Our team

Chris Gush - Chief Executive Officer

Chris brings a wealth of experience and a deep commitment to improving healthcare through the use of data and quality improvement.

Previously the Executive Director of RCVS Knowledge, a charity that helps advance the quality of care delivered by veterinary professionals, he started his career in microbiology. Chris then transitioned to the Department of Health, where he was involved in the development of the NHS Showcase Hospitals Programme. He has also served as the Royal College of General Practitioners’ Assistant Director of Clinical Innovation and Research, where he oversaw workstreams related to cancer prevention, antimicrobial stewardship, and infectious disease monitoring.

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Professor Danny Keenan - Medical Director

Professor Danny Keenan joined HQIP in the new Medical Director role in July 2013, seconded to HQIP two days a week from his continuing role as Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon at Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI). Danny’s position includes establishing closer links with all relevant clinical communities, promoting clinical audit and QI in medical settings, clinically supporting HQIP’s work programme, and providing support to other clinicians involved in HQIPs work.

He has pioneered National Clinical Audit Benchmarking. Danny’s work with HQIP follows a secondment as Clinical Advisor at the Care Quality Commission and was previously Clinical Director at the Manchester Heart Centre, based at Manchester Royal Infirmary, from 1998 until 2002 and he is honorary Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery to the University of Manchester.

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Jill Stoddart - Director of Operations (NCAPOP)

Jill Stoddart joined the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) organisation in April 2016.

Jill was International Operations Director, Care Quality Improvement Department (CQID), Royal College of Physicians (RCP) from 2014 to 2016 working on evidence-based translation and utilisation initiatives in Oman, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia.  She has experience of working with overseas hospitals, Ministries of Health and has twice attended the World Innovation Summit for Health Doha Qatar in 2013 and 2014.

Prior to this, she was Operations Director, National Clinical Guideline Centre (NCGC) Royal College of Physicians between 2009 to 2013 where she led a team of research fellows, information scientists and health economists in evidence-based guideline development.  Jill started her career at the RCP as a Senior Research Fellow from 2002 to 2009 and has been involved in the development of multiple evidence-based chronic disease guidelines including systematic reviews, meta-analyses and health economics commissioned by NICE.

Originally trained as a nurse and midwife, Jill has 20 years of front-line clinical experience working in secondary care.  She has a Master’s (distinction) in evidence-base healthcare from the University of Oxford and has been awarded multiple grants and bursaries.

She was previously Chair of the North and Mid Hampshire Research Ethics Committee and has significant experience of Chairing national committees.  She has lectured at both national and international conferences (including Jordan, Toronto, Lithuania, Latvia and Moscow).

In January 2018, Jill was appointed as a non-executive director and board member of Mid Essex Hospital Trust taking the trust up to merger status in 2020.  She was then appointed as Advisor to the Board for the Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust from 2020 to date.

Jill is currently responsible for the strategic development, operation and leadership of  the HQIP National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcome Programme (NCAPOP) commissioning 40 clinical audits on behalf of NHSE.  Programmes of work are undertaken for NHSE, the Welsh Government and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).  Jill has experience of liaising with Ministers and working at Government level with the Devolved Nations and Crown Dependencies.  She was responsible for originating the concept for the National Cancer Audit Collaborating Centre and seeing this through to contract award in 2022.

Jill has national and international healthcare experience of evidence-based healthcare, quality improvement and quality governance.  Her leadership skills include working with Trust Boards, quality committees, multi-disciplinary healthcare leaders, NHSE policy teams and National Clinical Directors to enable people to intelligently use data.  This allows teams to reach the right decisions through rapid analysis and weighing of the facts with outcomes that stand up to robust challenge.

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Glenn Hearnden - Director of Corporate Services

Glenn brings a broad range of organisational and business leadership experience, having worked across many sectors including: the NHS, not for profit and commercial backgrounds.

The Director of Corporate Services is responsible for a team of staff including finance; communications; IT; information governance; procurement; and patient and public involvement.  As Chair to the Data Access Request Group, DARG, he is responsible for ensuring members collectively review and approve or decline applications for data access according to the approval criteria.

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Anna Kisielewska - Business Support Lead

As the Business Support Lead, Anna is responsible for a diverse range of critical functions within HQIP. She oversees Human Resources, ensuring effective recruitment and employee relations. In Health & Safety, Anna implements policies and procedures to maintain a safe working environment. She also manages our IT infrastructure, ensuring seamless technology operations and support. Additionally, Anna liaises with the Board of Trustees and other executive functions, providing essential administrative support and facilitating strategic decision-making processes. Her leadership and expertise is pivotal in driving organisational efficiency and success.

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Fiona Laycock - Business Support Officer

Fiona is the backbone of HQIP core operations, ensuring that everything runs smoothly and efficiently. With a strong commitment to excellence and a meticulous approach, she handles a wide range of responsibilities from administrative tasks to strategic support.

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Clare Fountain - Associate Director of Healthcare Quality Improvement

As an accomplished Improvement Practitioner of 20+ years (both in the NHS and abroad) Clare brings a broad range of skills in quality assurance, improvement and evaluation, from service design, lean six sigma and statistics for improvement, to leadership development and culture development at an organisational level. Clare is also the lead for the HQIP Quality Improvement, Evaluation and Advisory/ Consultancy services, working with partner organisations.

For a discussion about potential opportunities for collaboration, or to commission work from us: Contact Clare

Lacia Ashman - Head of Communications and Marketing

With a breadth of skills and experience in communications and marketing acquired in both the public and private sectors, Lacia oversees all communications at HQIP.

She has over 30 years’ experience of the full ‘marketing mix’ of activities, specialising in research communications in a number of sectors such as health, education, technology and science. Her experience includes strategy and planning, analytics, branding, stakeholder engagement, web and e-comms, PR and media relations, events, and social media as well as direct mail, publications and market research. Lacia is a skilled copywriter and editor, having produced a number of impact publications, including HQIP’s Quality Improvement magazine CORNERSTONE.

Contact Lacia

Samantha Dawson - Communications Officer

Sam brings a background in both education and marketing to her role as Communications Officer within the communications team at HQIP. With extensive experience in marketing, she has developed a diverse skill set that includes website management, content creation, email marketing, and social media. Her ability to create compelling content and engage audiences across digital platforms enables her to connect with various stakeholders and actively support the mission of HQIP.

Fiona Rigby - Marketing Lead

Catherine Brook - Head of Finance

Catherine has worked in finance for over 20 years. She joined HQIP in 2021, having previously worked in practice, where she specialised in audit work and managed a portfolio which included a sizeable number of not-for-profit clients. Catherine is also a trustee of a small charity and chairs the charity’s finance sub-group.
At HQIP, Catherine oversees the finance department, leading on the provision of efficient financial information, systems and processes via partnering with the operational teams. The Finance team is also responsible for the annual audit and statutory accounts.

Contact Catherine

Sheila Jivraj - Finance Officer

Sheila has worked in finance for over 30 years. Before joining HQIP she worked in a variety of finance roles both in the private sector as well as charitable settings carrying out work in areas such as accounts payables and receivables, payroll processing as well as preparing accounts for sole traders and partnerships and completing annual self-assessment returns for same.

Sheila joined HQIP in 2015 and works across various accounting and payroll areas including purchase ledger, subscription invoicing and credit control. Sheila also takes the lead on payroll and pension administration.

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Judith Hughes, Associate Director of Procurement

Judith has worked in procurement for over 25 years in both the private and public sector, she has spent many of those years working within the NHS.

She has he worked across a broad range of specialisms, procuring goods and services for HR, IT, Facilities Management, Finance, Capital (such as CT scanners, MRI’s and Robotic equipment) and is very passionate about procurement.

In her role at HQIP she is responsible for the strategic development, operation and management of the procurement function across HQIP.

Contact Judith

Jonathan Williams – Senior Procurement Manager,

Jonathan has worked in procurement for 5 years within the private and public sector, with the past 3 years at HQIP.

He has he worked across a broad range of categories such as Net Zero, Facilities Management, Telecoms and IT as well as the setting up of national frameworks to support the Department of Education and within the faith sector.

In his role at HQIP he is responsible for the continuous development, tendering and management of the NCAPOP portfolio which commissions circa 45 national audits and outcome review programmes, as well as managing the tendering activities for the National Joint Registry and HQIP infrastructure.

Jonathan supports the strategic arm of procurement at HQIP, supporting growth and networking.

Contact Jonathan

Desislava Staykovska - Information Governance Lead

Desi brings a wealth of expertise in data protection and information security compliance, as a result of working as a data protection specialist over the last seven years, in healthcare and the wider charity sector. She is the Information Governance Lead at HQIP, and ensures that the organisation is compliant with all legal and regulatory requirements.

Before joining HQIP, Desi worked as a Privacy Officer at PPD (Pharmaceutical Product Development), which is part of Thermo Fisher Scientific and a world leader in clinical trials and clinical development. There she gained valuable insight into scientific discovery, assessing safety, efficacy and healthcare outcomes, as well as the development of new medicines and healthcare therapies. Desi has also acted as the Data Protection Officer at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), providing legal advice to the charity and overseeing their compliance with the Charity Commission’s requirements, the General Data Protection Regulation, the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations

Contact Desi

Jill Stoddart - Director of Operations (NCAPOP)

Responsible for strategic development, operation and management of the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP).

Contact Jill

James Campbell – Associate Director for Quality and Development

James joined the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) in 2016. Prior to this, he was a Policy & Evaluation Manager at the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and before that he was a Programme Manager at the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), where he was part of the National Stroke Audit (SSNAP) team. James has presented at international conferences in France, Portugal, Sweden and Brazil.

At HQIP, James is responsible for commissioning and developing a portfolio of national clinical audits and outcome review programmes, and supporting and promoting the NCAPOP with funders and other national stakeholders.

Contact James

Yvonne Silove - Associate Director for Quality and Development

Yvonne qualified in medicine and experimental psychology, working as a paediatrician and then an audiological physician in the NHS for more than 15 years. She joined HQIP in 2010, soon after its inception, to pursue her interest in how healthcare quality is measured and improved.

At HQIP, Yvonne initially led the engagement with the Department of Health and their national advisors to develop and embed outcomes-focussed commissioning processes for national clinical audits, subsequently being seconded from HQIP to Public Health England and to NHS England to provide expertise for their evolving strategies on data for improvement.

Yvonne holds a varied portfolio of leadership roles at HQIP, including senior support for Information Governance and secondary uses of data, as well as leading work with other national agencies such as HDR UK and the CQC. She regularly provides strategic support to senior colleagues, chairs HQIP’s procurement panels and has successfully sourced a range of funding from the Health Foundation and others to enhance HQIP’s reach and impact.

Contact Yvonne

Caroline Rogers - Associate Director for Quality and Development

An associate director in NCAPOP since 2018, Caroline is responsible for commissioning and developing a portfolio of national clinical audits and outcome review programmes, and supporting the NCAPOP with NHS England and the Welsh Government and other national stakeholders. Caroline has developed and manages the contract for the National Cancer Audit Collaborating Centre, incorporating ten national audit programmes. She also leads on working with the National Quality Improvement (Including Clinical Audit) Network (NQICAN) to support translation of outputs from the national programmes into local healthcare quality improvement. Prior to this Caroline was the Accreditation Unit Manager at the Royal College of Physicians for eight years, developing the organisational approach to accreditation and responsible for all operational aspects of the College’s accreditation activities. Before that, policy was Caroline’s focus as a programme manager at the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, bringing experts together and communicating findings in fields including personalised healthcare, critical care decisions, public health and dementia.

Contact Caroline

Julia Trusler - Associate Director for Quality and Development

Responsible for commissioning and developing a portfolio of national clinical audits and outcome review programmes, and supporting and promoting the NCAPOP with funders and other national stakeholders.

Contact Julia

Rachael Sample - Associate Director for Quality and Development

Rachael is a clinical radiographer by background and qualified in London in 1995. After a career in cardiac and emergency radiography, she went on to project manage the roll out of the national digital radiology project in the Southwest before turning her hand to medical physics and radiation protection for patients. Before joining HQIP, Rachael was the Inspection Manager for the radiation team at the Care Quality Commission and developed inspection strategy for NHS and Independent healthcare organisations. She was the UK representative within the European Radiation Competent Authorities Group and led the CQC through an international mission for the review of radiation safety in the UK, this led to Rachael becoming a key stakeholder in the UK’s Radiation Safety Group. In her current role, Rachael is responsible for commissioning and developing a portfolio of national clinical audits and outcome review programmes and supporting and promoting the NCAPOP with funders and other national stakeholders.

Contact Rachael

Drew Smith - Associate Director for Quality and Development

Drew has nearly 20 years’ experience working in and leading health analytical programmes.

Having started with the Healthcare Commission on the annual ratings of NHS trusts, Drew specialised in quantitative metric development, data collection methodologies, and impactful data presentation. This led to a programme management role in the Care Quality Commission leading a team of analysts providing analytic support and consultancy to hospital inspections.

A firm believer in the power of information to improve the care that people receive, Drew’s role at HQIP is to commission and develop a portfolio of national clinical audits and outcome review programmes.

Contact Drew

Paul Smith - Associate Director for Quality and Development

As an associate director in HQIP Paul has responsibility for commissioning and developing a portfolio of national clinical audits and outcome review programmes and supporting and promoting the NCAPOP with funders and other national stakeholders including all devolved nations and crown dependencies.

Paul trained is a nurse and worked clinically for 20 years in critical care across the UK nations, Canada, America, and Saudi Arabia gaining a Masters in Advance Nursing in 2014 with dissertation focussing on use of vaping to assist cessation of smoking. In 2011 Paul was part of the introduction of the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS_NSQIP) into British Columbia, Canada. Paul has presented at international conferences in America (ACS-NSQIP) & Canada (Canadian Council of Cardiovascular Nurses). Paul was also lead the first nursing policy for the use of an impeller heart assist device in medium-term critical care. Paul returned to Scotland in 2014 as the clinical coordinator of the critical care national audit (Scottish Intensive Care Society Audit Group, SCISAG) in NHS National Services Scotland National Audits Programme, and in 2021 Paul became the senior nurse in National Procurement for the NHS in Scotland where he advised clinicians and procurement teams from across all health boards in Scotland on value-based care. Paul chaired the committee for the endorsement of transparent face masks in health and social care in Scottland in 2021. Paul has also worked in the Scottish Parliament in its inaugural year in 1999 and has experience of dealing with Parliamentary Questions, Freedom of Information requests and complaints.

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Tina Strack - Associate Director for the Clinical Outcome Review Programmes

Tina leads on the commissioning and development of a portfolio of national clinical audits and outcome review programmes, specialising in the maternity and neonatal sector, as well as supporting and promoting the NCAPOP with funders across the UK and other national stakeholders. Originally from Canada, she has held senior roles at Nesta, the Health Foundation and the British Columbia Cancer Agency, leading several high-profile national programmes and fostering collaboration between healthcare organisations, clinicians, patients, and policymakers. Tina is passionate about how the health service can continue to improve and innovate patient care particularly using data. Tina holds a Masters in Health Administration from the University of British Columbia and a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Alberta. She is also actively involved in various governance and trustee positions, including being Lead Governor for Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust and a trustee for Potential Difference and the Bates Wells Foundation.

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Helen Baron - Project Manager, Quality Accounts and Subscriptions

Responsible for the quality accounts list, NCAPOP subscriptions and The Directory.

Contact Helen

Sarah Walker Project Manager, NCAPOP

Responsible for managing a portfolio of national clinical audits.

Contact Sarah

Natalia Plejic - Project Manager, NCAPOP

Responsible for managing a portfolio of national clinical audits.

Contact Natalia

Sumera Bhatti- Project Manager, NCAPOP

Responsible for managing a portfolio of national clinical audits.

Contact Sumera

Susan Gillespie - ADI Project Manager

Grace Cuff - Project Manager

Responsible for managing a portfolio of national clinical audits.

Contact Grace

Clare Fountain - Associate Director of Healthcare Quality Improvement

As an accomplished Improvement Practitioner of 20+ years (both in the NHS and abroad) Clare brings a broad range of skills in quality assurance, improvement and evaluation, from service design, lean six sigma and statistics for improvement, to leadership development and culture development at an organisational level. Clare is also the lead for the HQIP Quality Improvement, Evaluation and Advisory/ Consultancy services, working with partner organisations.

Contact Clare

Kim Rezel - Head of Public and Patient Involvement

Kim has built a career through collaborating with, and involving, service users – firstly in social care settings (specifically in drugs and alcohol services) and now working with patients and carers in healthcare. She has over 20 years’ experience in engagement, including in a London based HIV charity and as a volunteer and Board member for a Rwandan charity.

Kim leads on HQIP’s Patient and Carer Engagement strategy, implementing tools and approaches to enable co-production with our patient partners. The HQIP Service User Network was established by Kim in 2010, and she facilitates this group of over 60 members to involve them in HQIP projects. Kim also leads on Equity Diversity and Inclusion within HQIP, having achieved the Level 4 accreditation in Managing Equality and Diversity in an Organisation course last year.

Contact Kim

Elaine Young - Director of Operations for the National Joint Registry

Elaine is responsible for the overall management and strategic direction of the National Joint Registry, ensuring that NJR programmes are aligned to broader policy direction and national projects; as well as supporting the work of the NJR Chairman, the Steering Committee and committee members.

Contact Elaine

Leeanna Alloway - Executive Assistant to Director of Operations

Leeanna provides administrative assistance to the Director of Operations and provides secretariat support for the NJR’s Steering Committee, Medical Advisory Committee and Executive Committee.

Contact Leeanna

M: 07950 643899

Chris Boulton - Deputy Director of Operations for the National Joint Registry

Chris has responsibility for the operational delivery of the National Joint Registry, ensuring that NJR activity is delivered effectively; as well as supporting the NJR Director of Operations, the Steering Committee and committee members across the NJR.

Contact Chris

M: 07495 586072

Deirdra Taylor - Associate Director of Communications and Stakeholder Engagement

Deirdra is responsible for overseeing all aspects of NJR stakeholder communication. This includes managing the production of content and key messaging for the NJR annual report and other publications; overseeing NJR’s national events presence; development of the NJR brand through press and media management, as well as oversight of other internal and external communication activities and channels.

Contact Deirdra

M: 07983 202953

Yemi Garuba - Associate Director of Operations and Contracts

As NJR’s Associate Director of Operations and Contracts, Yemi is responsible for monitoring all aspects of NJR business, contracts and finance to ensure the NJR achieves its strategic objectives.

Contact Yemi

M: 07904 597881

Becky Swinson - Associate Director - Performance and Business Planning

Becky is responsible for overseeing the NJR’s clinical performance programmes and delivery of the committee and business functions of the NJR, supporting the NJR Director of Operations and NJR Deputy Director of Operations.

Contact Becky

Chloe Hibbitt - Operations Manager of Contracts and Service Delivery

Chloe supports the management of NJR contracts and operational activity measuring progress and performance of NJR outsourced activity. She monitors individual projects, assists with strategic development and also supports NJR’s committee work programmes to deliver a number of ad hoc operational activities and workstreams.

Contact Chloe

M: 07904 598113

Geri Hatch - Operations Manager of Performance and Business Planning

Geri is responsible for managing the NJR’s implant performance work programme and supporting the NJR Implant Scrutiny and Data Quality Committees.

Contact Geri

Alice Ryder - Operations Manager of Performance and Business Planning

Alice is responsible for managing the NJR’s hospital and surgeon outlier management process and supporting the NJR Surgical Performance Committee.

Contact Alice

M: 07904 598110

Alyson Ottley - Research and Governance Programme Manager

Alyson is responsible for managing the NJR’s research programme; processing research applications, supporting the Research Committee and Research Fellows. She also oversees the data and information governance function, handling data and Freedom of information requests.

Contact Alyson

M: 07943 813077

Traci Aina - Business Support Officer

Traci is responsible for providing comprehensive business and operational support to the NJR Management Team, ensuring the smooth functioning of daily business operations and processes. Traci acts as the central point of contact for internal and external stakeholders for enquiries.

Oliver Burton

Ollie has joined HQIP as the FMLM National Medical Director’s Clinical Fellow. Clinically he works in neurosurgery with research interests in surgical simulation, and medical workforce problems including specialty selection and training.