Constituency two

Professor Philip Home is a retired Trust physician with a special interest in diabetes, held clinical lead roles in national reimbursement and guideline activities. He was also President and Vice-President of European and global federations of patient associations in diabetes.

Philip continues with an honorary University appointment, publishes and lectures regularly internationally.

Alex Holloway joined the health sector in October 2020 following a 16 year career serving as an Officer with the Royal Tank Regiment. During his career in the British Army he deployed to Iraq in 2006, Afghanistan in 2010 and again in 2016. He also has served in a number of roles in Europe, the United States and Canada.

In 2020 he joined the Trust to support the planning, delivery and implementation of the COVID-19 Programme for the North East and North Cumbria. As part of the programmes journey to a business as usual model, he now leads the programme on behalf of the ICB. As part of the wider NHS recovery from the impacts of the pandemic he also collaborates with a variety of programme that include, National Vaccination Service, UEC recovery, Waiting Well, Virtual Wards and Population Health Management. He is passionate about addressing health inequalities and closing the health gap in some of our most deprived communities.

His interest include mountaineering, walking, history and discovering the beauty of Northumberland and Tyne and Wear.

Mrs Catherine Heslop worked as a nurse in the NHS for 43 years and retired in 2015. She is involved with the Royal College of Nursing and remains passionate about the care give to patients, ensuring it is of the highest standard.

Mrs Heslop also believes that it is important to look after the staff no matter what they do.

Bob Waddell has recently retired after a career in the NHS as a Procurement Manager which lasted just short of 43 years. During that time, he has gained experience in all aspects of Public Sector Procurement and has also trained Procurement Staff in the NHS. Bob is professionally qualified as a Chartered Procurement & Supply Professional and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply.

Bob has retained an active interest in NHS Procurement following his retirement as he is a Trustee of the Healthcare Supply Association which is the Professional Body for Procurement staff the in NHS throughout the whole of the UK. Bob is also a Magistrate, serving as a Presiding Justice on the North Northumbria Bench for over 10 years.

Bob has a passion for ensuring that patients are at the heart of whatever we do in the NHS and also that the staff who look after them are just as important.

Bob has been a Staff Governor in the NHS for 9 years previously in the Mental Health Trust in which he was employed. During that time, he has gained experience in all of the various committees which Governor’s support.

Bob firmly believes in equality for all and is a Past Chairman and proud member of the Newcastle Ravens RFC who are the only LGBT+ and Inclusive Rugby Team in the North East, promoting access to the sport for all.

Claire Watson is the mother of 14-year-old twins with profound medical needs and physical disabilities. She has extensive lived experience of some of the most complex NHS Services, from the Special Care Baby Unit, Paediatric Intensive Care Unit and many other paediatric departments at the Newcastle RVI, to Community Paediatricians and Nursing Teams within Gateshead through to Personal Health Budgets with the ICB.

Claire has completed the NHS England Personalised Care: Peer Leadership Foundation Courses, which explored the changing demands on the NHS, what personalised care is, where it came from, the difference it can make and how it enables culture change in the NHS.

Claire is the Chair the Governors’ Quality of Patient Experience Working Group, and is the Governor Representative on the Trust’s Nutrition Steering Committee.

Her interests include playing guitar, reading, hiking, keeping fit, and she has recently qualified as a Nutrition and Lifestyle Coach. She has also recently become a Trustee for the disabled children’s charity WellChild.

Claire wishes to use her lived experience in her Governor role to ensure the interests and needs of all service users within her community are represented and met.

Linda trained as a Psychiatric Nurse and a social worker, has a wide experience of patient and public involvement in healthcare. She was chair of a Liverpool Community Health Council (CHC), and Chief Officer for Trafford CHC until 2003. In the last 20 years she has been self-employed working in various local and national NHS organisations (e.g. Centre for Public Scrutiny; National Cancer Advisory Group; Independent Reconfiguration Panel; NICE), and for the 12 years previous to this Linda has been a Public Governor for neighbouring Foundation Trust Northumbria.

She currently works as a lay member with MHRA expert advisory and working groups, she is a lay examiner for RCOG exams, and a public member in NE and N Cumbria ICB’s Secure Data Environment.

Living in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Linda is the most northern representative of the public governors with many patients in Berwick using the services of Newcastle NHS Trust.

Sandra is one of our newly appointed Governors in 2024, having recently retired from the Trust she has a background in Information and Performance Management. She joins us with a broad experience working in the NHS for 34 years and half these at Newcastle Hospitals. Most recently Sandra has been working in the NIHR Patient Recruitment Centre: Newcastle as their Business Analyst, this Clinical Research facility is one of only five in the country. She is very passionate about the NHS and Clinical Research in particular.

Sandra wishes to use her expertise to ensure that our patients are at the heart of everything we do and that she represents the wider community of service users within the Trust.

Dr Peter Vesey was elected as a governor in 2024. Peter believes passionately about the NHS and improving healthcare for the population of the North East. He has over twenty years work experience supporting the NHS and providers of healthcare within the private sector. Through this work Peter has had the opportunity to engage with a variety of clinicians, staff and managers within the NHS to support improvement to patient outcomes. He has a variety of expertise across dental microbiology research (within Newcastle Dental School), infectious disease testing and supporting cancer diagnosis.

Peter remains grateful to the NHS and the staff who work within it for the care and dedication they have provided to himself and his family over the years. He is passionate to ensure support for innovation, improvement and recognition of services within the Trust.

Peter was born and bred in the North East and has been associated with Newcastle Hospitals since his formative years. Throughout Peter's career, however, has enjoyed working in many parts of the country.

Peter started work in laboratory science, in the then medical school across the road from the RVI, moving to the NHS in his early twenties and making a 30-year career in health services management. Peter has worked in primary, acute hospital and regional and national speciality care. During Peter's NHS career, he was also involved in research and development at regional and national levels.

Later Peter qualified as a maths teacher and probation services officer which gave him experience of the impact that wider societal issues can have on people's health and well-being. During this time Peter was also chair of an equality, diversity and inclusion strategic advisory group for a large Newcastle based social housing provider.

Those 30 years in the NHS made Peter passionate about providing the best health and social care services to people. To give purpose to passion, Peter joined Healthwatch South Tyneside in 2015, becoming its chair in 2018.

Returning to Northumberland in 2020, Peter refreshed his enthusiasm by becoming a governor and subsequently lead governor for Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. Seeking to improve standards on a wider front, Peter was invited to join the National Institute of Clinical Excellence as an expert panel member and became, one of two, steering group members for the panel in 2024. In 2023 Peter was selected to join Northumbria Trust’s pioneering lay representative participation group which seeks to improve everyone’s experience of the trust’s services. Believing that a good education gives everyone the best chance in life, he currently provides cover tutor services in mathematical functional skills to HMP Northumberland.

Peter joined Newcastle Hospitals as a governor because he wanted to help ensure the best experience for everyone using and working to provide the services.

Kevin grew up in Christchurch on the southern edge of the New Forest. His medical training was initially all around the south of England. In the mid 80s he became interested in the emerging specialty of childhood cancer and went to America to train in "Paediatric Oncology and Haematology" at the Mayo Clinic. After three years the family returned to the UK and moved to the northeast where Kevin became a Senior Lecturer in Child Health at Newcastle University and a consultant in Paediatric and Adolescent Oncology at the RVI.

After retiring ten years ago he worked for the North Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group involved in setting up integrated care systems and consolidating obstetric services at Whitehaven.

Kevin has served within the Royal College of Paediatrics since its foundation in 1996. He was on the Council for ten years as the Officer for Examinations and subsequently the Senior Members and Fellows Representative.

He is especially committed to implementing levelling up and the eradication of childhood poverty.