How our hospital is run
The Trust Board has overall responsibility for the running of the hospital. They are accountable to our regulators such as NHS Improvement (NHSI) and the Care Quality Commission.
Register of Interests for New Trust Board Members >>
Clare Panniker
Chief Executive
Clare is joint Chief Executive of Southend University Hospital
NHS Foundation Trust, Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals
NHS Foundation Trust and Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust.
Prior to joining Basildon and Thurrock University Hospital, Clare
was CEO of North Middlesex University Hospital for 9 years.
A registered nurse, Clare also has a business degree, and has
worked in the NHS for more than 25 years. Clare mentors other
aspiring NHS leaders, from both clinical and management
backgrounds. The Chief Executive is the Accounting Officer for the
Trust and carries full responsibility for the Trust's performance,
forward planning and leadership of the Executive Team and clinical
directors.
Tom Abell
Chief Transformation Officer, Deputy Chief
Executive
Tom Abell joined Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals
Foundation Trust in October 2015 as Deputy Chief Executive. He was
previously chief officer of NHS Basildon and Brentwood Clinical
Commissioning Group. He is an important addition to the Trust
board, bringing valuable experience of health commissioning.
Tom has been involved in several major service transformation
and improvement programmes during his career. He has a special
interest in the role that technology and new ways of working can
play in improving health outcomes for patients, while making
maximum use of valuable resources.
Yvonne Blücher
Managing Director
Yvonne joined Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
in October 2015 as Chief Nurse from 'Barts' where she was Deputy
Chief Nurse for Quality and Governance. Prior to this she spent 10
years as Director of Nursing and Quality at Princess Alexandra
Hospital in Harlow, two years of which she was Director of Nursing
and Operations Director. She completed her nurse training and began
her NHS career at Basildon Hospital before later specialising in
cardiac care. She then moved north to Barnsley where she was
instrumental in setting up first aid centres in the pit mines with
defibrillators.
Yvonne is a fellow of the Institute of Health Improvement and
has a real passion for engaging staff to ensure patients get the
best possible outcomes. Yvonne was appointed as the Managing
Director in December 2016 as part of the Joint Executive Group,
taking full responsibility for day-to-day operational business and
leading on innovation and quality.
Martin Callingham
Chief Information Officer
Martin initially trained as a nurse at the Royal London
Hospital, working in the A&E departments in and around North
East London and Harlow. He made the move into site management and
discharge planning service at Whipps Cross Hospital before moving
to Newham as Head of Modernisation, implementing the first
electronic patient records in 2004. He progressed to the role of
Chief Information Officer at Newham responsible for IT, Information
coding and data quality and following the merger of 'Barts'
Hospital and Whipps Cross Martin was responsible for clinical
systems across six hospital sites.
Martin joined Mid Essex Hospitals NHS Trust in August 2014 to
help deliver, maintain and grow the use of technology and
information across the Trust and to move towards a full Electronic
Health Record in the near future.
Danny Hariram
Chief People & Organisational Development
Director
Danny was previously the Workforce & OD Director at BTUH
since 2015 and has worked in a number of acute and mental Health
Trusts during the last twenty years with extensive experience of
leading significant organisational change.
He works in ensuring high levels of staff engagement and works
to develop an environment that allows for improvements for patients
and staff, allowing staff the help and support to unlock their full
potential.
Diane Sarkar
Chief Nursing Officer
Diane's experience spans the NHS and private healthcare. After
training at The Royal Free Hospital in London, she worked in a
number of London's large acute hospitals and progressed through
several operational and corporate management positions. In 1996,
Diane worked in the private sector at the Wellington Hospital,
setting up new governance frameworks and leading on the quality
agenda. Having completed a Master's degree, Diane returned to the
NHS in 2001 at Southend Hospital, as Associate Director of
Operations for Medicine and then Associate Director of Nursing.
Appointed in 2010, her focus has been particularly around
developing the nursing workforce, as well as leading on a number of
corporate agendas, including quality improvement and the patient
safety and patient experience agenda.
Eamon Malone
Chief Estates and Facilities Director
Eamon joined the MSE Group in December 2018 following a long
Estates and Facilities career in the NHS in Northern Ireland. Eamon
has experience leading estates services through a challenging
merger process and utilising the skills, experience and expertise
of Estates and Facilities colleagues to deliver more focussed and
efficient services. Eamon is a Chartered Building Surveyor and a
Fellow of the Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate
Management.
Jonathan Dunk
Chief Commercial Officer
Jonathan joined the MSE Group in May 2018 to provide executive
leadership to lead a variety of key strategic workstreams,
including the future organisational form programme and the
transformation of corporate support services. He has a strong
background in finance, strategy and turnaround director roles, in
both the NHS acute and commissioning sectors, most recently in the
acute sector as Director of Finance at Milton Keynes NHS University
Hospital. Jonathan is a graduate of the NHS Financial Management
Training Programme and holds an NHS Leadership Academy Award in
Executive Healthcare Leadership. Jonathan is a chartered accountant
with CIPFA.
Dawn Scrafield
Chief Finance Officer
Dawn is a highly experienced, values driven senior NHS leader
with a strong reputation as an effective problem solver, with
drive, determination, energy and imagination to deliver high
quality, cost effective services to patients. Dawn is a qualified
and seasoned finance professional with over 23 years' experience at
senior and board levels, with a successful track record of
achievements operating as a Director and Deputy Chief Executive in
complex multi-site NHS organisations. Prior to Mid and South Essex
Hospitals Group, Dawn supported the successful merge of Colchester
and Ipswich Hospitals, to form East Suffolk and North Essex
Foundation Trust. A strong team player with an excellent
reputation for achieving significant results across a broad range
of portfolios including, corporate leadership and strategy,
financial improvement, performance management, and turnaround in
challenged organisations.
David Walker
Chief Medical Officer
David has worked as a doctor for over 30 years and has held
executive director positions in a number of NHS organisations since
2001. He has wide research experience in the field of infectious
diseases and epidemiology. He has held academic roles up to
professorial level in several UK Universities and was formerly a
visiting scientist at the Centres for Disease Control in Atlanta,
USA.
Prior to this appointment David has been the Deputy Chief
Medical Officer for England and Executive Medical Director for an
acute Trust in the North West region.
Non-executive Directors (NEDs)
Lynsey Cross
Dave Hughes
Julie Parker
Margaret Pratt
Deepak Singh
Caroline Stanger
Barbara Stuttle
Alan Tobias
Site leadership team (SLT)
The site leadership team are responsible for overseeing the
day-to-day running of the hospital.
Yvonne Blücher
Managing Director
Yvonne joined Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
in October 2015 as Chief Nurse from 'Barts' where she was Deputy
Chief Nurse for Quality and Governance. Prior to this she spent 10
years as Director of Nursing and Quality at Princess Alexandra
Hospital in Harlow, two years of which she was Director of Nursing
and Operations Director. She completed her nurse training and began
her NHS career at Basildon Hospital before later specialising in
cardiac care. She then moved north to Barnsley where she was
instrumental in setting up first aid centres in the pit mines with
defibrillators.
Yvonne is a fellow of the Institute of Health Improvement and
has a real passion for engaging staff to ensure patients get the
best possible outcomes. Yvonne was appointed as the Managing
Director in December 2016 as part of the Joint Executive Group,
taking full responsibility for day-to-day operational business and
leading on innovation and quality.
Stuart Harris
Medical director
Stuart joined the Southend team in 2020 from Basildon Hospital
where he held the role of clinical director for
cardiothoracic services.
Denise Townsend
Director of Nursing, Director of Infection Prevention and
Control (DIPC) and Caldicott Guardian
Denise qualified as an Adult Registered Nurse in 1993 and joined
Southend in 1994 as a Staff Nurse in Accident and Emergency.
Following completion of her paediatric nurse training, Denise
continued to work as an Adult and Paediatric Nurse in A&E,
later becoming an Emergency Nurse Practitioner before taking on the
role of Lead Nurse for Medicine.
After a period as Associate Director for the Emergency
Department, Denise took on the role of Lead for Corporate
Governance in 2011, becoming Associate Director of Nursing in 2015
and then Director of Nursing at the end of 2016.
Denise works closely with her leadership team colleagues to
ensure that quality and safety run through every aspect of the
services provided at Southend.
Clare Burns
Director of Operations, elective care
Clare Burns joined the Trust with over 12 years of experience
working for the NHS in community services, acute trusts and NHS
England.
Caring for other people is something which Clare is very
passionate about, and she has worked in local care homes, social
services and for Coventry City Council, working in residential care
for older people. Clare has worked for Princess Alexandra and Mid
Essex hospitals as well as South West Essex PCT, commissioning
services at Basildon and Thurrock Hospital, and worked with
Southend's Managing Director Yvonne Blücher at Princess Alexandra
hospital in Harlow.
Clare is local to Southend and the hospital has been a key part
of her life. Clare says her role is something she really wants to
do and what makes it really special is the fact that it's here at
Southend.
Charlotte Dillaway
Director of Operations, unscheduled and emergency care
Charlotte joined Southend University Hospital in 2019 from
Southend and Castle Point and Rochford CCGs, where she held the
post of Director of Strategy and Planning. An accountant and
programme director by background, Charlotte has worked in both the
private and public sectors and has extensive experience in all
aspects of corporate services and operational management.
Charlotte said: "My career ambition was to move to the NHS -
I've moved my family to the area so this is my local hospital now,
and I intend to use my skills and experience to help make the
changes that need to be made to ensure every patient has a good
experience in our hospital and our staff are able to do their job
to the best of their abilities."
If you have questions about your care or the care of a relative
please contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) at PALS@southend.nhs.uk.
James O'Sullivan
Director of Finance
James joined Southend Hospital as Chief Financial Officer in
April 2014 and has worked across our Mid and South Essex NHS
Foundation Trust hospitals before returning to the Southend site in
2020.
During his early career James qualified as an accountant while
working in the oil industry. He has also worked in other sectors,
latterly spending 18 years with EDF Energy, and has held a number
of finance director roles over the years.
Sue Bridge
Head of Human Resources
Sue has worked in Human Resources for Southend Hospital for over
10 years. Her experience and knowledge of the Trust and the people
that work here is invaluable. Sue joined Southend Hospital as
an Employee Relations Advisor and worked her way to HR Business
Partner and then Deputy Head of HR Operations and is now Head of
Human Resources at the Trust.
Sue believes that a professional and compassionate working
environment is important, particularly in challenging times.
"During my time here I have realised that our values need to be
present and centred in everything we do. We need to support and
encourage each other. Successful change needs small steps, and it's
a two-way process. I am keen that we are always ready to listen to
each other to support and share best practice and we create a safe
space to do that."