What can I do for you?
With over 25 years’ experience as a commercial lawyer, I specialise in health law advising the full range of NHS bodies including national NHS organisations , regional strategic health authorities, primary care trust commissioners and arms’ length provider organisations. As a senior member of the health team, I can advise you on most non-contentious commercial matters, as well as policy and governance issues. Although most of my clients are in the NHS, with my commercial law background I am also well placed to advise private sector and third sector organisations contracting to provide services to the NHS.
As a non-contentious health sector specialist, I have also been involved in developing our expertise on GP commissioning and can advise PCTs and GP consortia alike on the governance and contractual implications of the transition to GP commissioning and beyond.
Supporting my clients’ objectives
In my work I deal with a wide range of legal issues affecting NHS bodies. One of the main reasons I enjoy my job so much is the diversity and challenge that this variety creates. For example, one day I may be advising a national NHS organisation on a multimillion-pound national procurement framework and the next advising a primary care trust’s exceptional treatments panel as the procedures they should follow in deciding whether or not to fund treatment for an individual patient.
What do others say?
In each piece of work that I do, my aim is to use my experience to provide practical advice and to guide my clients towards a robust and lawful decision or conclusion. I value the opportunity to build long-lasting relationships with my clients. They seem to like me too … the following are some examples of feedback I have received:
“I would just like to say how much I appreciate the elegance of the structure that you have proposed ... You have understood exactly what I had in mind and have translated it into a very practical format. I think our practices and other providers will really like the way this is constructed and the fact that it enables them to focus on the services to patients, rather than all the legal underpinnings.”
“Thank you very much for your outstanding support, I think we’ve all handled a very difficult situation with discipline and professionalism.”
What else should you know?
In 2007 I was appointed as one of the independent Chairs of the East of England Strategic Health Authority’s NHS Continuing Healthcare Independent Review Panel where I served for two years. Through this work I developed a recognised expertise in questions of eligibility for NHS continuing healthcare and related issues such as the application of the responsible commissioner rules. I enjoyed the role immensely and it gave me a real insight into the problems faced by primary care trusts in complying with developing Department of Health policy in this area, while meeting the health needs of their patients.
In January 2009, building on a similar initiative that had been very successful in the Midlands, I was instrumental in setting up the Trust Secretaries’ Network for the eastern region. This is a networking group for Trust Board Secretaries from all kinds of NHS bodies across the eastern counties, that meets quarterly to provide a discussion forum for topical issues.