Our team
HQIP has multi-disciplinary teams which work collaboratively to promote and support better quality in health and care.
Staff teams
- Executive team: comprising the CEO, Director of Operations (NCAPOP), Director of Corporate Services, and Medical Director
- Business development: To maximise our impact, we work with a wide range of organisations including the NHS, patient/ representative organisations, and not-for-profit / charitable organisations, as well as improvement and research organisations and networks
- Central support team: providing communications, financial management, procurement, and information governance support
- National clinical audit team: overseeing the commissioning of all audit programmes, including the National Clinical Audits and Clinical Outcome Review Programmes (which together comprise the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme or NCAPOP)
- National Joint Registry team: National Joint Registry team: responsible for strategy, operational management and for the communication of key outcomes and messaging of the National Joint Registry which covers England, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and the States of Guernsey
- Quality improvement and development team: seeking to improve capacity, competence and effectiveness of audit at local level and promote public and patient involvement at all levels
- Audit data for improvement team: working to deliver the world-leading area of the Clinical Outcomes Publication programme in lieu with the NHS England’s transparency agenda as well as the National Clinical Audit Benchmarking programme (NCAB).
Staff profiles
- Executive team
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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.
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.
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 Dabi 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.
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.
Anna Kisielewska - Executive Assistant and Infrastructure Manager
Anna handles all the executive administrative needs of HQIP CEO, MD and the Board of Trustees. She is also responsible for the management of both technical and operational HR, IT and H&S components for business effectiveness.
Tom Bigg - Business Support Officer
Tom is responsible for providing additional executive support and other administrative activities within HQIP.
- Business Development
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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
- Communications
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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.
Matty Smith - Senior Communications Officer
As the Senior Communications Officer at HQIP, Matty brings forward his experience in communications and digital media from a career in the Royal Air Force. This varied role spanned 12 years, in which he worked across a broad range of jobs across the digital media landscape.
At HQIP, Matty is responsible for all day-to-day communications both internally and externally. Duties include, social media, e-newsletters, eBulletins, website updates, media campaigns, communications planning and events.
- Finance
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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.
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.
- Procurement
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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, Acting Category Manager
Contact Jonathan
- Information Governance
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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
- National Clinical Audit & Enquiry
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Jill Stoddart - Director of Operations (NCAPOP)
Responsible for strategic development, operation and management of the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Tina Strack - Associate Director for the Clinical Outcome Review Programmes
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.
Helen Baron - Project Manager, Quality Accounts and Subscriptions
Responsible for the quality accounts list, NCAPOP subscriptions and The Directory.
Vivien Dunne - Project Manager, NCAPOP
Responsible for managing a portfolio of national clinical audits.
Sarah Walker Project Manager, NCAPOP
Responsible for managing a portfolio of national clinical audits.
Natalia Plejic - Project Manager, NCAPOP
Responsible for managing a portfolio of national clinical audits.
Sumera Bhatti- Project Manager, NCAPOP
Responsible for managing a portfolio of national clinical audits.
Susan Gillespie - ADI Project Manager
- Quality improvement and development
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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.
- Patient and Public Involvement
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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.
- National Joint Registry
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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.
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.
M: 07495 586072
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.
M: 07950 643899
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.
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.
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.
Oscar Espinoza -Design and Communication Manager
Oscar is responsible for managing much of the output of the communication department, from website and social media management, CRM administration, drafting content for NJR stakeholder communication and for ensuring all materials are produced in accordance with NJR brand guidelines, amongst other ad hoc communication activities.
M: 07932 889753
Theresa Zlonkiewicz - Operations Manager of Contracts and Service Delivery
Theresa 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 work-streams.
M: 07904 598113
Sam Harper - Operations Manager of Performance and Business Planning
Sam is responsible for managing the NJR’s Surgeon, Unit and Implant Performance work programmes and supporting the NJR Surgeon Performance and Implant Performance Committees and Implant Scrutiny Group.
M: 07904597851
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.
M: 07943 813077
- Clinical Fellow
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Claudia Snudden
Claudia has joined HQIP as the FMLM National Medical Director’s Clinical Fellow. She is in her last year of GP training and is passionate about improving patient outcomes at an individual and community level. She has previously led on a number of research projects and quality improvement activities, and has recently completed an MPhil in Population Health Sciences, focused primarily on primary care.
Claudia will be working with the Executive Quality Group Clinical Audit Subgroup on behalf of HQIP. She is looking forward to developing her understanding of how data can be used to inform health policy on a national scale during her year at HQIP.