Our Steering Group is made up of the following people:
Toto Gronlund: Chair of the Patients Council at the College of Medicine, brings over 25 years of experience in a variety of roles in health, social care and the third sector, is passionate about the quality and effectiveness of care services and committed to improve the experience of them and outcomes for patients and carers. Toto brings over 25 years of experience in a variety of roles in health, social care and the third sector. As part of a spell of lifelong learning, Toto completed a diploma in International Primary Care Research at University College London specialising in the use of the narrative in research, health care and education. Other areas of special interest include the economic valuation of societal outcomes of improvements in the NHS, including patient and public benefit. In her spare time, she climbs mountains and keeps bees
Dr Chris Hewitt: Chief Executive of Leicestershire, Leicester City and Rutland Local Medical Committee; Clinical Complaints Adviser at The Medical Defence Union; Associate at Healthcare Performance and Alumnus of the NHS Staff College Leadership Programme is a GP in Leicester. He enjoys supporting professionals and has a particular interest and expertise in the diagnosis and recovery strategies for burnout. Pursuing additional interests and work roles have made him determined to improve the lot of patients, relatives, carers and workers in the NHS. “When the NHS is good it is the best in the world – when it is poor it is disgraceful.” Chris believes that clinical leaders with empathy are needed in the NHS to genuinely improve the experiences and outcomes of patients their families and their carers and is determined to work with like-minded people to really make a difference to the culture of the NHS – by supporting and developing followers and leaders.
Professor George Lewith: Professor of Health Research at the University of Southampton has combined his scientific interests, including over 150 primary research papers, with a busy clinical practice over the last 30 years and leads an internationally respected Integrated Medicine research group within the medical school’s department of primary medical care which is part of the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) national school for primary care research. His research is focused on differentiating the specific from the non specific effects of treatment and developing models that will help to explain the patient perceived benefits of a variety of complementary medical interventions. He is currently interested in Pain, Arthritis and Cancer as illness models investigating the effects of acupuncture, healing, homeopathy and herbal medicines.
Dr Chris Manning: Convenor of the Group; director of UPstream Healthcare Ltd; chair of the Faculty for Mental Health at the College of Medicine; trustee, Richmond Health Voices – Healthwatch was a GP in Twickenham for 18 years and had major depression in 1986. He retired from the NHS in 1999 to work in the mental health third sector as trustee/Chair of Depression Alliance and then founded the primary care mental health and education charity Primhe. He has had a concern for the health and wellbeing of doctors and the quality of care that depends on both for over three decades.
Professor David Peters: Professor of Integrated Healthcare and Clinical Director at the School of Life Sciences, University of Westminster trained as a family doctor, and later in osteopathic medicine and as a musculoskeletal physician. From 1990 until 2005 he directed the highly innovative complementary therapies development programme at Marylebone Health Centre (MHC), a ground-breaking Central London NHS General Practice unit set up in 1986 to explore new approaches to inner city primary healthcare and is also now directing a new cross-university initiative – the Westminster Centre for Resilience
Lynn Young: was the Primary Healthcare Adviser for the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) from 1990 until her retirement in 2012. Before that she was a district nurse in West London. During the last decade the major part of her work focused on the development of primary healthcare policy and practice within the context of health and social care reform. She facilitated the Working in Partnership Programme (WiPP) which had13 projects, two of which were the development of nursing and healthcare assistants in general practice. In 2004 Lynn was awarded an Honorary Fellowship Royal College General Practitioners FRCGP (Hons).