Leicester's hospital hopper busses named after local healthcare heroes

The electric Hopper shuttle buses connect Glenfield Hospital, Leicester Royal Infirmary and Leicester General Hospital.

The fleet of four Hospital Hopper buses have been named after Leicester’s Hospitals colleagues past and present, in honour of their outstanding contributions to patient care.

The electric Hopper shuttle buses regularly connect Glenfield Hospital, Leicester Royal Infirmary and Leicester General Hospital, seven days a week.

Now, the four green vehicles proudly bear the names of local healthcare heroes, who were chosen to mark their significant contributions to patient care and science.

Following a public competition, the names chosen were:

Dr Sanjiv Nichani - Dr Nichani spearheaded the creation of Leicester Children's Hospital, which is now one of the busiest children's services in the Midlands, caring for children from the Midlands and beyond. He is one of the founding clinicians of the East Midlands Congenital Heart Centre, Children's Intensive Care Unit and High Dependency Unit in Leicester Children's Hospital. Dr Nichani is also the founder of Healing Little Hearts Global Foundation, a charity which sends teams of surgeons and specialists around the world to perform life-saving open-heart surgery on babies and children, free of charge. It is one of the busiest children's heart charities in the world, having performed more than 8,000 operations in 23 countries across six continents over the last 15 years.

Professor Sally Singh - Professor Singh is the Head of Pulmonary and Cardiac Rehabilitation and also holds a role in the Department of Respiratory Sciences at the University of Leicester. Sally worked with national clinical leaders to build the ground-breaking ‘Your Covid Recovery’ online service, which was designed to help people recover from the long-term effects of Covid. Her research has also involved rehabilitation interventions for chronic lung disease with partners in Uganda, Malawi, India, Sri Lanka and Kyrgyzstan. She is a member of the World Health Organisation’s Development Group for COPD rehabilitation and the clinical lead Pulmonary Rehabilitation workstream of Respiratory Audit Programme hosted by the Royal College of Physicians.

Professor Tony Gershlick - Professor Gershlick was a Consultant Cardiologist at Glenfield from 1989 and Professor of Interventional Cardiology at the University of Leicester since 2018, until his death in 2020. He was involved in practice-changing research, conceiving, initiating and running major national and international trials that have changed the way patients are treated. His research output and pioneering work in multicentre randomised trials in the UK made significant contributions to the Glenfield Hospital being recognised as one of the world-leading cardiorespiratory centres. He was the first-ever recipient of the inaugural British Cardiovascular Intervention Society (BCIS) Lifetime Achievement Career Award in 2017.

Frances Deacon – Born in Kibworth Beauchamp in 1837, Frances Deacon broke new ground when she became the first woman to pass tough qualifying tests to become a pharmacist. 

Chief Operating Officer at Leicester's Hospitals, Jon Melbourne, said: “This is a gesture of heartfelt thanks and appreciation for the achievements of these four outstanding individuals, in honour of everything they have done for the people of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

“Our sustainable fleet of Hospital Hopper buses serve the local community every day. Naming them after people who have achieved so much, with legacies felt not just here but around the world, is a fitting tribute to their dedication and trailblazing spirit.”