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NHS Assembly announced to help deliver the Long Term Plan

A neonatal intensive care nurse, a GP who champions work with community groups and prominent disability and learning disability advocates are among people from across the country appointed to a new forum which will support delivery of the NHS Long Term Plan.

Building on the collaborative approach to developing the Long Term Plan, the NHS Assembly has been created to advise the Boards of NHS England and NHS Improvement on delivery of the improvements in health and care it outlined.

More than 500 people applied to sit on the Assembly, with the successful applicants chosen based on their individual knowledge, skills and experience.

The Assembly members are drawn from national and frontline clinical leaders, patients and carers, staff representatives, health and care system leaders and the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector.

The membership includes practising or training doctors, nurses and other health professionals, ensuring that the needs and priorities of the NHS’s 1.3m-strong workforce are well represented.

Members also include a parent carer from Nottingham, a patient representative from West Yorkshire, and the leaders of Age UK and Carers UK.

The group will meet for the first time in Spring, and then quarterly afterwards, bringing their experience, knowledge and links to wider networks to inform discussion and debate on the NHS’s work and priorities.

The Assembly will be co-chaired by leading GP Dr Claire Gerada, and former head of the King’s Fund think tank, Professor Sir Chris Ham.

Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said: “The NHS Assembly rightly reflects a wide diversity of patient, public and staff views and expertise. It builds on the inclusive process for designing the NHS Long Term Plan, and will help guide its implementation in the years to come.”

Dr Gerada said: “The quality and range of the Assembly members, and the large number who applied, is testament to the special place that the NHS has in the nation’s heart. The NHS Assembly will play a key part in ensuring the delivery of the Long Term Plan, and therefore shaping the future of the NHS.”

The list of NHS Assembly members is below:

  • Alex Fox – Alex is the Chief Executive of Shared Lives Plus and a trustee of the Social Care Institute for Excellence
  • Amy Overend – Amy is a Neonatal Intensive Care Sister and Coordinator in Bolton and is on the Board of Trustees and Non Executive Director at Bliss.
  • Sir Andrew Cash – Sir Andrew is the Chief Executive of the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Integrated Care System.
  • Professor Andrew Goddard – Andrew is a consultant gastroenterologist and general physician in Derby and is President of the Royal College of Physicians.
  • Dr Andy Knox – Andy is a GP in Carnforth, Lancashire and Director of Population Health for the Morecambe Bay Health and Care System.
  • Professor Anne Marie Rafferty – Anne Marie trained as a nurse and is Professor of Nursing Policy at the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care at King’s College London.
  • Caroline Abrahams – Caroline is the Charity Director of Age UK. She is also a part-time carer for her mother.
  • Professor Caroline MacEwan – Carrie is a consultant ophthalmologist and Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges
  • Dr Carolyn Wilkins – Carolyn is Chief Executive of Oldham Council and Accountable Officer of NHS Oldham CCG.
  • Charlotte Pickles – Charlotte is Managing Editor of the comment and current affairs site Unherd.com and will soon be taking the role of Director at Reform.
  • Chris Hopson – Chris is the Chief Executive of NHS Providers.
  • Dr Claire Fuller – Claire is a practising GP and leads Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care System (ICS).
  • Clenton Farquharson MBE – Clenton is chair of Think Local Act Personal, and an ambassador for Disability Rights UK.
  • Craig Harman – Craig is an emergency responder and Head of 999 Service Delivery at London Ambulance Service.
  • Fatima Khan-Shah – Fatima is a Patient and Public Involvement Lay Member for West Yorkshire and Harrogate Joint Committee of CCGs.
  • Gabrielle Anne-Marie Mathews – Gabrielle is a third-year medical student and a member of the NHS Youth Forum and the British Youth Council.
  • Dr Graham Jackson – Graham is a practising GP and Clinical Lead at Buckinghamshire ICS. He is also co-chair of NHS Clinical Commissioners.
  • Gurdas Singh – Gurdas is a medical student and Co-Chairs of the BMA’s Medical Student Committee.
  • Helen Hassell – Helen is a parent carer and an active member of My Life Choices strategic co production group in Nottingham City and County.
  • Professor Helen Stokes Lampard – Helen is a practising GP and the Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners.
  • Helen Walker – Helen is Chief Executive of Carers UK.
  • Cllr Ian Hudspeth – Ian is Leader of Oxfordshire County Council and chairs the Community Wellbeing Board of the Local Government Association.
  • Imelda Redmond – Imelda is the National Director for Healthwatch England.
  • Dame Jackie Daniel – Dame Jackie is Chief Executive of Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust.
  • Jagtar Singh – Jagtar is Chair of the Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust
  • Jeremy Hughes – Jeremy is Chief Executive at Alzheimer’s Society.
  • Jim Easton – Jim is the Vice-Chair of the Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN).
  • Joan Saddler – Joan is co-chair of the NHS Equality and Diversity Council and is Associate Director of patients and communities at the NHS Confederation.
  • Joselle Wright – Joselle is a Consultant Midwife at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.
  • Juliet Bouverie – Juliet is Chief Executive of the Stroke Association.
  • Kendra Schneller – Kendra is a nurse practitioner in London providing primary care to people who are experiencing homelessness, people with addictions and refugee and asylum seekers.
  • Professor Lesley Regan – Lesley is Head of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at St Mary’s Campus, Imperial College, London and is President of the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
  • Lucy Watts – Lucy is a prominent disability and health advocate.
  • Lynda Thomas – Lynda is Chief Executive of Macmillan Cancer Support and Vice Chair of The Richmond Group of Charities.
  • Revd Mark Burleigh – Mark is head of chaplaincy & bereavement services at Leicester and a member of the Network for Pastoral, Spiritual and Religious Care in Health.
  • Nazia Ahmed – Nazia is an Occupational Therapist and Inpatient Therapy Services lead at the Homerton University Hospital Foundation Trust.
  • Niall Dickson – Niall is Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation.
  • Patricia Miller – Patricia is Chief Executive of Dorset County Hospital serving a rural community.
  • Paul Farmer – Paul is Chief Executive of MIND and Chair of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations.
  • Penny Owens – Penny is a radiographer and Director of Allied Health Professionals, Division of Cancer, Diagnostics and Clinical Support at Royal Derby Hospital.
  • Polly Toynbee – Polly is a journalist, who writes for the Guardian and the Observer covering social issues and politics, specialising in the NHS.
  • Rachel Power – Rachel is the Chief Executive of the Patients Association.
  • Ravi Sharma – Ravi is a pharmacist and the Director for England at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS).
  • Richard Stubbs – Richard is the Chief Executive of the Yorkshire & Humber Academic Health Science Network.
  • Dr Robert Klaber – Robert is a Consultant General Paediatrician & Deputy Medical Director at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.
  • Rob Webster – Rob is Chief Executive of the South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
  • Dr Robina Shah – Robina is a chartered consultant psychologist, Director of the Doubleday Centre for Patient Experience at the University of Manchester Medical School and the UK Chair of the Patient and Partnership Group at Royal College of General Practitioners.
  • Professor Russell Viner – Russell is a practising paediatrician and a researcher in health services research, public health and policy for children and young people. He is also President of the Royal College of Paediatrics & Child Health.
  • Professor Shafi Ahmed – Shafi is a consultant laparoscopic colorectal cancer surgeon at The Royal London and St Bartholomew’s Hospitals and sits on the council of the Royal College of Surgeons.
  • Professor Sian Ellard – Sian is Professor of Genomic Medicine at the University of Exeter Medical School and Consultant Clinical Scientist at the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust and head of the Molecular Genetics Department
  • Simon Gillespie – Simon is Chief Executive at the British Heart Foundation and President of the European Heart Network.
  • Dr Stephen Dunn – Steve is Chief Executive of the West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust.
  • Sir Thomas Hughes-Hallett – Sir Thomas is co-Founder and Chair of The Marshall Institute within the London School of Economics and Chair of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
  • Tim Nicholls – Tim is Head of Policy and Public Affairs at the National Autistic Society.
  • Dr Vishanka Ratnasuriya – Vish is a practising GP in Birmingham.
  • Yvonne Newbold – Yvonne is a learning disability champion who earned the National Learning Disabilities/Autism Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.