TO anyone over the age of 30, the word ‘‘matron’’ is forever associated with the classic British hospital comedies of the 1960s and 1970s.

One of the legacies of the Carry On films is that it is almost impossible to say ‘‘matron’’ without prefixing it with a long nasal ‘‘ooooh’’ in the style of Kenneth Williams.

Few other job titles have the power to conjure up a such an immediate and vivid image – that of a buxom and formidable Hattie Jacques in a starched uniform brandishing a no-nonsense approach to uncooperative patients and floundering junior doctors.

In today’s health service, whether private or NHS, the matron is just as likely to be found wearing a business suit as she (or he) is to be found marching around the wards in uniform. Because the matron is not now the preserve of women, the job title has changed too, often to something far less evocative, such as head of clinical services.

Chris Pattison, 63, is proud to still hold the title of matron at the Nuffield Hospital in Huntington Road.

However, she is very much in touch with modern healthcare practices.

“I am essentially responsible for clinical safety at the hospital,” she said. “That doesn’t mean to say I have to know everything that goes on. I couldn’t go into the operating theatre and carry out surgery.

‘‘I am responsible, though, if something goes wrong, so I have to make sure I have got the right staff with the right skills and the right qualifications in the right place.

“The other side of the job is that I’m responsible for the governance of the hospital.

‘‘For example, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has the power to close the hospital – even the police don’t have that power.

“CQC inspectors have powers and they can say ‘I want to look at this or that’ and I have to be able to provide all the documentation they need.

“They may make recommendations and we would have to comply with those.”

Chris, like any matron, has many years experience and has been at Nuffield for more than quarter of a century.

“The other day we had a patient who asked to see me because he remembered me from when I looked after him 26 years ago and that’s nice,” she said.

So is the matron still to be found patrolling the wards every day, ensuring standards her high standards are adhered to?

Christine said: “When I arrive on a morning, the first thing I do is log on, then I go to the wards and check everything is okay with the staff.

‘‘I will want to know who’s been operated on and how they are getting on and I want to know staff have everything they need.

“Then I may go into a particular room to chat with a patient.

“We can’t talk to all the patients every day. It would just take too long, so we have to make it meaningful. I would be in there with a patient for maybe 15 minutes.

“They know a lot more about what’s going on now,” she said. “That’s one of the changes I have seen in my years as a nurse.

‘‘They say ‘I have looked this up on the web’. But that’s okay, because our consultants are very up to date.”

Asked why she chose to be known as matron and not go for a more modern title, Christine said people know that a matron is the boss.

“They all know what a matron is and they know she’s the top person, but with a title like head of clinical services the patients might not be quite sure what that is.”

She said: “I look after this hospital and I’m very proud of it. It’s my baby.”