Trust Board & Local Leadership Team
Trust Board
Clare Panniker
Chief Executive and Accountable Officer
Clare Panniker is joint Chief Executive of Basildon and
Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Mid Essex
Hospital Services NHS Trust and Southend University Hospital NHS
Foundation Trust.
A registered nurse, Clare also has a business degree and has
worked in the NHS for more than 25 years.
As Chief Executive and Accountable Officer for the Trust,
Clare carries full responsibility for the Trust's performance,
forward planning and leadership of the Executive Team and Clinical
Directors.
Alan Tobias, OBE
Chair
Alan joined us in December 2011 from his former
position of chairman at West Essex PCT.
He is a qualified solicitor with a strong record of senior
management, both in the public and private sector. For 16 years he
was the London Boroughs' Chief Executive and latterly chairman of
an IT company.
Alan, who lives in Buckhurst Hill, was also Chairman of Essex
Probation Service for six years and a board member of Springboard
Housing Association as well as a trustee to two charitable trusts.
He is a member of the nominations committee.
Dr
Celia Skinner
Chief Medical Officer
Celia Skinner joined the Trust as medical director in February
2012.
Celia obtained her Fellowship from the Royal College of
Physicians in 2001 and specialises in genito-urinary medicine,
particularly the treatment of HIV/Aids. Celia is also the Trust's
director of infection prevention and control (DIPC).
Tom Abell
Chief Transformation Officer
Tom Abell joined BTUH in October 2015 as deputy chief
executive. He was previously chief officer of NHS Basildon and
Brentwood Clinical Commissioning Group.
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.
Diane
Sarkar
Chief Nurse
Diane Sarkar joined the BTUH as director of nursing in 2010.
After training at The Royal Free Hospital in London, Diane has
worked in a number of nursing and management roles in acute
hospitals in London and Essex.
Mary Foulkes, OBE,
FCIPD
Chief Director of Human Resources
Mary joined Southend University Hospital as Director of
Organisational Development and Human Resources in January
2015.
Her career spans the private, public and third sector
and includes previous NHS experience as Human Resources
Director for East London NHS Foundation Trust.
Mary was awarded an OBE in 2003 for her charitable work and
services to diversity.
She is committed to improving staff engagement, which in turn
will have a positive impact on the quality of patient
care.
James O'Sullivan
Chief Finance Officer
James joined the Trust as Chief Financial Officer in April
2014.
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.
Immediately prior to joining us he was a non-executive director
at East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust.
James doesn't just see finance as number crunching. For him it's
about supporting and empowering people to do things that make a
difference.
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, and then as Chief Information Officer at
Newham.
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.
Paul Kingsmore
Chief Estates and Facilities Officer
Non-executive Directors
Fred Heddell, CBE
A former teacher of children with learning disabilities, Fred
was formerly Director of Education for the charity Mencap and then
Chief Executive, working alongside the comedian and campaigner
Brian Rix.
Since then he has acted as treasurer of Inclusion International,
travelling to Africa, eastern Europe and central America to help
develop inclusive services for people with disability.
The last three years have seen Fred work with the SHA as an
independent member of its competition panel. He is a member of the
remuneration, quality assurance and charitable funds
committees.
David Parkins, FCA
David is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and
has held a number of senior finance roles in the banking sector.
Following a period as finance director with Mortgage Express, part
of the Lloyds TSB Group, he was finance director for lending and
savings with the Bradford and Bingley group. David has had
executive responsibility for audit, and experience of corporate
governance, joint ventures and treasury and management control
systems. He took over the chairmanship of the hospital's audit
committee at the beginning of 2007.
He is married with two grown-up children and lives near
Colchester, where he is treasurer and trustee of Headway Essex, a
charity that helps people who have suffered brain injury and their
families.
As well as chairing the audit committee, David is a member of
the quality assurance, remuneration, nomination and charitable
funds committees.
Mike Green, BSc (Econ), FCA
Mike joined the board in November 2010 replacing Glyn Jones. He
also sits on the audit committee, the quality assurance committee
and the charitable funds committee.
Mike qualified as a chartered accountant with what is now KPMG
and spent 11 years with the audit practice before a 20-year career
in the broadcast media industry. He held senior finance roles at
TVS Television Limited and Carlton Communications plc and was
involved in the Carlton/Granada merger which formed ITV plc.
Following the merger, Mike moved to ITV and ultimately held the
role of deputy group finance director. He now acts as a business
consultant and is also currently the independent member on the
audit committee of the Metropolitan Housing Partnership, a
charitable housing association with 35,000 homes in London and the
Midlands; a director of the Sports Council Trust Company, a sports
charity which provides community sporting facilities at the three
national sports centres and a member of the Accountancy and
Actuarial Discipline Board.
As well as chairing the charitable funds committee, Mike is a
member of the audit, remuneration, quality assurance and policy
review committees.
Tony Le Masurier
Tony joined the Trust board in December 2012.
Tony's background is in senior management in the aviation and
travel industry, serving as a Director and CEO of several large
international companies over three and a half decades.
More recently, he acted as interim chief officer for
Southend Association of Voluntary Services (SAVS) for two
years, and was a Non Executive Director of the local Primary Care
Trust for eight years, holding the position of Vice Chairman for
three of those. He is currently a local magistrate and the chairman
of a local care home charity that operates three homes in the
borough of Southend.
Tim Young
Tim joined the Trust board in December 2012.
He has more than six years' experience in the health sector and
has been on the board of Essex Probation Service for the past seven
years. He is chairman of a housing association and a Colchester
Borough councillor.
Gabrielle Rydings
Gabrielle joined the Trust board in May 2016.
Gebrielle is a qualified accountant who previously worked at the
National Audit Office, the Parliamentary watchdog that audits
public spending and evaluates the value for money of government
projects and programmes. Gabrielle was a member of the NAO
Board for ten years with specific responsibility for policy,
communications and relations with Parliament and Government.
Gabrielle lives in Leigh on Sea and is also a trustee and board
member of Southend Association of Voluntary Services (SAVS).
Gail
Partridge
Gail joined the Trust as Non-Executive Director in December
2016.
Gail has clinical and operational management experience within a
variety of health economy settings and is a member of the Quality
Assurance Committee.
Local Leadership Team
Yvonne Blücher
Managing Director
Yvonne became Managing Director of Southend University Hospital
in December 2016 having joined the trust as Chief Nurse in October
2015 from Barts Health NHS Trust 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, spending 18 months as joint Chief Nurse and Chief
of Operations.
Yvonne places high value on the vital role of close
collaborative working with colleagues to enhance patients'
experience and draws on her experience of change management by
leading a team at Southend who share her passion for improvement.
She continues to work closely with the Operational team to
ensure that our patients experience the highest quality care at
Southend. Yvonne describes her close working relationship
with our Medical Director as 'a professional marriage' for the
benefit of both staff and patients, and to ensure that our ethos of
'Care with Compassion' remains at the centre of everything we
do.
Neil Rothnie, MS, FRCS
Medical Director and Clinical Safety Officer
(CSO)
Neil qualified as a doctor from St. Bartholomew's Hospital in
London in 1981. He undertook postgraduate surgical training in and
around London, including a stint as a surgical registrar at
Southend Hospital in the 1980's. A period in cancer research at
Bristol Royal Infirmary and The Royal Free Hospital led to the
award of a Master of Surgery degree from the University of
London.
He was a senior registrar at St. Bartholomew's Hospital prior to
his appointment as a consultant general surgeon at Southend
Hospital in 1994.
Neil established the specialist Breast Unit at Southend and
developed the 'open access' hernia service. He is the director of
screening for South Essex Breast Screening Service and lead
clinician for breast services.
He has spent 16 years as the surgical lead to the Regional
Quality Assurance team for the NHS Breast Screening Programme and
has chaired the National Breast Screening Audit for the
last five years.
Neil was appointed as Medical Director in December 2012.
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.
Louisa Cowell
Director of Finance
Louisa has come to Southend Hospital from the Cambridgeshire and
Peterborough health system where she has had roles both at the CCG
and Community and Mental Health Trusts in the area. She is
pleased to be working in an acute hospital and believes that many
of the savings we can make come from delivering better patient
care, particularly through the focus of improving patient flow.
Clive Walsh
Director of Operations for Emergency and Unscheduled
Care
Clive joined the Health Service in 1983 and has worked mainly in
operational management since then. Since 1997 he has worked as a
Chief Operating Officer in a wide variety of NHS acute hospitals,
each of which has its own particular personality and challenges and
says that's what makes the job so interesting.
There are some common themes that Clive is addressing here at
Southend; the need to work more closely across the boundaries
with community and social care and the direct connection between an
engaged and motivated staff and the quality of patients'
experience.
Clare Burns
Director of Operations for Planned and Scheduled
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.
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."