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Dr Charles Alessi

Dr Charles Alessi is the senior GP partner of the Churchill Practice, a large primary care group practice in Kingston upon Thames which comprises 14 doctors over two sites. This is a large teaching practice with a population of around 15,000 patients and one of the 2% of practices in receipt of the Royal College of General Practitioners Quality Practice Award.

Dr Alessi has extensive experience of the NHS and international health care, having lectured extensively both in the UK and in Europe and the US and Canada. He is an executive member of the National Association of Primary Care, and a member of the national DH implementation team set up to revitalise practice-based commissioning in 2009. He is also medical director and director of clinical governance for SSAFA/GSTT Care which is the provider of health care to the British armed forces and their dependents in Germany and Belgium. He has also been appointed as the international advisor for the Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario, Canada.

He was one of the founders and until recently fulfilled the role of medical director of the Kingston Cooperative Initiative, which a not-for-profit cooperative set up to provide assistance and support in all aspects of GP led practice-based commissioning. The Kingston Cooperative now provides health services to over 185,000 patients, 28 practices and 100 GPs.

Other past appointments include chair of the Kingston Professional Executive Committee, medical director of the Kingston PCT and vice chair of an NHS health authority. He was a member of the Dr Foster Intelligent Commissioning Working Group and one of the principal speakers in the BMJ Commissioning Masterclass series.

David Colin-Thomé

National director for primary care, Department of Health

David was a GP from 1971 at Castlefields Health Centre, Runcorn, retiring March 2007. His practice has been leading-edge nationally over the last 10 years or so, pioneering systematic management of long-term conditions employing managed care techniques.

Prior to being appointed as national clinical director, David was director of primary care at the Department of Health's London regional office, and senior medical officer at the Scottish Office NHS Management Executive.

He was also formerly a member of Halton Health Authority, Cheshire Family Health Services Authority and a local councillor. He was awarded the OBE in 1997. He was educated at Hutton Grammar School in Preston, and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne Medical School.

He also has been on many overseas advisory visits specialising in primary care development. He publishes regularly on primary care reform.

Career highlights

Appointed national director for primary care, DH 2007
Previously national clinical director for primary care, DH 2001-2007
Former co-chair and lead on primary and community care strategy for the DH of the NHS Next Stage Review
Subsequently chair of PCCS Clinical Advisory Group and co-chair of Transforming Community Health Services Board
Clinical lead for delivery of 18 weeks programme, chair Summary Care Record and GP extraction IT service advisory groups and clinical advisor for DH/NHSD for Fluline
Honorary visiting professor of the Manchester Centre for Healthcare Management at Manchester University and of the School of Health, University of Durham

Dr James Kingsland

President National Association of Primary Care

Chairman Wallasey Health Alliance LLP

National PBC Clinical Network Lead

James is the senior partner in a Personal Medical Services partnership in Wallasey. He has been in practice on the Wirral since 1989. His practice has won numerous awards for clinical excellence and was in the early waves of fundholding, a first wave PMS plus site, and early adopter of practice based commissioning.

He has recently been appointed by the Department of Health as the National PBC clinical network lead. James served as chairman of the National Association of Primary Care for four years from September 2004 and became president of the organisation in September 2008. He has a wealth of experience in general practice, medical education and medical politics.

Between 1999 to 2002 he worked part time as a GP advisor to the Department of Health and was instrumental in the development and implementation of PMS policy and walk-in centres, worked with the DH to develop the quality agenda for general practice and was a member of the Department of Health’s National Leadership Network.

He has continued to have a central role in supporting the current reform agenda for the NHS, particularly in the development of practice based commissioning and has been a member of the DH PBC Implementation Board and the DH Commissioning Policy Reference Group, PbR External Reference Group and NHS Acute Contract Reference Group. He also serves on the NICE Commissioning Steering Group.

In October 2007 he was appointed as an advisor to Lord Darzi for the Next Stage Review of primary and community care and now is part of the review’s Clinical Advisory Group. He has also been appointed to the National PBC Improvement Team.

James chairs Wallasey Health Alliance LLP, the local practice based commissioning consortium of 12 general practices serving a population of 60,000 residents.

He has been a GP trainer for 16 years and is a member of the Mersey Regional GP Education Committee. He is also an undergraduate tutor for the medical schools of Liverpool and University College London.

He was formerly the vice chair of Wirral Health Authority having previously served as a non-executive director of Wirral FHSA.

He served for 10 years on Wirral LMC, has been a member of the General Practice Committee of the BMA and for three years chaired its PMS sub-committee.

He was appointed to the board of Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust as their primary care advisor in 2007.

Married to Sarah, they have two daughters and live in the Wirral. He includes golf, football, music and broadcasting as his hobbies, and hosts a bi-weekly programme on BBC Radio Merseyside and a medical current affairs programme on Liverpool’s independent radio, City Talk.

Dr Niti Pall

A visionary senior clinical leader who combines leading edge developmental roles with a passion for the delivery of top quality primary care to disadvantaged communities. Highly skilled at building inclusive and sustainable networks for improving patient care across traditional boundaries, particularly with secondary care and the voluntary sector, through an open and inclusive leadership style.

Improvements in primary medical care

Led the development of first wave PMS+ services across 2 large inner city general practices. Delivering extended primary care services for 9 years i.e. diabetes, elderly care, anticoagulation, pain management, community nursing.
Improvements in patient access quality and responsiveness
In response to NHS reforms set up a Community interest Company between 2 practices. Offering new models of quality primary care. Successful in 3 new contracts with 2 different PCTS.
Set up a collaboration across general practices in 4 PCT areas across Birmingham and the Black Country. with a patient population of 120,000,
The vision of the organization is to raise standards of care providing integrated holistic care across a variety of pathways.

Practice based commissioning

Lead the development of Practice Based Commissioning in the locality and brought together both small and large practices into a large locality based cluster. Led the governance for the cluster and championed stakeholder involvement in PBC.
Board member of Diabetes UK. Associate Director Primary Care Development, UK Department of Health.

Edna Robinson

Edna Robinson is an experienced public sector business leader. She is currently the chairman of the Big Life Group, the largest social business in the Northwest. Until recently she was the special advisor to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and she is currently advising the Department of Health in the development of efficient commissioning.

She has been the chairman of Richard Branson’s Virgin Health Group and was a board member for the Home Office in the establishment of the National Police Improvement Agency.

She has been the national leader of NHS Networks since its inception in 2005 and has been in the NHS as a chief executive in both PCT and acute hospitals.

Michael Sobanja

Michael has been the Chief Executive of the NHS Alliance since its inception in early 1998. The Alliance is a national membership organisation for both organisations and individuals in primary care across the UK, with a key role in representation, development and dissemination of good practice.

He is an originating board member of the European Forum for Primary Care and a Chair of Health Equality Europe, an organisation that focuses on health equality issues from a patient perspective.

Michael was previously a chief executive of a large health authority and has thirty years' management experience in the NHS and health care fields.

A qualified member of the Institute of Healthcare Management, he also holds qualifications in Health Economics and the Institute of Directors' Diploma in Company Direction.He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine.

Debra Sprague

Debra is an advanced nurse practitioner in a large general practice serving 26,000 patients across two sites and a university campus in Birmingham. She has a remit for PBC development within and beyond the practice in the local consortium and within NHS Heart of Birmingham as well as her national PBC Improvement Team role.

Debra has more than 20 years’ experience in primary care, with notable successes in service innovation, clinical redesign and workforce development, in clinical project management, risk management, clinical leadership, practice nursing, midwifery, health visiting and advanced practice.

For many years, Debra was postgraduate senior lecturer for programmes in advanced clinical practice in primary care and in non-medical prescribing.

She remains academic external examiner to Bucks University, undertakes visiting lectures, teaches in clinical practice and writes for publication. Debra has been married to Lain for more years than she can remember. Together they have two teenage daughters, a mortgage, a dog and a brood of chickens. She includes all things creative among her hobbies and also enjoys performance arts, growing vegetables, walking and swimming.