Regional Chief Dental Officer, NHS England South East

For Shab Shivji, dentistry has never been just a career. With 30 years of NHS service across clinical practice and senior regional leadership, he brings a rare combination of frontline patient care and strategic influence to oral health across the South East.

As Regional Chief Dental Officer for NHS England South East and Regional Dental Advisor for Workforce across Thames Valley and Wessex, Shab shapes how dental services are designed, commissioned, and delivered across the region. He is also a CORE20PLUS Ambassador, working to reduce health inequalities and ensure that those who face the greatest barriers to care receive the support they need most.

In his clinical role as an NHS Associate Dentist, Shab remains rooted in direct patient care — a commitment that informs everything he does strategically.

His work touches all three shifts of the 10 Year Health Plan. He is actively supporting the regional implementation of new dental contract reforms that move services from treatment toward prevention and shift care closer to communities through flexible commissioning and redesigned patient pathways. He sits on the working group enacting recent legislative changes to enable electronic prescribing for dental systems — a significant step in the analogue-to-digital shift. He is also supporting the new Regional Dental School in Portsmouth to make the most of its digital and haptics technology, equipping the next generation of dental professionals with the skills to deliver excellent NHS care.

For Shab, the NHS is deeply personal.

“The NHS has saved my life twice and I will forever be in its debt,” he says. “I am privileged and truly honoured to be part of an oral healthcare system that upholds excellence and compassion, and embraces equality, diversity and inclusivity at the heart of everything it does.”

Shab’s 30 years of service — spanning clinic, classroom, and boardroom — reflect the very best of what the NHS represents: care, commitment, and a determination to leave things better than you found them.