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Pete Moxon ARTP Tribute
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Pete Moxon ARTP Tribute

28 October 2022

Peter Moxon, Colleague and friend

It is with the deepest regret that we have to announce the passing of Peter Moxon, who sadly passed away unexpectedly on the 17th October. Many people will recognise Pete for his contributions to the profession, however, they may not have had the privilege to get to know Pete himself. He most recently held the position of chair on the ARTP standards committee and he was the clinical service lead for Respiratory and Sleep physiology at Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust. Pete was a hardworking and dedicated individual, who very much believed in the values of the NHS and furthering the standards of respiratory physiology. Pete was such a kind and warm hearted person that was so supportive to those around him. He was also very unassuming and modest wanting to put others before himself. My personal experience of Pete, was his recognition of small contributions and value he placed on my opinions, when he was far more knowledgeable and experienced. I feel totally gutted that I did not get to spend more time with him socially because working with him was a brilliant experience. His contributions to the profession and as a person will be emphasised in the details of career and testimonies below. If people would like to send a donation, a just giving page has been setup for a memorial by his team and family. (https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/inmemoryofpetemoxon). The funds will go towards a vinyl wall mural within the Respiratory Centre in memory of Pete and as a tribute to his 32 year NHS career.
Matthew Rutter

Testimonials

“Pete was a fantastic friend, colleague and role model, he always strived to ensure the Respiratory Physiology team at Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust was such a positive place to work. Pete cared so much about our profession and worked tirelessly to improve standards and promote excellence, his contribution to Respiratory Physiology and the wider NHS was enormous. In his working life, Pete often shunned the limelight and I hope that his contribution to healthcare science is celebrated and always remembered.”
Andrew Pritchard

“I first met Pete when I was a respiratory registrar at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust. He supported and steered me through the challenges of sleep physiology and sleep clinics. Later in my career I returned to New Cross as a respiratory consultant and one of the main draws to return was the excellent team in respiratory physiology and particularly Pete. We would often discuss the various aspects of lung function, such as predictive equations and this is what lead to the realisation that lung function was not taught to a high enough standard for respiratory registrars. We developed a respiratory physiology portfolio which has been adopted nationally by the Joint Royal College of Physicians Training Board for all respiratory registrars. Pete put so much effort and time in to writing this portfolio, he was meticulous about the details (sometimes to my own frustration!) but he wanted to ensure that the portfolio was presented to the highest standard as it would reflect on himself and respiratory physiology as a profession. When he was asked to become a member of one of the ARTP committees he questioned whether he was the right person to be involved and with positive encouragement from myself and his colleagues he took up the offer as we all knew that he had a lot to offer in this role (and we were not mistaken). He underestimated his own abilities and due to his quiet temperament, would not be as vocal with his opinions, but I knew his thoroughness would be one of his many qualities that he would bring to these roles. Pete was integral to the development and reputation that the respiratory physiology department at Wolverhampton has gained, and Pete has created an excellent unit that attract people to join due, in part, to its welcoming atmosphere. He has such a great team that have a willingness to help and also innovate, for instance the development of a drive through spirometry during COVID, which had such a significant impact in reducing spirometry waiting lists despite the increased pressures that the team were under. He has been a wonderful and dedicated colleague to work with and I am proud to have been considered his friend.”
Dr Helen Ward

“Our whole respiratory team was devastated by the recent death of Pete Moxon. He was a widely respected and long-serving member of our team, who not only led a very successful respiratory physiology team but also contributed so much to the wider respiratory community, through his support for the ARTP. During Covid, Pete and his team supported the acute management of in-patients with respiratory failure, but also developed innovative approaches to enable the continuation of lung function testing, including the use of drive-thru spirometry services. This was testament to his approach to our patients, but he was also a genuinely lovely person, and we will all miss Pete greatly.”
Dr Richard Carter

“Pete valued each member of his staff and thanked them for their contribution to the team, always ready to give people the opportunity and guidance to advance themselves within the profession. His door was always open to us all, he had time for others whether on a personal or work related issue despite his own busy workload. His commitment to his department and to Respiratory Physiology as a whole was selfless. Pete was my manager and a good friend who will be sadly missed by all who worked with him.”
Rosemary Steel

“I first met Pete not long after he had qualified as a Clinical Physiologist at Walsall Manor Hospital. Even at this early stage in his career, he had an infectious enthusiasm for respiratory physiology and it was abundantly clear that he was going to be leading his own service one day. He rapidly rose to a take on senior post at Walsall Manor Hospital and subsequently left Walsall to take on a role at New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton where he would ultimately become the Service Lead.
Pete was a superb teacher and a supportive mentor; having been trained via the West Midlands Regional Training scheme, he actively supported the training of new respiratory and sleep scientists across the West Midlands. He was one of the leading lights in the delivery of the Practitioner Training Program at University of Wolverhampton, ensuring the success of so many respiratory and sleep scientists working in the profession today.
He was unstinting in his support for ARTP and was a member of our organisation for the entirety of his career, encouraging his team to join and supporting them to contribute to various projects. Although he preferred to remain in the background, he really shone when he took on the role of ARTP Standards Chair in 2019, producing the Workforce Progression Planning document to support the career progression of other healthcare scientists. This support of others typified Pete. It was not only healthcare scientists that he influenced, but wider respiratory field. In conjunction with his consultant colleague, Dr Helen Ward, Pete developed the Specialist Registrar (SpR) Training Portfolio in Respiratory and Sleep Physiology. This was used initially in the West Midlands region, and due to its quality was subsequently adopted on a national basis. This portfolio continues to be used to support respiratory consultants in training.
Along with his passion for his work, he was also equally passionate about music and a huge Nirvana and subsequently Foo Fighters fan. Like me, he was also a fan of Star Wars and I have enormously happy memories of our group trip to New York to see Star Wars: Episode I in 1999. Thankfully, this was before the days of Instagram and Facebook.
Although we worked for different organisations, Pete and I kept in touch fairly regularly and I always looked forward to a catch up at professional meetings. Our catch ups would invariably end up with a fit of the giggles because of Pete’s wicked sense of humour. Whilst he was one of the smartest physiologists I have had the pleasure to know, he was also one of the kindest and most humble people I have ever met. I don’t think that he ever knew the impact he made on the profession and his loss leaves an enormous gap both professionally and personally for many, many people.”
Dr Julie Lloyd

“Pete had to be one of the nicest, humblest most unassuming people I have ever known. He was extremely knowledgeable and would quietly and gently impart his knowledge on others. He was fully inclusive of anybody that wished to contribute. At any meeting we ever attended together Pete would be sitting smiling and appeared to be enjoying the moment. He loved a joke, a bit of banter and the picture I have of Pete in my head when I think of him is him sitting in our meetings smiling and laughing. It’s a nice memory to have. I did not know Pete as well as others but I know he was never really comfortable in the limelight and preferred to let others take the credit. He was happy to put others forward and stay in the background guiding from behind the scenes. Pete will be missed by so many. His passing will create an unfillable void in this world. He was one of the true nice guys.”
Dr Karl Sylvester

“Pete was a highly respected authority in the field of respiratory and sleep science. He constantly strived to develop services at the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, where he made significant contributions to patient care and outcomes. His involvement with the ARTP gave him a platform to champion his passion for high standards, which extended to the membership, departments, and services nationally. I had the pleasure of working with Pete for numerous years, and during that time, he was a true gentleman who gave so much professionally and personally. He will be deeply missed by his colleagues and anyone who was fortunate to have known him”.
Dr Ian Cliff

“I first met Pete when he became a West Midlands regional trainee and was attached to Walsall Manor Hospital. During his training he impressed me with his dedication to training and the accuracy of his work. Following his training and a spell as a Respiratory Physiologist at Walsall he moved to the adjacent hospital in Wolverhampton. I watched him develop his skills both as a Physiologist but also as a manager and soon he was promoted to Head of Department at New Cross Hospital. His skills especially his attention to detail was noticed and he soon assisted ARTP predominantly in the development of standards. The NHS and ARTP will miss Pete but for me I will miss his dry humour and especially his mischievous grin!”
Trefor Watts

“I don’t think I’m saying anything different than what everyone knows. But, Pete was a truly magnificent manager. He supported us all professionally and personally and I wouldn’t be where I am in my career or personal life without the support I have received from Pete. He has developed a brilliant team at New Cross and we have all had the pleasure to know Pete outside of work as a friend. My thoughts are with Pete, his family and everyone who had the pleasure of knowing him.”
Megan Beacham

Pete’s Career

  • Pete started his career as a supernumerary trainee with the West Midlands Regional Health Authority (WMRHA) in September 1990. His selected discipline of Respiratory and Sleep Physiology was chosen and he was based as a trainee Medical Technical Officer (MTO) within the Clinical Measurement Unit at Walsall Manor Hospital.
  • Pete completed the 2-year HNC Science (MPPM) at People’s College, Nottingham, achieving 8 distinctions.
  • Pete worked at Walsall Manor Hospital as MTO3 from 1995 until he left in November 2001.
  • He achieved RCCP registration at the end of 2001.
  • In November 2001 Pete was successful in obtaining a promotion to an MTO4 position at Royal Wolverhampton NHS trust (RWT). The main remit of the post was to re-instate, run, organise, and develop the hospitals struggling sleep and ventilation service.
  • Band 8a Clinical Services Manager (2009 – 2015)
  • In September 2014, Pete successfully developed a business case to introduce Cardio-Pulmonary Exercise Testing (CPET) and the expansion of clinic capacity within the Respiratory centre.
  • Pete was Instrumental in forging strong links with the local HEI (Wolverhampton University) and supported the development and delivery of the PTP programme.
  • Band 8a Service Manager (2015 – 2019)
  • In April 2018 along with an RWT respiratory consultant colleague, Dr Helen Ward, Pete developed a local training portfolio for specialist registrars (SpR) working in respiratory medicine at RWT. Subsequently, in conjunction with the West Midlands Respiratory Specialist Training Liaison Committee & Respiratory Specialist Advisory Committee (SAC) the training portfolio was adopted by the National Training Special Advisory Committee in Respiratory medicine and further developed to support a more structured approach to SpR training in respiratory and sleep physiology regionally and more recently nationally, with a specific focus on lung function interpretation.
  • Band 8a - 8b Service Manager (2020 – Present day).
  • Pete worked through the Covid 19 pandemic, guiding, supporting, and managing 16 respiratory physiology staff working over two hospital sites and maintained responsibility for the management of the district wide respiratory physiology service.

ARTP

  • Pete has been a continuous member of the ARTP for 21 years.
  • In 2018 Pete became vice chair of the ARTP standards committee and acquired more responsibility with chairing meetings, producing meeting agendas but also outlining the successfully recruited new members to the committee.
  • In Pete’s role on standards committee, Pete wrote several key Standard Operating Protocol’s (SOP’s) promoting professional conduct, for the ARTP membership to use which could also be used as supportive evidence for Improving Quality in Physiological Services (IQIPS) accreditation.
  • Pete was also tasked to work with the British Lung Foundation (BLF) on developing electronic online patient information on breathing tests.
  • In 2019 Pete became Chair of the ARTP Standards Committee, this role included being an active member of the ARTP executive board.
  • In 2019 Pete was invited to join the ARTP CPET working group. This working group comprised of a panel of CPET experts from across the UK. The aim of the working group was to produce a comprehensive set of CPET testing guidelines. He was given the responsibility for writing a chapter of the guideline and undertaking a literature review.

Pete was truly an outstanding example of a physiologist and a person. His contributions will live on through those he has trained, worked with and the standards that he upheld. We will all miss him considerably.

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