Not-for-profit healthcare provider Nuffield Health has appointed Carol Kefford to the newly created role of chief nurse.

Kefford (pictured) returns to the company having taken a sabbatical to sail around the world.

She joined Nuffield Health as a matron at the Oxford-based Nuffield Health Manor Hospital in 2004. She has also been a regional governance manager at Nuffield, and hospital director at the healthcare provider’s hospital in Bristol.

Before Nuffield Health Kefford was a nurse within the NHS in Manchester and Oxford, and headed up a large nursing squadron in the armed forces.

KP Doyle, Nuffield Health Deputy chief executive, said that Kefford would be a “massive asset to Nuffield Health”.

“Our patients are at the heart of everything we do and I know that Carol’s passion and enthusiasm will be of huge benefit to them and our staff. Her vast experience will be invaluable to the board, our hospitals and also to new nurses coming through the Preceptorship Programme,” he said.