The Review team
Eleanor Grey QC
Chair
Eleanor Grey is an independent barrister and Queen’s Counsel. She was involved in the Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry in 1998 – 2001, assisting Professor Sir Ian Kennedy by acting as the junior Counsel to the Inquiry. The inquiry examined the management of the care of children receiving complex cardiac surgical services at the Bristol Royal Infirmary between 1984 and 1995. Since then, she has acted in numerous public or private inquiries, including as Counsel to the Ayling Inquiry (an independent investigation into misconduct by a general practitioner), Counsel for the House of Commons’ Authorities in the Hutton Inquiry and, most recently, by acting for the former Healthcare Commission in the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry. She has chaired reviews for the General Medical Council (GMC) into aspects of its procedures, as well as acting for the GMC and other health regulators in many disciplinary cases, or cases about the regulation of the healthcare sector. She has developed extensive expertise in the law relating to freedom of information and data protection.
For the last seven years, Eleanor has been sitting as a Tribunal Judge in the First-Tier Tribunal (Mental Health), hearing cases about the necessity of detaining patients in psychiatric hospitals. She has also been appointed as a Judge of the Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals Chamber), where she will hear appeals from first-tier tribunals on issues of social security and mental health law.
Professor Sir Ian Kennedy
Consultant Advisor
Professor Sir Ian Kennedy is a lawyer with particular expertise in the ethics of healthcare and regulation. He was appointed as chair of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority in November 2009. He is also Emeritus Professor of Health Law, Ethics and Policy at University College London and Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics.
Sir Ian has been involved in public life for over 30 years, earning a particular reputation for his concern for the interests of members of the public in healthcare. He is perhaps best known as the Chairman of the public inquiry into children's heart surgery at the Bristol Royal Infirmary (1998–2001). This report contributed to the establishment of the Healthcare Commission, which he chaired from its creation in 2004 until its abolition in 2009. During his time at the Commission, Sir Ian worked to improve standards across the NHS through access to information and knowledge for patients, the public, clinicians and managers. In 2009, he chaired the King’s Fund inquiry into the quality of general practice in England and in 2012 carried out a review of the care of children in the NHS. In 2012, he also chaired the group that reviewed the provision of paediatric cardiac surgery in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Sir Ian is a former chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and of the UK Research Integrity Office and former host of the Channel 4 discussion programme After Dark. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and an honorary fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the Royal College of Anaesthetists, Royal College of Surgeons, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors. He was awarded an honorary DSc by the University of Glasgow in 2003 and an honorary DM by the University of Birmingham in 2005. He is a Barrister and Honorary Bencher of the Inner Temple. He was knighted in 2002 for services to medical law and bioethics.
Fiona Wood
Secretary to the Review
Fiona has been an Independent Consultant for the last 8 years. She has undertaken independent reviews for NHS Trusts, NHS commissioners and social care providers and has undertaken three reviews with the Independent Reconfiguration Panel including the IRP review of the Safe and Sustainable Children's Congenital Cardiac Services proposals. She is a former Director of the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health. She has also worked in healthcare regulation and was responsible for the delivery of the national improvement reviews conducted by the Healthcare Commission between 2005 and 2008. She worked for many years in the NHS working on service change and patient engagement. Her last role in the NHS was Director of Service Development in Gloucestershire up until 2003.
Sally Cavanagh
Evidence Manager to the Review
Sally has over 25 years’ experience working in the healthcare sector in statutory, not-for-profit and voluntary settings. She has a postgraduate qualification in Health Information Science and extensive experience of project management. For over a decade Sally worked within the area of Long Term Conditions, focussing on Self Management. She held a number of roles within the Expert Patients Programme (EPP CIC), including Programme Development and Quality Manager. Sally is also a very experienced lead trainer and assessor and has facilitated a wide range of programmes including ‘Supporting Parents’, the self management programme for parents of children with long term or life-limiting conditions, developed by EPP. Sally has been an Independent Consultant since 2011 focussing mainly on service development and quality improvement within health and social care, most notably as the Development Consultant for the Quality Institute for Self Management Education and Training (QISMET) for the last four years, where she has led the development of a number of QISMET’s services, including the Diabetes Self Management Education Standard.
Lorraine Moseley
Deputy Secretary and Business Manager
Lorraine has over 10 years’ experience working in the legal field and is a qualified Legal Executive. She has been involved in healthcare law and has a working knowledge of medical issues having been involved in inquests throughout her legal career. Lorraine spent 15 months on secondment at a large London Trust delivering legal advice in relation to inquests and complaints. She was part of a legal team advising a core participant in the Mid Staffordshire Hospital Inquiry. Previously Lorraine worked in the NHS as a Community Health Administrator.
The Review team is supported by staff who provide assistance gathering and managing information submitted to the Review.
Legal advisors
Mills & Reeve LLP
Mills & Reeve LLP provide legal advice. They are a major UK firm of solicitors with considerable experience of NHS bodies and how they are regulated. The Mills & Reeve lawyers providing advice to the Review are based in its office in Birmingham.
Communications team
Luther Pendragon
Luther Pendragon is an independent communications consultancy. The Luther Pendragon team manages all media queries and the Review’s website.
Core group of expert advisers
Dr Frances Bu’Lock MD FRCP
Dr Bu’Lock qualified via Cambridge and Oxford, and trained in Congenital Cardiology in Bristol, Birmingham and Liverpool Children’s cardiac units. She has been a Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist at the East Midlands Congenital Heart Centre in Leicester since 1999. She currently leads the fetal cardiology service and also has a significant general paediatric cardiology and adult congenital heart disease practice. Her MD work was on the echocardiographic assessment of cardiac function. Her current major research interest is in the genetics of congenital heart disease (British Heart Foundation and Wellcome Foundation grants). She is also the Cardiology Editor for Archives of Diseases in Childhood and is the Training Programme Director for Paediatric Cardiology East Midlands. She has been closely involved with the recent national reviews / re-reviews of UK congenital heart services and the Standards group of the New Cardiac Review. She is strongly committed to clarity of communication and fairness.
Dr Janet Burns BSc MB ChB
Dr Burns was a consultant cardiologist at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh from February 1983 to August 2013. Now retired from her permanent NHS Scotland post, she is currently a locum consultant cardiologist at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital NHS Trust.
Dr Burns graduated from Edinburgh University with BSc (Hons) in 1970 and MB ChB 1973. She worked in Australia before returning to the UK for a year in paediatric anaesthesia before embarking on general paediatric training in 1975, first in Manchester then Edinburgh.
A three year fellowship at The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, two years in paediatric cardiology and one in paediatric intensive care, was followed by 18 months at the University of Maryland as an assistant professor in pediatric cardiology.
Throughout her time in the NHS, her principal role was as a committed clinical cardiologist with a particular interest in outreach, the development of clinical networks both for paediatric and adult congenital problems, audit, documentation and written communication for families.
Although the majority of her clinical experience has been in NHS Scotland, she has also had clinical exposure in Australia, Canada, the USA and New Zealand.
Mr Asif Hasan MB BS, FRCS, FRCS (cardiothoracic)
Mr Hasan is a consultant paediatric cardiothoracic surgeon at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He was appointed to this role in 1995. His special interests include transplantation for congenital heart disease and mechanical circulatory support for congenital heart disease.
Dr Ian James MB, ChB, FRCA
Dr Ian James qualified from Birmingham University Medical School in 1974 and was appointed as Consultant Paediatric Anaesthetist at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, in 1983.
Between 1985 and 2009 he worked almost exclusively in paediatric cardiac anaesthesia and paediatric cardiac intensive care, and for many years he was Head of the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. From 1992 to 2004 he was overall Director of Paediatric Critical Care Services for Great Ormond Street Hospital Trust, and between 2000 and 2002 he was President of the European Society of Paediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care. He was a representative of the Royal College of Anaesthetists on the Intercollegiate Committee on Training in Paediatric Intensive Care Medicine from 1995 to 2002 and from 2001 to 2002 was a member of the Department of Health team reviewing paediatric intensive care provision within England.
His current clinical commitments are predominantly in anaesthesia for paediatric cardiac surgery and interventional cardiac angiography, and he was Head of Cardiac Anaesthesia at Great Ormond Street Hospital between 2008 and 2011. He was elected as an International Board Member of the Congenital Cardiac Anesthesia Society, based in the USA, on which he served from 2007 to 2013. He is the co-editor of the textbook ‘Core Topics in Paediatric Anaesthesia’, published in 2013.
Dr James was nominated for this appointment by the Royal College of Anaesthetists.
Dr Gill Lawrence BA (Hons), MA, PhD
Gill was Director of the West Midlands Cancer Intelligence Unit (WMCIU) for over 20 years and Director of the West Midlands Public Health Observatory (WMPHO) for 2 years. Within the WMCIU as Director of Cancer Registration, Gill was responsible for the collection and quality assurance of data on all cancers diagnosed and treated in the West Midlands, and she led the work of the National Cancer Intelligence Network (NCIN) breast and sarcoma analysis teams and the Breast Cancer Clinical Outcome Measures (BBCOM) audit of symptomatic breast cancers.
As Cancer Screening Quality Assurance Director Gill was responsible for monitoring and improving the quality of the three NHS cancer screening programmes in the West Midlands, and she led two national breast cancer audits – the NHS Breast Screening Programme and Association of Breast Surgery annual audit of screen-detected cancer and the Sloane Project. As Director of the WMPHO Gill was responsible for the collection and quality assurance of drug and alcohol treatment data by the National Drug Treatment and Monitoring Service, and she led the provision of information, intelligence and advice on a wide range of public health issues.
Professor Ian Murdoch
Professor Ian Murdoch qualified from University College Hospital (London) in 1982 he was appointed as the first Consultant in Paediatric Intensive Care at Guy’s Hospital in 1993, since when he has overseen the development and expansion of an integrated general and cardiac intensive care service.
After qualifying in 1982 and undertaking several sub-speciality paediatric posts in London, he was appointed to the position of Senior Registrar in Paediatrics at Guy’s Hospital (1988) with special interest in Paediatric Cardiology. In 1991, he undertook a one year Fellowship in PIC at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne.
His research interests are clinically focused, and he has published over 100 peer-review articles with particular emphasis on Paediatric Cardiac Output & advanced haemodynamic assessment; as well as Biomarkers of sepsis and inflammation.
He was the chair of the Intercollegiate (RCPCH/RCA/RCS) training committee in Paediatric intensive care medicine (2004-07), and subsequently the RCPCH Specialty Training Committee in PICM (2005-08). As part of the latter remit, he produced/wrote the curriculum documentation for subspecialty training in Paediatric Intensive Care Medicine
He has participated in both UK rounds of Department of Health PICU benchmarking (2001, 2004) and has undertaken external reviews on behalf of the West Midlands Specialist Commissioners to review paediatric ICU provision in that region and advising the Irish Health Authority on merging paediatric ICU services in Dublin (2010).
In 2011 he was appointed Professor of Paediatric Intensive Care, in recognition of his leadership and service development at Guy’s and St Thomas Foundation Trust where he currently maintains a high clinical commitment to the service.
Pauline Whitmore
Pauline is a very experienced senior nurse who has been employed at Great Ormond Street Hospital in a paediatric/intensive care setting for the past 25 years. She was a founding member of a small group of staff who established the Cardiac Transplant Programme at Great Ormond Street Hospital, one of only two centres in the UK. She was also instrumental in the development of the Cardiac Imaging Strategy within the Trust. Pauline has been seconded to the Head of Nursing role for the Critical Care and Cardiorespiratory Division since July 2013. Prior to her present role, she was responsible for the patient flow through the Cardiorespiratory Unit.
Dr Michael Rigby
Dr Michael Rigby is consultant paediatric cardiologist at Royal Brompton Hospital with a specialist interest in interventional cardiac catheterisation in congenital heart disease in children and young adults.
He has lectured and taught in many countries including Germany, France, Switzerland, Greece, Cyprus, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Singapore, Japan, the Philippines, the United States, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. He also arranges seminars and meetings in the UK and teaches international students at the Trust.
Dr Rigby has published over 175 papers on congenital heart disease and authored a number of books including Paediatric Cardiology (Churchill Livingstone, 2010); Echocardiography in Congenital Heart Disease Made Simple (Imperial College Press, 2005); Colour Atlas of Congenital Heart Disease (Mosby - Wolf, 1995) and The Diagnosis of Congenital Heart Disease (Castle House, 1985). His latest book, Pediatric Heart Disease: A Practical Guide, written and edited with Piers Daubeney and Michael Gatzoulis is very popular around the world.
Dr Rigby trained at the Killingbeck Hospital in Leeds, the Birmingham Children’s Hospital, John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
Elizabeth Leonard BA (Hons), MSc, RGN, RSCN
Elizabeth is an experienced senior nurse who has been employed in cardiac nursing at Great Ormond Street Hospital since 1991. She has been a Ward Sister on the High Dependency Unit, an educator on the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit and is now the Lead Educator for Critical Care and Cardiorespiratory. This role includes managing the team of educators, co-ordinating mandatory and specialist training for staff. Elizabeth also runs the work based learning cardiac and high dependency nursing modules in conjunction with London Southbank University at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Elizabeth trained in children’s nursing and paediatric intensive care at Guy’s Hospital.
Sir Andrew Cash OBE
Andrew joined the NHS as a fast track graduate management trainee and has been a chief executive for more than 20 years. He has worked at local, regional and national level. He has worked by invite at the Department of Health Whitehall on a number of occasions. He is a visiting Professor in Leadership Development at the Universities of York and Sheffield.
Andrew has been Chief Executive of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation since its inception in July 2004. Prior to that he was the first Chief Executive of the newly merged Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, which came into effect in April 2001.
Mandie Sunderland RGN, DPSN, DPSM, BSc (Hons), MSc
Mandie is a Registered General Nurse who has gained the majority of her clinical experience in intensive care environments.
In February 2015, Mandie took up the post of Chief Nurse at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. This is her fifth Executive Director position having held previous posts in acute trusts in the North West of England and the West Midlands. In addition to her substantive posts she has also experienced secondments to a combined Health & Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland, two years as a Nursing Officer in the Department of Health and the professional nursing lead on the national consultation on Choice, Responsiveness and Equity in 2003.
In 2014 Mandie was appointed Chair of the Clinical Reference Board, a sub group of the national NHS Supply Chain Customer Board whose remit is to support the delivery of £150m savings to the NHS through better procurement practice with NHS Supply Chain.
Dr Tina Biss, BMedSci, BM BS, MD, MRCP, FRCPath
Dr Tina Biss is a Consultant Haematologist for The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and an Associate Clinical Researcher for the Institute of Cellular Medicine, Newcastle University. She received her medical degree from Nottingham University Medical School and trained in haematology in the North East of England. In 2007 she completed a fellowship in Pediatric Thrombosis & Hemostasis at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto. In 2012 she was awarded an MD for her thesis on the influence of pharmacogenetic factors on warfarin response in children. Her primary clinical and research interest is in pediatric thrombosis and anticoagulation.