Dr Michael Dixon LVO, OBE, MA FRCGP
Michael is an NHS GP at the Culm Valley Integrated Centre for Health in Cullompton, Devon. He is Chair of the College of Medicine and former Co-Chair of the National Social Prescribing Network. He was previously a leader in the GP Commissioning movement as Chair of NHS Alliance (1998-2016) and President of NHS Clinical Commissioners (2012-2014), which aimed to give GPs and their patients a greater say in the services available to them. Michael is a Former Visiting Professor at University College, London and a Visiting Professor at Westminster University and Head of the Royal Medical Household. His recent book “A Time to Heal – Tales of a Country Doctor” describes his views on general practice – past and present.
Dr Elizabeth Thompson
Elizabeth is Lead Clinician for the new Portland Centre for Integrative Medicine, a not for profit organisation created to support a movement for change towards a broader range of holistic and lifestyle approaches to support health and well being in mainstream healthcare. Prior to this she was an NHS consultant for 15 years having trained in Palliative Care. She has a DM thesis from Oxford University and a research interest in the use of complementary therapies for symptom control across a range of long term conditions. She has been strategic lead for the development of the Bristol Kitchen on Prescription Alliance and a feasibility study to investigate KOP for childhood obesity.
Dr Eleanor Crossley
Eleanor is currently a foundation year 1 doctor at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, on an Academic Management and Leadership training programme. Eleanor graduated from the University of Birmingham in July 2015 with two distinctions and a Wellcome Trust INSPIRE Prize in Research. During her time at Birmingham she also undertook an intercalated BMedSc degree in Public Health (2012). She is passionate about research which she has undertaken in the UK and abroad, and has a strong interest in multi-disciplinary work.
Professor David Peters MB ChB DRCOG DMSMed FLCOM
David Peters is Clinical Director in the Faculty of Science and Technology at the University of Westminster and leads the Westminster Centre for Resilience. He has been a GP, a GP trainer and trained as an osteopath. From 1990 until 2005 he directed the complementary therapies programme at Marylebone NHS Health Centre. He has led on a series of projects delivering non-drug treatments in the NHS, the most recent being the Atlas Men’s Mental Wellbeing Project.
Professor Debbie Sharp
Debbie was appointed to the Foundation Chair of Primary Health Care at the University of Bristol in 1994 and spent nearly 20 years developing what has become one of the foremost academic departments of primary care in the UK. She has had many national roles in academic medicine including membership of GMC council, GMC education committee, many NIHR and MRC grant bodies and the original ‘Walport’ Committee. She has undertaken several major research studies in the field of CAM and is currently undertaking a DH funded scoping review looking at the potential of an integrative medicine approach for patients with multimorbidity in primary care
Dr James Fleming
James is a GP in Padiham, near Burnley. His social enterprise, ‘The Green Dreams Project’, exists to make ideas in healthcare become reality, something it has been doing on a fairly large scale for 6 years. He is committed to equality of opportunity in health and social care, and to providing solutions for those patient who existing agencies are unable to help.He really likes being a GP and is very committed to the town in which he works’.
Sir Sam Everington
Sam has been a GP in Tower Hamlets since 1989, is chair of Tower Hamlet’s CCG and a Board member of NHSCC. He is part of the Bromley By Bow GP partnership, with over 100 projects under its roof supporting the wider determinants of health. Sam is a qualified Barrister. In 1999 he received an OBE for services to inner city primary care in 2006, The International Award of Excellence in Health Care and in 2015 a knighthood for services to primary care. He has published a number of papers with Professor Aneez Esmail on discrimination in the NHS. He is a trained woodcarver, welder and Day skipper and speaks Norwegian. Sam is also Vice Chair for the College of Medicine.
Dr Amit Bhargava, Council Member and Medical Director for AYUSH Collaboration projects, College of Medicine
Amit is GP Senior Partner at Southgate Medical Group in Crawley and Member of the Council of College of Medicine. He has had many clinical leadership roles since 1999 which include at national, regional and local level, their purpose was to drive improvement through transformation of individual and population health and wellness, input into developing health policies and championing salutogensis and supported selfcare. His passion is creating collaborations and partnerships that will have a positive impact in improving the health and social capital and resilience of individuals in communities, especially for the most vulnerable and dispossessed. He feels strongly that the solutions for sustainable health and care systems lies in integrated community based delivery with a strong supported primary care, working towards creating self-healing communities where individuals having a strong voice and input in their health and wellness.
Professor Dame Donna Kinnair DBE RGN HV LLB MA
Donna is a Non-executive Director at East London Foundation Trust, and Vice-Chair of the College of Medicine. She was the General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) until June 2021.She was responsible for delivering the RCN’s strategic and operational plans and promoting patient and nursing interests on a wide range of issues. Donna held various roles, prior to joining the RCN, including clinical director of emergency medicine at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust; Executive Director of Nursing, Southeast London Cluster Board; Director of Commissioning, London Borough of Southwark & Southwark PCT. She was the Strategic Commissioner for Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham Health Authority’s Children’s Services. Donna advised the PM’s Commission on the future of Nursing and Midwifery in 2010 and served as nurse/child health assessor to the Victoria Climbié Inquiry.
Simon Y. Mills MA FCPP FNIMH
Simon Mills is a University of Cambridge medical sciences graduate who has been a herbal practitioner in Exeter UK since 1977. Among many accomplishments he co-founded the world’s first University centre for studying complementary health at Exeter, was Special Adviser to the House of Lords report on Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and coordinated a national Department of Health project ‘Integrated Self Care in Family Practice’ which pioneered many of the elements of ‘social prescription’. He is an acknowledged and widely published authority on herbal medicine and since 2016 has been Herbal Strategist at Pukka Herbs. He is Self Care Lead at the College of Medicine.
Dr Fiona Butler
Fiona has been a GP principal in a large training practice in West London for over 15 years. Her roles include Chair of West London Clinical Commissioning Group which covers the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea and Queen’s Park and Paddington area of Westminster City Council. Fiona also works across the system chairing the multi-agency North West London Mental Health & Wellbeing Transformation Board,and she is a member of the NHS CC Mental Health Steering Group.
Dr Anton Borg
Anton has been a full-time GP at the Park Surgery in Cirencester since 1986, and has been senior partner since 2012. He has been a GP Trainer since 1989 and has worked in hospital obstetrics, cardiology, dermatology and general medicine. He also has an interest in homoeopathic prescribing, having done some training at the Royal Homoeopathic hospital in London in 1991-2. A member of the Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, Dr Borg has worked as a pilgrimage doctor since 2000.
Sarah Bazin OBE
Sarah is a Chartered Physiotherapist, a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and immediate past Chair of the European Region of the World Confederation for Physical Therapy. She was the Allied Health Professions and Health Care Scientists Leadership Lead for the West Midlands and the Head of Therapy Services at Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust. She is a Trustee of the College of Medicine and Chair of Trustees of Rosetta Life.
Dr Catherine Zollman
Catherine is a GP, who works as lead doctor at Penny Brohn a multi-disciplinary charity which delivers integrated healthcare to people affected by cancer. She also works part time as NHS GP in Bristol and is a MacMillan GP facilitator for Cancer Services advising and working for the Bristol Clinical Commissioning Group. She is honorary clinical lecturer at the University of Bristol and regularly teaches medical postgraduates, undergraduates and the general public. In 2010 she completed a 2 year Fellowship in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. Catherine led the steering group to devise the programme for the Food Conference.
Dr Jonathan Osborn
Jonathan is a GP, BaNES CCG board member and CCIO in Bath, having previously worked as a GP Partner in Devon. He has a passion for medical business and corporate governance, has an MBA (Massachusetts), and research MSc (Oxford University), together with MRCS, Fellowship of the Institute of Directors, and is a Chartered Director. Previously, he was on the guidelines Development group for bladder cancer for NICE, and was founding Medical Director of Devon Health Ltd.
Mr Michael Dooley – Women’s Clinical Lead, College Trustee and College Treasurer
Michael Dooley is a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at Dorset County Hospital. His special interest is reproductive endocrinology with particular expertise in infertility, menopause, premenstrual syndrome and sports gynaecology. He has attended three Olympic Games as British Team Doctor. Mr Dooley has established The Poundbury Clinics as centres of excellence providing an integrated approach to women’s health.
Laura Marshall Andrews – College Lead on Integrated General Practice
Laura founded the Brighton Health and Wellbeing Centre in 2013. The Centre is an NHS GP surgery which has an integrated team of Complementary Therapists and a Healing Arts Centre. The Healing Arts Centre run programmes in Dance, Drawing and Film making, Art psychotherapy, Narrative workshops, Singing Groups and a Wellbeing Gallery. The programmes are funded through the Robin Hood Health Foundation, a charitable trust set up alongside the practice. Laura is also pioneering a ‘Slow Medicine’ programme in collaboration with Prof Helen Smith and the University of Sussex.
The practice has recently begun Narrative Workshops for clinicians as part of a resilience program for doctors and nurses in Primary Care. In November 2014 they won Innovators of the Year in the GP Awards.
Dr Toh Tsung Wong
Toh Wong is a GP Trainer at the Westbank Practice in Devon and has been practising there since 2008, integrating orthrodox and unorthrodox modalities in his daily NHS practice, such as Diet, Exercise, Acupuncture, NLP, Hypnosis and Mindfulness to improve the 10-minute consultation. He is the Co-founder of Neurolinguistic Healthcare Ltd with Dr Naveed Akhtar which runs training programmes for doctors and healthcare providers in advanced communication skills and therapeutic techniques. He often gives talks using demonstrations of Hypnosis to show what can be done in a very short period of time focusing on the 10-minute consultation. The both of them have organised the Integrative Health Convention in 2018, an annual convention in London showcasing numerous forms of Conventional and Complementary therapies for all practitioners involved in health and healing with an ethos of Learning, Sharing, and Connecting. He believes in offering better patient care through a truly integrated approach.
Dr Naveed Akhtar
Dr Naveed Akhtar has been a principal GP for over 10 years, with Special Interests in Minor Surgery, Musculoskeletal Medicine and Mental Health. He is a Master NLP Trainer, a Hypnotherapist and a medical Acupuncturist.
Prior to becoming a GP, Dr Akhtar trained as a surgeon completing his MRCS in 2007. As a specialist in hand surgery, he was an advisor to the Royal College of Surgeons developing guidelines for the treatment of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
Dr Bogdan Chiva Giurca
With a total of 48 national and international prizes, Bogdan is an award-winning, newly qualified doctor in London (South Thames Foundation School) with a strong passion for medical leadership and management, public health, primary care, and innovation.
Bogdan has worked as part of the National Primary Care Team as a student voice and remains a Collaborator for the Harvard Global Health Institute. His work has influenced national healthcare policy and has driven key changes within the Undergraduate medical school curriculum. Throughout medical school, Bogdan has contributed to several peer-reviewed publications and policy documents, including the UK NHS Long Term Plan (a 10-year roadmap for the future of healthcare), the Personalised Care Model, GP Partnership Review, as well as authoring three books, including the most recent 350-pages ‘Unofficial Guide to Getting into Medical School’.
Working with a team of 5,000+ medical students internationally, Bogdan is the founder of multiple large-scale projects, including the NHS Social Prescribing Champion Scheme (https://collegeofmedicine.org.uk/social-prescribing/), International Social Prescribing Day (www.socialprescribingnetwork.com), TalkCancer (www.tctalkcancer.wixsite.com/talkcancer ), and Medefine Education (www.medefine.org), an organisation widening access to medical school globally.
For his work, Bogdan has been offered over £100,000 in scholarships and grants, has been named Student Leader of the Year (2017), Student of the Year (2017 and 2018, College of Medicine), as well as meeting HRH Prince of Wales on three occasions and receiving an honorarium for community impact.
Dr Jane Myat
Jane has been working as a GP at the Caversham Group Practice in Kentish Town, North London since 1997. She is a passionate advocate of finding alternative patient-centred approaches to long-term conditions and informed by the risks of overdiagnosis and too much medicine. Inspired by pioneering GPs, Sam Everington and Michael Dixon and assisted by Transition Kentish Town, patients and colleagues, Jane co-founded the Listening Space in 2016, a project focused around the community garden in the courtyard of the Caversham Group Practice. The space has allows healthcare to be reimagined in exploring alternative ways of working holistically and collaboratively with patients and the local community.
Jane is a GP trainer and primary care educator for UCL Medical School, including having acted as one of the lecturers in Culinary Medicine. She is also a member of the British Holistic Medical Association and one of the fifty founding members of their Real Food Campaign. Jane acts as an ambassador for the Fathom Trust, the Mayo Clinic’s Patient Revolution and is particularly proud to be a member of the Highgate Union of Spoon Workers.
Dr Will Beharrell
Will has degrees in Arabic with Persian and Medicine and a professional background in heritage-led regeneration, community development and psychiatry. He was a founding member of the Prince of Wales’ charity Turquoise Mountain in Afghanistan and Jordan and has recently established the Fathom Trust to promote a more soulful and integrated approach to health and healing through craftsmanship, conservation, and contemplation. He is also the NHS Wales clinical lead for the circular economy, where he is working to displace single use medical textiles and to support sustainable healthcare quality improvement.
Dr Mohsin Choudry
Mohsin is a general practitioner in Northwest London with an interest in lifestyle and functional medicine. He is currently the clinical lead for diabetes and health inequalities in the borough of Ealing. He is a firm believer in looking for the root causes of so many of our chronic diseases particularly those that originate in the gut. He has extensive board and committee level experience having represented organisations at a national level. He is an award-winning doctor and was appointed as clinical fellow to the National Medical Director in 2015 where he gained extensive leadership and management skills as well as working at national level on quality improvement and patient safety for the Royal College of Physicians. During the pandemic he acted a guest editor for a full journal edition on prevention and inequality for the Future Healthcare Journal where he managed to collate a wide variety of authors including His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. He would like to spend his time serving the College of Medicine focusing on food, wellbeing, and explore how to break down barriers so that healthy eating and living is accessible for everyone.
Dr Simon Lewis
Simon is a child and adolescent psychiatrist working in paediatric liaison at University College London Hospitals focussing on young people with complex presentations. He is passionate about the unity of the bodymind in his work and teaching; and how this approach can lead to a more collaborative and compassionate doctor/patient relationship.
Simon led an NHS inpatient adolescent psychiatric unit in North London for more than 20 years. He lectures at UCL, teaching medical and other students. Simon is a trustee for an environmental charity (Global Generation) and a ride captain for the Black Cyclists Network.
