Kelly Bishop, MSc, PG Cert, BA (Hons), RN (adult), Assistant Director of Nursing & Urgent Care, Midland & Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit.

Kelly has a range of experience involving elective and urgent care clinical redesign across system footprints. Undertaking the role of Programme Director for the Greater Manchester Acute and Specialised Services Transformation Workstream, she later transferred this expertise across systems as the Programme Clinical Lead for the Central Lancashire Our Health Our Care Programme. Kelly has worked closely with leads across Lancashire and South Cumbria to author a clinical strategy and has recently led a review across the Northwest looking at the impact of the pandemic on urgent and emergency care. 

Kelly has spent her formative career years in surgical nursing leaving her position as a Ward Manager for Surgical Oncology at the Christie Hospital to progress into General Management of Surgical Services at the Royal Bolton Hospital. A Nursing Times 2021 finalist Kelly supported Lancashire and South Cumbria in undertaking the role of Clinical Lead for its Mass Vaccination Programme supporting the set-up and running of 7 mass vaccination sites.

Steve Canty, Consultant Trauma & Orthopaedic Surgeon, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Steve Canty commenced in the role of Consultant Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon in 2008 with a special interest in knee surgery at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Having had several medical leadership posts over the last ten years. He is currently the Divisional Medical Director for the Surgical Division. Also being chair of the Lancashire & South Cumbria Musculoskeletal and Trauma & Orthopaedic Network. In addition, he is the Medical Lead for the New Hospitals Programme for Lancashire & South Cumbria. Having been involved with receiving a clinical senate review, and hope to support colleagues as part of the NW clinical senate.

Irfan Chaudry, Consultant in Critical Care Medicine & Anaesthesia, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Irfan Chaudry is currently a consultant in critical care medicine and anaesthesia at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. He has held various senior medical leadership roles over the last nine years and is an honorary senior clinical lecturer for Manchester University. He is currently working across systems for NHS England in the North West. Irfan is a clinical member of the Independent Reconfiguration Panel advising the Secretary of State for Health on major healthcare transformation in the UK whilst also a member of the Senate having been involved in several reviews. Irfan is a member of the Faculty of Intensive Care Professional Affairs and Standards committee at the Royal College of Anaesthetists and has previously worked as a specialist advisor for the Care Quality Commission.

Julie Cheetham, Director, Greater Manchester & Eastern Cheshire Strategic Clinical Network.

Julie is the Director of the Greater Manchester and Eastern Cheshire Strategic Clinical Network and has been part of the network for the past 10 years. The SCN is now embedded within Greater Manchester Integrated Care System and was previously part of the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership.

 The SCN has been a key driver in the delivery of large-scale system change management that is clinically led. Over the past 10 years, the SCN has managed and nurtured a number of clinical works from children and young people, child and adolescent mental health, maternity services, along with long-term conditions of cardiovascular disease and prevention, integrated stroke delivery networks, diabetes, respiratory, frailty and palliative and end of life care. The SCN took a lead role in developing the agreed pathways for long covid during the pandemic. Always working in an integrated way with our partners, stakeholders, patients, carers, and families to reduce unwarranted variation to improve care pathways.

Julie’s career has spanned 35 years of working in the NHS, firstly as a Registered General Nurse before expanding to manage planned care, international recruitment, return to practice and workforce at both a local, strategic health authority and national level, leading strategic programmes across provider collaboratives, foundation trust development before joining the strategic clinical networks and senate in 2013.  Julie’s passion for quality improvement and safe patient care continues leading her team with agility and curiosity to drive improvements. From 2012 – 2017 Julie held the post of Governing Body Board Nurse for Central Manchester Clinical Commissioning Group leading on quality, performance, and governance. She is currently the senior responsible officer for GMEC Local Maternity and Neonatal System.

Julie’s vision for the SCN is to galvanise the clinical expertise and leadership from across the SCN footprint to improve the lives of our public and deliver quality strategic service change that adds value and eliminates unwarranted variation.

Paula Cowan, Medical Director for Primary Care.

Having qualified in 1995 from the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, Dr Cowan practised in Internal Medicine, Critical Care, and Anaesthesia within Ireland. In 2001, she embarked on a career in Primary care and completed General Practice training through the Mersey Deanery. Dr Cowan has been a GP partner at the Eastham Group Practice since 2003.

Dr Cowan was involved in Wirral CCG activity from 2010, as an Executive Board member for Wirral Health Commissioning Consortium, and also as Urgent Care lead for Wirral Health Commissioning Consortium from 2012-2015.

She was an active Wirral LMC committee member and held the position of vice chair from 2007-2013. In April 2015 Dr Cowan was appointed to the role of Clinical Lead for Urgent Care at Wirral CCG which she held until November 2016. This role involved leading key projects and encouraging integrated working across partner organisations aiming to facilitate transformational change in the delivery of urgent care.  She continued partnership and system working and lead many projects including the Digital Programme as Medical Director, a post which she held from November 2016 until she was appointed Chair NHS Wirral CCG in July 2019. Dr Cowan remained as Chair until the cessation of CCGs on 30^th June 2022.

Dr Cowan was appointed NW Region Medical Director for Primary Care in April 2022. She engages with colleagues across the North West region and the National teams in supporting all areas of Primary Care expansion and development, system collaboration, and innovative change in many areas. She recognises the challenges faced and is actively working to address these.  

John Dean, Consultant Physician & Deputy Medical Director, East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

John is clinical vice president (CVP) at the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) and consultant physician/deputy medical director (transformation) at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust.

As CVP he is a member of the RCP senior leadership team, with specific responsibility for the college’s strategic aim of improving health and care, as well as overseeing the work of the Care Quality Improvement Directorate.

As clinical director for quality improvement and patient safety, and then improvement clinical director at the RCP from 2017, he represented the college and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges on a number of NHS improvement boards and provided leadership to several RCP patient safety and quality improvement programmes.

In East Lancashire, he works across the health and care system, leading service improvement. He works clinically as a consultant physician in acute and general medicine and diabetes.

He has previously worked in improvement initiatives across the Department of Health, royal colleges, NHS NW, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), and the Health Foundation.  He was a faculty and non-executive board member of the Advancing Quality Alliance.  He was previously the medical director of NHS Bolton, clinical director of medical and elderly services for Bolton Hospitals, and clinical lead for diabetes services in Bolton.

He is a Health Foundation/IHI fellow and Q fellow.

Clair Haydon, Consultant Occupational Therapist, Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

Clair is a Consultant Occupational Therapist with extensive experience in mental health services and currently works providing diagnostic assessment and post-diagnostic support to autistic adults.

She is the Clinical Director for mental health complex care for the North West of England, focussing on clinical pathway development to address long lengths of stay in mental health acute inpatient services, improved flow through inpatient rehabilitation services, and the implementation of the dedicated function of community rehabilitation services in line with the community mental health transformation to reduce reliance on inpatient care. Using data and evidence to inform clinical practice and service development and is passionate about addressing health inequalities, co-production, and personalised care.

Dr Phil Jennings, Chief Executive/AHSN for the North West Coast.

Dr Phil Jennings is Chief Executive and AHSN for the North West Coast, he also continues to practise as a GP and has a specialist interest in cardiology.

On behalf of the AHSN Network, Phil has two roles; as the lead on the Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) Rapid Uptake Products Programme, which fast-tracks products which have been proven to significantly improve care; and as the lead for the AAC’s Innovation for Healthcare Inequalities Programme.

Phil’s previous roles include the Primary Care Lead for the Cheshire and Merseyside Cardiac Network; Chairman of NHS Wirral Clinical Commissioning Group; and Deputy Medical Director at NHS England and NHS Improvement North West.

Wendy Lewis-Cordwell, Director & Bereavement Care Consultant, Bereavement Care Services. 

Wendy Lewis-Cordwell, Director of Bereavement Care Services - Cumbria and Lancashire, North Bereavement Care Development Consultant - Child Bereavement UK, Ask the Expert Bereavement – Macmillan, Bereavement Support and Understanding Grief - Essential Parent, Bereavement Consultant - GM Suicide Prevention Project. I am on the steering group for National Bereavement Alliance, Bereavement Services Association (Chair) and Lancs & South Cumbria Young Peoples Palliative Care Network (Chair).

Wendy liaises with all sectors of care – NHS England ICS, Acute Hospitals, Hospices, Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Care plus third sector organisations focusing on palliative, end-of-life care and care of the deceased person, including providing dignified, respectful services and support for all bereaved families. A trained facilitator for BSA 'When a Patient Dies', National Gold Standards Bereavement Care Training, Child Bereavement UK, Grief Journey UK, NCPC Associate, with a specialist interest in ‘how we grieve digitally’. 

Working in the NHS for 28 years as a Senior Manager, with a background in Pathology. During her career, Wendy has held posts in Pathology Management, Quality Services, Educational, Training, Retained Organs Commission and Bereavement Service Development, which included working at Jackson Memorial Hospital, and Mercy Hospital in Miami, USA, as part of the Lean Ways of Working - Learning from Pathology Services Improvement Project. She was seconded to Macmillan as the Network Bereavement Development Coordinator for three years developing Bereavement Services across Cumbria and Lancashire for the Lancashire and South Cumbria Cancer Network, Macmillan and the End-of-Life Network, by building on existing good practice and national Guidance. Also hosting student visits from the Assan Frontier Academy, Seoul, South Korea to facilitate their learning around supporting bereaved families and an organ donors support programme.

Wendys' passion is to make a difference by educating health professionals and supporting all bereaved families giving them a voice to enable change. Leisure time is spent with her family, and she enjoys researching World War II Sunderland Flying Boats and is also a keen water skier and motor-biker.

Jonathan Lund, Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon &  Associate Medical Director for Women and Children’s Division, Wirral University Hospitals.    

Originally from Southeast England, Jonathan studied at Manchester University for MBChB after a BSc in Biochemistry. Following senior house jobs, he worked with the British Antarctic Survey spending a winter in Antarctica as the medical officer whilst researching communicable pathogens and circadian rhythms. He gained an MSc (Remote Healthcare) before commencing surgical training in Norfolk and specialist registrar training in General Surgery in South Yorkshire. Jonathan worked as a Consultant General Surgeon in Warrington from 2007 until 2011 before moving to my current Oncoplastic post at Wirral University Hospitals in 2011. Since starting in Wirral, he has progressed from Clinical Lead and Cheshire and Wirral breast programme screening surgical lead to Clinical Director and now the Associate Medical Director of the Women and Children’s Division. Jonathan also works with NICE on the Adoption and Impact Reference Panel, is a member of the NHS Clinical Leaders Network and is a council member for the NHS Northwest Clinical Senate. He has strong clinical and governance backgrounds which have helped him work across NHS organisations in bringing clinical and operational projects to successful, patient-focused conclusions. 

Niall Lynch, Consultant Radiologist, Stockport NHS Foundation Trust.

Niall has enjoyed his time as a member of the Senate Council since his appointment in 2015.

With a specialist interest in uroradiology, interventional radiology, and improving the profile of radiology Niall began his training qualifying in Dublin in 1985. (MB, Bch, BAO) commencing radiology training in 1989 and obtaining his FFRRCSI in 1992 and FRCR in 1993. He practised as a Senior Registrar in Radiology in Manchester from 1993 to 1996, becoming Clinical Director of Radiology in 2005. Between 2004 – 2008 Niall was the Hospital Radiology representative at The Royal College of Radiology, becoming Northwest representative for the Royal College of Radiology from 2009-2015.

Professor Sandip Mitra, Senior Consultant Nephrologist, Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Professor of Medicine and Senior Consultant Nephrologist, Manchester University Hospitals & University of Manchester, UK. Special interest in Transformation of Clinical Services and Patient pathways.

Diverse management Roles and Responsibilities as Specialist Advisor for Care Quality Commission; Deputy Director for National Institute of Health Research, Devices for Dignity, MedTech and Invitro Diagnostics Health Technology Cooperative; Research & Innovation Lead, Manchester Royal Infirmary; Trustee for Kidneys for Life Charity; Ex-National Chair for Renal Services CRG NHS England, & Ex-Specialty Advisor Renal Service Transformation programme NHSE. 

Research and Innovation responsibilities as Renal Lead for Integrated Clinical Academic training programme, University of Manchester; Clinician Member for RCP Clinical Academic Affairs Committee; and Senior Mentor for NIHR, UKKA and RCP Emerging Leaders programme. He is recipient of the winning prize of NHS Innovation Dragon Den’s Challenge Award, NICE award and voted as Top 50 UK Health Service Innovator (HSJ). He has authored over 130 publications, book chapters and clinical guidelines.

He is passionate about improving clinical effectiveness, connecting ideas and innovators to create solutions that benefit patients, pathways, and providers. 

Liz Price-Jones, Lead Consultant Psychologist Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust.

Liz is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society.

Having over 20 years of experience working as a Lead Consultant Psychologist in the NHS, and a particular specialism in assessment and intervention for Autistic people and/or those who have a Learning Disability.

Liz currently works for Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust.

She sits on the board of the Operational and Development Network for Learning Disabilities and Autism for the North West and has many years of experience working with systems and processes. The influencing of these for positive change and effective outcomes for the population is central to her strategic role and the ongoing development of services.

Tajinder Rai, Chartered Counselling Psychologist, 

Dr Tajinder Rai (CPsychol) works as a Chartered Counselling Psychologist within the area of Rehabilitation Medicine, specifically with patients that have experienced limb loss providing pre-surgical psychological assessments, adjustment reaction psychotherapy to help patients come to terms with the limb loss, EMDR trauma therapy to help process the traumatic event(s) and pain management therapy for phantom limb pain and other presentations.  In this varied role, she works with complex presentations. She is a compassionate clinician that offers patient-centred care and develops bespoke treatment for each patient, according to their needs. 

Recently she has also worked as a Senior Counselling Psychologist within a CAMHS service supporting children and young people to manage various presentations such as OCD, anxiety, body image difficulties and low mood, working with the young people and their parents – within an MDT setting.  More recently, she has also been working in a care home intervention team, helping to bring psychological and behavioural understanding to dementia care. Firstly, she provides consultation to frontline NHS staff in a psychological formulation meeting, where behavioural care plans are developed to help the patient and care home staff understand and manage dementia-related behaviour. Furthermore, she visits the care homes providing 1-2-1 support to dementia patients, helping them understand and work with their difficulties, as well as supporting care home staff to understand the unmet needs that dementia patients may be communicating. 

In the past she has worked in a psychological capacity with patients that have severe and enduring mental health difficulties, in community mental health teams, working on a 1-2-1 and group basis. She has also worked in addiction psychology and helped to develop a recovery day programme in London, as well as offering psychological interventions to patients and their carers. Furthermore, she has also delivered CBT for various anxiety and depression presentations, within a primary care service.  She has worked within the third sector trying to help and understand those with psychosis and severe and enduring mental health difficulties and helping to reduce mental health stigma.   

Having completed a 3-year NHS leadership shadowing a Consultant Clinical Psychologist working across a geographical area serving multiple communities.  She contributed to a successful tender bid that led to the development of a successful recovery day programme and worked as part of the team that developed the service.

Her areas of specialism are trauma, personality, and rehabilitation medicine. Her research has been in the area of psychological resilience and post-traumatic growth.  She has a doctoral degree in counselling psychology and a master’s degree in clinical psychology. ​​​​

Sonia Ramadour, Chief Pharmacist, Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust.

Sonia joined the North West Clinical Senate in 2022.  In her early career in the NHS, she worked in acute hospitals but then specialised as a pharmacist working in mental health services.  Sonia is currently Chief Pharmacist at Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust, an organisation delivering both mental health and community services.  She has previously undertaken research on medicines adherence and mental health.  Sonia is passionate about ensuring high-quality services, and positive service user and staff experience.  This is one of the reasons she applied to join the North West Clinical Senate.

Mr David Rowlands, Consultant Gynaecological Surgeon & Obstetrician.

David has more than 35 years of experience originally qualifying from the University of Birmingham in 1985. For 25 years, he held a senior consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist position at Wirral University Teaching Hospitals, where he was also Associate Medical Director for Strategy and Partnership. Prior to this, he had served as Medical Director, before stepping down to allow more time for clinical work. Until 2022, he was the clinical lead for maternity for the NW Coast Strategic Clinical Network and the chair of the national NHS England clinical advisory group for the commissioning of specialist gynaecological services. He is also the former chair of the NW Clinical Leaders Network, recognising his clinical and management leadership, as well as a previous member of the National CLN Board. Further to his clinical work, Mr Rowlands is involved in research and medical education and is currently teaching advanced laparoscopic surgery to consultants across the Betsi Cadwalader University Health Board as well as providing advanced endometriosis care through the Cheshire and Merseyside Endometriosis Centre. He is an invited speaker at gynaecological congresses around the world, the author of publications, case reports and abstracts in peer-reviewed journals, and the co-organiser of the British and Irish Association of Robotic Gynaecologists meeting in Wirral. Mr Rowlands additionally worked as an honorary lecturer at the University of Liverpool from 1996 to 2021. ​​​​​

Jan Vaughan, Associate Director North West Coast Clinical Networks & Senates.

 Jan started her career as an Accountant in industry and joined the NHS in 1993. Since then she has held senior positions in Finance and General Management in primary and secondary care as well as SHA level. In addition, she has sat on a number of national working groups and has presented her work both nationally and internationally.

Jan has spent since 2002 working within the network environment, firstly in Cardiac and Stroke.  Jan was appointed Director of Clinical Networks in April 2011 the role encompassed Cancer, Cardiac, Stroke, Neurosciences, Kidney Care, Critical Care and Neonatal Care Networks.

Subsequently, she was appointed as Associate Director for Strategic Clinical Networks and Senates for Cheshire and Merseyside in 2012 and her remit was extended to include, Lancashire and South Cumbria in April 2016. Jan continues in this post with a focus on Diabetes, Mental health, Stroke, End of Life, Respiratory and more recently the reintroduction of the Cardiac Networks.

Jan has an MSc from Manchester Business School. She is currently undertaking her Doctorate at Middlesex University. She has also attended Harvard and Berkley in the USA on leadership courses.

Gareth Wallis, Medical Director for System Improvement and Professional Standards, North West Region, NHS England.

Gareth graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1999 and, after initially training in orthopaedic surgery, undertook training in General Practice.  He has previously been a Governing Body member of a CCG and LMC representative.  He moved to NHS England in 2015 and is currently Medical Director for System Improvement and Professional Standards in the North West Region, as well as a member of the Health Foundation Q community.  He has been a member of the Clinical Senate since 2017.