Bernadette Sinclair-Jenkins
Medical Products Supply Lead, HQA, MHRA
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
Dr Bruce Warner, Chair
Royal Pharmaceutical Society Fellow
Bruce was formerly Deputy Chief Pharmacist at NHS England where, amongst many other issues, he worked extensively on medicines shortages and chaired the cross sector Medicines Shortages Response Group. Prior to this post, Bruce was Deputy Director of Patient Safety both at NHS England and at the National Patient Safety Agency.
He has worked in academia and secondary care and as a community pharmacy contractor for many years in the early part of his career. Bruce is a Visiting Professor of Pharmacy Practice at the University of Huddersfield and an Honorary Professor of Pharmacy Policy and Practice at the University of Nottingham, where he is currently undertaking research into Pharmacist Independent Prescribing.
Eithne O'Halloran
Principal Pharmacist, Medicine Supply Team, Medicines, Directorate
Department for Health and Social Care
Eithne currently works as a Principal Pharmacist in the Medicine Supply Team in the Department of Health and Social Care.
Following a Master of Pharmacy degree from the University of
Brighton, Eithne worked as a clinical pharmacist in an NHS hospital,
completing her Postgraduate Diploma at UCL.
Eithne then worked as a specialist Medicine Information, Safety and Governance pharmacist before joining the Department.
and
Kate Mitchell
Principal Pharmacist Medicine Supply Team, Medicines Directorate
Department for Health and Social Care
Kate is a Principal Pharmacist in the Department of Health and Social Care, jointly leading the Medicines Supply Team.
Kate has a Postgraduate Diploma in General Pharmacy Practice and has
previously worked as a clinical pharmacist in NHS hospitals most
recently within the Women and Children’s team at Kings College Hospital
before joining the Department.
Prior to becoming a pharmacist Kate had a career outside of healthcare in sales and marketing.
Gayle Robertson
Manager Clinical Technical Services - Pharmacologistic
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
Gayle began her Pharmacy career with the NHS in 1990 as an assistant technical officer and progressed to a pharmacy technician role at Inverclyde Royal Hospital and then to Edinburgh’s Western General Hospital to further develop her skills and knowledge in a large teaching hospital.
In her current role within NHSGGC, Gayle provides strategic, operational and professional leadership for Pharmacologistic services which includes home care, purchase of pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical distribution to acute, mental health hospital and community clinic services within the board area.
Gayle has acquired a specialist knowledge and representation of medicines' shortages to help guide and advise from the lens of an NHS territorial board.
James Kent
Hub Lead for the Procurement Function
Specialist Pharmacy Service (SPS)
James is part of the Specialist Pharmacy Service (SPS). SPS works to provide specialist guidance and advice about medicines for use by health care professionals. There are five elements within SPS and James is the Hub Lead for the procurement function. One of the key roles for the procurement team is supporting NHS Trusts manage the many medicines supply issues that hospital pharmacy departments are currently encountering.
Dr Justine Scanlan
Head of the NHS Specialist Pharmacy Service
NHS Specialist Pharmacy Service
Dr Justine Scanlan is Head of the NHS Specialist Pharmacy Service (SPS) and chair of the joint DHSC and NHSE Medicines Shortages Response Group (MSRG). Through her leadership of the NHS SPS, the service played a pivotal role in the recent COVID-19 pandemic, overseeing both the allocation and distribution of medicines to the NHS and providing the professional expertise to ensure the successful deployment of the COVID-19 vaccination programme.
Justine is an experienced pharmacist with a successful track record in leading and delivering new developments in pharmacy services; nationally and in NHS hospitals.
Prof Liz Breen
Professor of Health Service Operations, School of Pharmacy & Medical Sciences
University of Bradford
As Professor of Health Service Operations, Liz has researched within the pharmaceutical supply chain and wider healthcare eco-system for over two decades. Targeted areas of focus are medicines optimisation, sustainability, systems analysis and patient safety. Liz is a Wolfson Centre for Applied Health Research Fellow and an Affiliate member of the NIHR Yorkshire & Humber Patient Safety Research Collaboration.
She is also the current Director of the Digital Health Enterprise Zone, an innovation facility based at the University of Bradford.
Mark Dayan
Brexit and Trade Programme Lead
Nuffield Trust
Mark Dayan is Brexit Programme Lead at the Nuffield Trust, working on the implications of leaving the European Union and of trade agreements for the NHS, life sciences and social care. He manages the Health and International Relations project, funded by the Health Foundation.
His publications include How will Brexit affect the UK's response to coronavirus? and Getting a Brexit deal that works for the NHS. Mark has also published work on healthcare in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and leads the Nuffield Trust’s work in responding to legislation, statutory instruments, and inquiries.
Mark Francis
Assistant Director Medicines Procurement and Optimisation
NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership
Deputy: Anne Hinchliffe
My career of 36 years to date has included working in community pharmacy, hospital pharmacy, regional and national roles involving medicines procurement, logistics, commercial access, and value. With the last eight years as National Procurement Lead Pharmacist for Wales and now as Assistant Director for Medicines Procurement and Optimisation, which has the responsibility to ensure optimal value from the NHS Medicines Bill in Wales; circa (£1b). A key role and responsibility is to provide assurance on medicines supply and their value to the Welsh NHS and Welsh Government, while working in partnership with all suppliers to provide our patients with the best possible experience.
Mark Samuels
Chief Executive Officer
British Generics Manufacturing Association
Deputy: Paul Flemming (Technical Director of the BGMA)
As the BGMA’s CEO, Mark represents the companies supplying four out of five NHS medicines. Earlier in his career, he was the founding Managing Director of the government’s Office for Clinical Research Infrastructure. Mark served on the National Institute for Health Research Board with a £1.1bn/year budget. He also co-founded Medicines Discovery Catapult and was previously an executive at Roche. Mark is a graduate of QMUL and Oxford’s Saïd Business School.
He has completed a Policy Fellowship at Cambridge University and the Leading Economic Growth programme at Harvard.
Martin Sawer
Executive Director
Healthcare Distribution Association UK
Martin leads and directs the work of the HDA, which has become the voice of the UK-wide medicines wholesale distribution sector, promoting the safe and
efficient distribution of NHS medicines. Leading HDA’s close engagement with the UK Government and the NHS throughout the Brexit period and the COVID
pandemic, has enabled many stakeholders to gain a detailed understanding of how medicines are distributed.
Dr Michael Mulholland
Honorary Secretary
Royal College of General Practitioners
Deputy: Anika Mandla
Michael Mulholland is a GP at Unity Health a 4-site practice for 23000 patients across the Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire border where he has practised for over 20 years. He is an active GP trainer and has interest in medical education having a MSc in Medical Education and having previously held roles in Health Education in both development of the multi-professional workforce and as an Associate GP Dean with a particular interest in scaling Quality Improvement initiatives in primary care.
Within the RCGP he has been Vice Chair (Professional Development) and now Honorary Secretary.
Dr Rick Greville
Director with responsibility for Wales and the Distribution & Supply Chain
Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry
Rick is an ABPI Director with responsibility for Wales and the Distribution & Supply Chain. He was initially appointed to the post of Director of ABPI Cymru Wales in May 2003 after serving an apprenticeship of 15 years in a wide range of managerial and marketing roles within the pharmaceutical industry. Since April 2014 Richard has combined his continuing ABPI responsibility for Wales with that for the UK Distribution and Supply Chain, including homecare, the Falsified Medicines Directive and supply chain shortages. Over recent times he has developed ABPI policy in response to Brexit, Covid-19, and the Ukrainian war.
He is a founding Director of SecurMed UK, the UK (NI) medicines verification organisation, a long-standing member of the National Homecare Medicines Committee and represents the industry on several Governmental Advisory Groups.
A fluent Welsh speaker, he was born in West Wales and now lives in the outskirts of Cardiff.
Roger Fernandes
Chief Pharmacist and Clinical Director
King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Roger is Chief Pharmacist and Clinical Director at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. He has been a Trust Chief Pharmacist for over 16 years managing Pharmacy departments in acute district general hospital, teaching hospitals and tertiary specialist centres. He has over 26 years of total NHS experience, which includes various management and specialist clinical pharmacist posts.
He has won two HSJ Awards for developing innovative Pharmacy services that have benefited patient care through collaboration with health and social care and delivering best practice. He represents London Chief Pharmacists at various regional and national Committees and is Chair of the RPS Hospital Expert Advisory Group.
Roger is a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and is the current systems lead on the Pharmacy and Medicines workstream in the South East London Acute Provider Collaborative Integrated Care System.
Sharon Brennan
Director of Policy and External Affairs
National Voices
Prior to joining she was the Senior Policy Manager at the Taskforce for Lung Health developing their integrated care strategy, and Taskforce priorities for the year ahead. Previously she worked as the Health and Integration Policy Manager at Alzheimer’s Society, responsible for the strategic and operational direction of health policy at the charity.
Before moving into the charity policy sector in 2021, Sharon was an award-winning senior correspondent at the Health Service Journal leading on integration, integrated care systems, commissioning and social care reform.
She also acts as an advisor to the Department of Transport on the accessibility of UK travel.
Charlotte Ansell
Head of Medicines Policy
NHS England
Charlotte has worked in and around the NHS for 22 years in trust, regional and national roles covering service management, service improvement, policy research and provider and system policy and strategy. She currently works in the NHS England Medicines Access Policy Team and leads on strategic and policy programmes and projects related to medicines supply and longer-term medicines supply chain resilience, working closely with NHSE and DHSC colleagues and other key stakeholders.
Charlotte was previously Acting Head of Medicines Supply Chain Policy, EU Exit and COVID-19 for NHS England and Improvement.
Sukhy Somal
ICS Head of Community Pharmacy Clinical Services
Black Country ICB
My name is Sukhy Somal, I qualified as a pharmacist in 2000. I have a vast amount of pharmacy experience working as an Area Manager for seven years, as a Professional Services Development Manager for seven years, and setting up and owning one of the busiest multi-award-winning independent pharmacies in the country for eight years.
After selling the pharmacy in 2023, I spent some time supporting large organisations with governance, training and delivering change. I am currently working in the Black Country ICB as the Head of Community Pharmacy Clinical Services to support the delivery of Clinical Services in Community Pharmacies.