Two Southport residents named in Queen’s Birthday Honours list

A pair of Southport residents have been named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

Gurpeet Singh, a former urological surgeon at Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust and non-executive director of the Trust board receives an MBE while Christopher Armitt, a distinguished police officer and former Royal Engineer receives an OBE for his role as Deputy chief Constable of the Civil Nuclear Constabulary.

Southport and Ormskirk NHS Trust said of Mr Singh: “Mr Singh is a former urological surgeon at Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust with more than 25 years’ experience in general and neuro-urology. Since April 2018 he has been a non-executive director of the Trust board.

In an active medical career, he was an executive member of the British Association of Urological Surgeons where he helped write the curriculum for functional and neuro-urology.

Mr Singh has been a champion of diversity in medicine, including through the General Medical Council diversity forum, improving diverse representation on fitness to practice panels, promoting standards for international medical graduates, and fairness in examination outcomes.”

Gurpeet Singh said: “I am hugely humbled to receive this award. I want to thank everyone who has worked with me over the years to make change for the better on the issues I care about.”

Trust chair Neil Masom said: “The Board and entire Trust offers their heartiest congratulations to Gurpreet for this richly-deserved award.

“Promoting greater equality and diversity in the NHS is a subject close to Gurpreet’s heart. He believes passionately that the NHS should be representative of the entire community that it serves.”

Chris Armitt joined the CNC in July 2015, after a 25 year career with Merseyside Police, having joined as a PC in 1989 after eight years’ of service with the Royal Engineers.

During his career, Chris has fulfilled a wide range of operational roles including leading the Basic Command Units at St. Helens and Toxteth. He also has extensive experience in managing public order situations and was one of the first officers nationally to complete the Advanced Public Order Commander Programme.

In 2014 Chris was seconded to Gwent Police to fulfil the role of Gold Commander for the policing and security of the NATO Summit. In June 2015, he was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal for distinguished service.