Name Julie Sheppard
Job head of communications and PR
Salary £40-£50,000

Julie Sheppard worked as a TV journalist specialising in science and medical documentaries, and as a food industry specialist for the Consumers' Association, before joining the University College London Hospitals (UCLH) trust.

She says her knowledge of the NHS and her experience of journalism made her well aware of the pressures of the job. As a big London teaching trust (and controller of former health secretary Frank Dobson's local hospital) UCLH is under constant, and often unfavourable, media scrutiny.

"I'm not a whinger about the media. It is their job to make us feel uncomfortable, and they do that. Without the media scrutiny of the NHS over the last two years you would not have had the NHS plan."

Sheppard warns that NHS PRs need "thick skin, a sense of humour and a capacity to see the bigger picture."

The job can be demanding. She is on call 24-hours a day for one week in three, a period during which she cannot leave London. And if a major story breaks "your working day can extend very significantly".

But she enjoys the variety of the job and the excitement of dealing with the big stories. "Not one day is the same and the range of issues is vast." After the Paddington rail crash she conducted live interviews with press and radio from the hospital incident room as the ambulances arrived with the crash victims.

There is also the satisfaction that comes with working for the NHS, a perk not universally available in the private sector. "You are not working for Pol Pot. Everybody feels good about working for the NHS."