up a course in tropical medicine based in Sheffield which enabled doctors to train for a highly regarded diploma in the specialty. Previously this would have necessitated full-time attendance at a fee-paying course in London or Liverpool for several months, and associated loss of several months of salary, and so the Sheffield course opened up access to many people who may otherwise not have gone into and progressed in the specialty.

Professor Green said: “I really could not be happier about the scholarship. I am so very grateful to my wonderful colleagues and friends for setting it up.

“It has been a real privilege to be able to work here and see the infectious diseases and tropical medicine department in Sheffield grow and develop to become a serious player not just on the national, but also the European and world stages.

“If I were to start over again, I would do exactly the same specialty. Infection is almost the only specialty where you have new diseases coming along all of the time.

“Any centre in the world would be happy to have clinicians and researchers of the calibre we have in this city, working hand in hand with an exceptional nursing and management team. I have been very proud to have been able to play a part in developing the service and the team, as well as in supporting and nurturing the careers our younger colleagues. The major thing for me is the very high quality of all the people who over the years have come through Sheffield, some who still display their talents at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals and others who have gone on to stellar careers in other parts of the UK and the wider world.

“Through the scholarship, I would be surprised if some emerging stars of the future didn’t come to Sheffield from overseas centres and develop long term associations.”
Dr Ben Stone, the new Clinical Director for Specialised Medicine, said: “On behalf of my colleagues, I would like to thank Steve for his 28 years of service.
“He has been instrumental in developing and expanding both the infectious diseases clinical service and our academic team, helping raise our research profile nationally and internationally. We will miss his passion for tropical and travel medicine, his ability to think outside the box, his multiple anecdotes, his vision and ambition for growth of clinical infection services and his unconditional support and nurturing of colleagues.
“One of his key achievements was establishing our own in-house Diploma in Tropical Medicine course. This course has expanded massively, and now attracts up to 50 postgraduate doctors per year. It seemed fitting to set up the scholarship in Steve’s honour which will be used to fund an overseas doctor to receive Infectious Diseases clinical training in Sheffield each year.”
Although he is retiring, Professor Green will still have roles as an examiner for the General Medical Council and the Royal College of Physicians and an advisory role to Public Health Scotland to keep him busy. He originally studied in Dundee and worked in Glasgow before coming to Sheffield.

He also has two grandchildren and another on the way.

He said: “My lovely wife and two daughters keep me grounded. And in medicine there is always something else around the corner needing doing.”