Mr Antony
Chuter: Antony joined the Patent Partnership
Group at the College in Feb. 2007. He became vice chair of the
group in November 2008 and chair in November 2009.
Antony has experience of involvement in the NHS for just over 5
years, from his local GP practice group, to being involved in his
local Primary Care Trust consultations on the reconfiguration of
hospital services, being a founder member of the first Strategic
Health Authority patient group and working on a national expert
panel writing guidance on public involvement in Urgent Care and a
second one for people with Long Term Conditions. Antony lives with
a long term condition which he self manages. He believes people can
‘self care’ more with the right support and training but need to
work together with their health and social care professionals to
get the best possible care.
Antony has a passion for our National Health Service and is
devoted to working with other service users in partnership with
health professionals. He says "there is little to be gained from
complaining about services – it is much better to get in there and
help services understand the needs of patients and their carers
while at the same time making them pleasant places to work as happy
staff and clinicians equate to safer, better care.
Lay Vice-Chair
Mr David Sharp: Dave
originates from West Yorkshire and has worked within the Kirklees
area since 1973. After professionally qualifying he specialised in
mental health and for many years worked as an Approved Social
Worker at Storthes Hall Hospital, Huddersfield. Dave was heavily
involved with the closure and resettlement programme. He became a
Senior Manager within mental health services, managing a
community-based service for two Health Trusts. In 2000, Dave moved
from working with the Local Authority, joining Dewsbury Health Care
NHS Trust as General Manager of the Mental Health
Directorate.
Dave is now retired and has a range of
leisure interests including swimming, travelling, regular fell
walking and yoga (he is a qualified yoga teacher). He is also a
volunteer at Yorkshire Sculpture Park and has sat until recently on
two local voluntary sector services for people with mental health
issues.
Dave continues to have a wide ranging interest in health and
social care issues including mental health and the long term
management of continuing illness, particularly diabetes. He has a
strong and long held belief in the NHS and also feels that patient
participation is a major key to service
improvement.
Medical Vice-Chair
Dr Mary Selby:
Mary Selby is a GP in Suffolk, and is heavily involved in the
training and assessment of trainee GPs. On the side she is a church
organist and novelist, and she also writes extensively in the
medical press both on medical subjects and on her slightly chaotic
life. Mary has six children, two dogs, eleven chickens and an owl.
She lives is a small village which sits charmingly in a time warp,
and she sits on the PCC and helps organise the best village fete in
the world.
Mary is a trustee of Community Action
Nepal and through this has some involvement with health projects in
the developing world. She sometimes spends her holidays working as
an expedition doctor on the trekking and mountaineering routes in
the high Himalayas. At home her hobbies are singing and playing the
piano and the church organ.Mary is a Nationally elected member of
RCGP Council, and was then elected by Council to be medical vice
chair.
Lay Members
Ms Sandra
Davey
Ms Louise
Cox: Louise raised in Cambridge but now living
in south-west London, Louise currently works as a Health Advocate
for Asylum Seekers and Refugees at the NHS and is studying an MSc
in 'Health, Population and Society' at the London School of
Economics & Political Science. She has also lived with a
long-term, incurable medical condition since 1997, which has
allowed her to experience a range of primary and secondary
healthcare services as well as fully appreciate the benefits of
self-management. Her introduction to the voluntary sector occurred
during her student years at the University of Sheffield, where she
studied a degree in Sociology alongside volunteering for
'Nightline', an anonymous telephone-based advice service for
students. Since then, her volunteering portfolio has focused more
on the medical sphere: she is now an avid member of her 'Local
Involvement Network' (LINk), where she plays an active part in a
commissioning group seeking to improve the local services provided
for children and adolescents with type-one Diabetes. Louise also
volunteers at a 'Doctors of the World' clinic in East London, known
as 'Project: London', where she assists migrants and other
vulnerable groups to access health services. Collectively, these
diverse yet rewarding responsibilities have consolidated Louise’s
passion for all health-related matters – especially when it comes
to the valuable role of service user experience and the often
complex health needs of society's most vulnerable groups.
Dr Madeleine
Gantley: I started out in a mixture of secretarial,
editorial and research work, some of it relevant to health,
particularly the early days of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
and the Health Education Council. An Open University introductory
course eventually led - via study of infant care practices
among Welsh and Bangladeshi populations - to a PhD in medical
anthropology. From there I moved to primary care research,
contributing to a range of studies about everything from
consultation strategies (for both patient and GP) to
multi-disciplinary working, and developing particular interest in
the nature of expertise in general practice, communication skills,
and the sustainability of general practice as a career. Since
leaving primary care, I have spent several years in Brussels,
experiencing a very different model of general practice, and a
culture in which health education has less cultural impact.
Currently involved in a range of literacy work, with migrant and
refugee women, which aims to contribute to community development
and participation. Consultant on medical anthropology to Centre for
African Language Learning.
Ms Barbara Pendleton:
Barbara holds B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Psychology from the
University of Sheffield, to which she returned as an independent
research worker following a period in Public Relations and Press
Liaison in the construction / engineering sector. Her ‘family
break’ led to involvement in a wide range of health and education
related community charities and to very varied teaching and
research experiences in academic psychology, health promotion and
adult basic skills. Barbara has also worked extensively in
charitable grant assessment for Lottery organisations, Comic Relief
and various local community and statutory bodies. Over the years
Barbara has served with two Community Health Councils (Trafford and
Cornwall) covering health communities working in very different
operating environments. Barbara has also been a Non Executive
Director with North and East Cornwall Primary Care Trust, a lay
‘visitor’ to Cornwall’s residential and nursing homes and is
currently a Facilitator with the LINk in Cornwall. Barbara has held
various directorships of community groups, e.g. working as
fundraiser for Berryfields Community Centre Ltd to complete
delivery of the £500,000, Berryfields Community & Children’s
Centre in Bodmin, Cornwall. She has also served as Chair of the
North Cornwall Citizens Advice Bureau and a board member of the
East Cornwall CAB Initiative, a scheme for training new
advisors.
Ms Sanober Fasihi
Ms Imogen
Shillito
Mr Harvey Ward
has lived all his life in and around
North London working in a variety of careers starting as an
insurance clerk but after three years becoming a student at Regent
Street Polytechnic. He graduated with a B.Sc.(Econ) degree in 1972,
getting married soon after and became a secondary school teacher. A
year later he became a town planner working eventually for three
local authority in London and Hertfordshire dealing with
developments like the Tesco at Neasden and the motorway
service area at the South Mimms junction. In 1990 he returned to
teaching but at an FE college teaching town planning, urban
design and built environment issues. Many years later Harvey was
strongly influenced by his GP’s advice to change careers again so
in 2005 became a carer support worker, working for Crossroads
providing regular respite sessions for carers of people suffering
from Huntingtons, Parkinsons and Alzheimers diseases for 3 years.
This was a fascinating and rewarding job which reinforced Harvey
and his partner Patricia’s interests in mental health. She was a
special needs teacher in a local school with primary age
children.
He retired from full-time employment
in 2008 to care for Patricia who died two months after being
diagnosed with lung cancer and a brain tumour. Both Harvey and
Patricia were impressed and grateful for the excellent and caring
palliative care given to her unstintingly by every member of the
local NHS. A few months later, Harvey was given an opportunity to
repay the ‘debt’ to the NHS by joining the Patient /Public
Involvement Group of Hertsmere Commissioning Ltd. As such, he
attends HCL Board and Executive Committee meetings as well as HCL’s
Mental Health committee. His role as a carer representative with
Carers in Hertfordshire provides additional opportunities to pursue
his interests in Mental Health, Palliative and End of Life
care.
In his spare time, Harvey is studying
for a history PhD at the University of Hertfordshire researching
the relationship between the construction of RAF aerodromes in the
UK and development of town and country planning between 1919 and
1945. Playing bass trombone with the Potters Bar Town Band and with
local orchestras has been a constant feature of his life for many
years. His green environmentalist approach to life means that
cycling has been a favoured form of transport for many years as
well as being a planning activist with North Herts Friends of the
Earth. Harvey is the same age as the NHS and sees it as the
fundamental cornerstone of our society. He is convinced that
patient participation is vital to the continued well-being of the
NHS.
RCGP Vice Chair of Council
(Exofficio)
Currently vacant.
Council Member
Dr Tamsin Booth
Non Council College Member
Dr Sunaina Khanna
AiT Member (Observer)
Dr Sharif Uddin:
After attaining a first class honours degree in Immunology at
UCL, Sharif moved back to Manchester and studied Medicine at
the University of Manchester Medical School. I graduated with
Honours and undertook my Foundation training at the Royal Oldham
Hospital.
During Foundation training he was the Treasurer of the
Doctors' Mess committee, and managed to turn the finances around;
paying off the debt we owed for facilities/ amenities, without
compromising on the quality of the social and recreational
experiences that doctors enjoyed during his time at the
Royal Oldham Hospital.
Sharif turned down an offer of Core Medical Training, and
instead turned to General Practice, as he felt (and still
feel) that is the only speciality that combines evidence based
medicine with the potential to build life long doctor-patient
relationships.