Dentistry Programme Officer, Primary Care Transformation, NHS England South East 

Not every person shaping the future of the NHS works at a bedside or in a clinic. Some work behind the scenes, building the structures, partnerships and processes that make better care possible at scale. Naz Elkhattabi is one of those people — and her impact is felt across communities throughout the South East.

Naz is a Dentistry Programme Officer within the Pharmacy, Optometry and Dentistry (POD) team in Primary Care Transformation at NHS England South East. She supports the delivery of national and regional priorities that improve access to dental care for some of the most underserved communities in the region.

A centrepiece of her work has been leading the regional rollout of the Golden Hello scheme. The scheme is a nationally initiated programme designed to strengthen dental workforce recruitment in deprived areas where access to NHS dentistry has historically been hardest to reach. Working in close partnership with commissioning dental contract managers and integrated care board (ICB) dental leads, Naz coordinated delivery across ICBs, established robust processes, and maintained consistent stakeholder engagement to ensure a joined-up, system-wide approach. The South East now fully utilises its allocation and consistently achieves some of the strongest recruitment outcomes nationally.

Naz also supported delivery of the £700,000 Urgent Dental Care ministerial investment programme, managing frequent reporting cycles, tight deadlines and multi-stakeholder coordination to ensure accurate and timely returns to national teams.

As the key programme officer for Sussex and Hampshire and Isle of Wight ICBs, she played a vital role in delivering Project 100 across primary care — a programme that achieved national recognition at NHS ConfedExpo 2026, showcasing the South East’s progress in improving primary care engagement and delivery.

“I’m proud to be part of the NHS and to contribute to programmes that make a lasting difference to patients and communities,” says Naz. “The NHS means collaboration, opportunity and making a real impact — and I’m proud to play my part in that.”

Her work embodies the NHS 10 Year Health Plan’s commitment to bringing care closer to home and reducing the inequalities that leave some communities without the services they need. By helping to place dental professionals in the areas that need them most, Naz is helping to ensure that postcode never determines access to care.