[Margaret Pilkington]

Mog, thank you for your vote of confidence.
I am no longer in the profession, having retired quite a while ago.
The Matron thing gets my goat too.....once upon a day, a very long time ago...the Matron was the figurehead of the hospital...she said 'jump' and not only did you jump, but you asked 'how high and how long do you want me to stay up??'
Matrons were long gone when I did my training and had been replaced by Nursing Officers......just another layer of management....which could be done away with(although my Nursing Officer - a Mr John Whalley, was noted for scrubbing up and assisting in gynae theatre...and turning his hand to portering duties too)
The matrons who are dotted about the hospitals today are much like these Nursing Officers, and were a sop to public concerns about the way the NHS was going...a political Google Page Ranking stunt.
Politicians aren't much good at running the country(unless you call running it into the ground 'running').
If they left the running of the NHS in the hands of those who know best how to do this, then things would be far better.......The NHS is like a vast ship...it takes a long time to stop it in it's tracks and turning it round after it has been steered in the wrong direction is a feat in itself.