Alan Horsell
My career has been for the most part in engineering, in which I am qualified. This career has spanned many activities within national and international companies, from apprenticeship to a present owner manager of my own company. I was also for a few years a partner in a retail business.
I am the grandfather in a traditional family including 4 grand-daughters, 2 daughters and 2 son in laws. This has given me the usual insights into the health sector plus the added experience of a wife trained in bacteriology and micro biology and a daughter as a dental nurse.
For the last 20 years I have cared for my mother who passed away in unhappy circumstances earlier this year at the age of 89. She had suffered a number of separate major fractures, dementia and serious panic attacks as well as a heart condition and angina. She died from a blood clot a few weeks after being taken off warfarin. For the last 9 years until 2008 she lived in my home, after which she lived in 2 separate care homes and 1 hospital until she died. This taught me a great deal about the Redditch, Heartlands, Selly Oak and Solihull hospitals as well as GPs and care homes in Solihull and Worcestershire. All this experience has given me the motivation to initiate change where I can in the health service and support services, as best I can.
