Rachel joined Heart of Kent Hospice in November 2018 as the Director of Finance. Prior to this, she spent several years at Bromley Healthcare, initially as an Assistant Director of Operations before becoming Deputy Finance Director. Rachel qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Grant Thornton and worked there for 13 years, spending the majority of her time in the Government and Infrastructure Advisory Team.
Rachel took on the role of Chief Executive in 2021 in what was a busy year celebrating the Hospice’s 30th anniversary, together with welcoming Elmer’s Big Heart of Kent Parade to the streets of Maidstone for nine weeks from 19 June – 22 August.
Kerry Harrison was appointed Patient Services Director in March 2016, and joined the Hospice in May 2015 as Head of Outreach Services / Deputy Director of Patient Services.
Shortly after joining she was appointed to act up as Patient Services Director on a temporary basis. Kerry is a nurse with a number of years of palliative care experience, prior to joining Heart of Kent Hospice she worked at Hospice in the Weald for nine years, latterly as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner/Head of Hospice Day Service.
Our Patient Services Director is responsible for the overall management, leadership and development of the multidisciplinary palliative care team, ensuring excellent standards of care for patients, their families and carers. The postholder is the Registered Manager for the organisation, Caldicott Guardian and Accountable Officer. The Patient Services Director works closely with other key stakeholders at both a local and national level.
Ann-Marie Kelly joined the Hospice in June 2015 as Director of Income Generation and is responsible for maximising Hospice fundraising, marketing and communications.
Ann-Marie joined us from The Children’s Society where she spent almost six years developing and delivering a transformational major donor and trust fundraising programme designed to meet the organisation’s refocused and ambitious growth plans for service delivery and income generation. Previously Ann-Marie held positions as a Fundraising Consultant specialising in Fundraising Strategy and Major Donor Fundraising, and has fundraised for a variety of high profile capital campaigns at The Imperial War Museum including the Churchill War Rooms.
Georgina was appointed as Lead Consultant in July 2017. She has been a Palliative Medicine Consultant since 2008 having completed her specialist training working in hospices across the south east.
Georgina is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and has a special interest in communication skills and the importance of open, honest, compassionate communication in end-of-life care. She is also committed to research in palliative care and has been involved in several research projects and is working to establish Heart of Kent Hospice as a research-active hospice.