THE medical director at Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) NHS Foundation Trust is retiring today, after a 35-year career in the health service.

Dr Tony Berendt has served the NHS in Oxford since 1997 after joining the Bone Infection Unit at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre as a consultant physician

He was appointed medical director of the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre NHS Trust from 2004 to 2011 before the NOC joined forces with the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust to form OUH.


In an email to staff trust chairman, Dame Fiona Caldicott and chief executive Dr Bruno Holthof said in an email to staff they were 'very sorry to see him go'.

The trust said it hoped to appoint a new medical director in the near future.

Dr Berendt joined the Bone Infection Unit at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre as a consultant physician in 1997.

He became the centre’s medical director in 2004 before the NOC merged with the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust to form Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust in 2011.

With the trust also running Banbury's Horton General Hospital, he served as deputy medical director from 2011 to 2014.

He took up the role of medical director of OUH on an interim basis from April to September 2014, and has held the post on a permanent basis since October 2014. 

To mark the NHS 70th anniversary earlier this year, Dr Berendt wrote an article in the Oxford Mail about his 35 years working in the NHS.