WSCCG has a governing body consisting of eight GPs from across our three localities; one secondary care lead; two lay members responsible for patient and public engagement and governance and a number of chief officers.
With GPs at the heart of clinical commissioning, we welcome you to meet the governing body:
Dr Christopher Browning
(Chair)
Dr Browning has 10 years’ experience in hospital medicine and 12 years’ experience as a GP. He has had operational experience in the out-of-hours service and many years’ experience representing his GP colleagues on the LMC.
Dr Browning is the chair of the Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire CCG Network.
Dr Andrew Hassan
Dr Hassan qualified from Sheffield, held junior doctor appointments in Sheffield, entered General Practice in 1980 and was a senior partner at Avicenna surgery in Hopton until retirement from practice in 2015.
Dr Hassan has also served as the Chairman of the Bury St Edmunds PCG; PEC Chair and Board Member Suffolk West PCT; Chair of the Individual Funding Panel and Clinical Priorities Group for the joint management team of Suffolk CCGs and Medical Director of NHS Suffolk until disbanded in 2013. He has served as President of the Anglo French Medical Society since 2006.
Dr Zohra Armitage
Dr Armitage is an experienced GP. She has had various clinical and management responsibilities within different practices and the CCG. Her clinical interests include adolescent health, sexual health and end of life care. When not at work she is a busy mum and wife, and enjoys running and reading.
Dr Firas Watfeh
(GP and lead for Haverhill locality)
Dr Firas Watfeh is a GP partner at The Haverhill Family Practice. He is the GP lead for prescribing and has keen interest in Dermatology. He represents his GP colleagues on the LMC Board.
Dr Godfrey Reynolds
Dr Reynolds is Senior Partner at the Market Cross Surgery, Mildenhall, where he has worked as a GP for 30 years. He qualified from Birmingham university Medical School in 1983 after training spells in Africa and the United States and worked in hospitals in the West Midlands for 5 years before entering general practice. He has been a member of Suffolk Local Medical Committee for 25 years and was its Chair from 2010 – 2016. He has interests in forensic medicine and psychiatry. He has been Chair of the Mildenhall Sick and Poor Fund Charity for 30 years.
Dr Ed Garratt (Chief Executive)
Dr Ed Garratt is Accountable Officer for Ipswich & East Suffolk, West Suffolk and North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Groups. He is also the Executive Lead for the Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care System (ICS) and lead commissioner of the East of England Ambulance NHS Trust. Ed is a Visiting Professor of Integrated Care at the University of Suffolk (2021-2024).
Ed has a strong reputation for building collaboration. He has over 15 years’ experience of working in the NHS, has worked at regional level in commissioning and currently co-chairs the East of England Health Inequalities Board. He has worked on major national policy by supporting the development of the NHS Constitution and the government’s NHS White Paper 2021. Ed holds a doctorate in English Literature from the University of Cambridge.
Sandie Robinson
(Director of Integration and Partnerships)
Sandie has worked across the NHS in a variety of roles since starting her career in 1984 as a Registered Nurse. Sandie has both acute and community health care senior management experience and in recent years has led in a number of leadership roles in the redesign of health and care services with a focus on strengthening integration and system collaboration. Sandie is passionate about improving outcomes and managing complex change through collaborative partnership working.
Amanda Lyes
(Director of Workforce & People Designate)
Amanda has a NHS career spanning 20 years. Her strengths include change management, organisational development and employee relations.
Amanda has a wide understanding of NHS and wider system delivery and is passionate about delivering a high standard of service. She is an experienced Board member having held Board level positions in two other NHS organisations and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development and holds a MSc in Human Resource Management.
Richard Watson
(Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Strategy and Transformation)
Richard has worked across the NHS and local government in a variety of roles including with an acute trust, regional team and CCGs and has been within the Suffolk and north east Essex system for the last five years.
His areas of focus within his career to date has been transformation, change management and commissioning across health and care systems. Richard was also an elected local councillor and cabinet member within a London borough where he led on community safety, leisure and libraries.
He is passionate about improving outcomes and his strength lays in managing complex system wide transformation.
Jane Payling
(Director of Finance)
Jane joined the CCGs in September 2017 as Chief Financial Officer. She has responsibility for making appropriate arrangements to support, monitor and report on the CCG’s finances, and overseeing robust audit and governance arrangements leading to propriety in the use of CCG’s resources.
Most recently, Jane worked at CIPFA (Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy) as Head of Health and Integration. This role involved supporting finance staff working in health and social care, researching and commenting on health policy and helping finance teams in integration.
Jane was previously Director of Finance at Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust for 10 years, with responsibility for procurement, contracting and performance. During this time she was part of the team which secured the go ahead for the New Papworth Hospital, a PFI scheme which is planned to open in 2018.
She joined the NHS in 1992 as a graduate finance trainee with the former East Anglia Regional Health Authority and has worked in a range of NHS organisations in East Anglia spanning provider, commissioner and health authorities. She is committed to developing finance teams, previously chairing the Eastern region Finance Staff Development board and helping to support Future Focussed Finance.
Lisa Nobes
(Director of Nursing and Clinical Quality)
Lisa Nobes is the Director of Nursing and Clinical Quality for the Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care System for Ipswich and East Suffolk CCG and West Suffolk CCG .
She started her nursing career at West Suffolk Hospital 29 years ago and moved to Manchester to train and practise as a children’s nurse at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital before relocating back to Suffolk to work at the East Anglia Children’s Hospice. She enjoyed working at both the hospice site and providing care to children at the end of their lives in their homes. She left EACH to become a Lecturer in Children’s Nursing and then a Senior Lecturer in Service Improvement, teaching service improvement methodologies to under and post-graduate health students. She has worked in the acute sector at both West Suffolk Hospital and Ipswich Hospital in senior nurse leadership posts, most recently as Director of Nursing at Ipswich Hospital before taking up the CNO role in the Suffolk CCGs.
Her academic background is in psychology, interprofessional healthcare education and health psychology and she has recently been appointed as Senior Visiting fellow at University of Suffolk.
She is interested in co-production of services with users and families and is keen to work with the wider Suffolk community to understand how services need transforming to meet the needs of Suffolk residents. Nursing remains a career that she loves and she is keen to work with senior nurse leaders across Suffolk to be the voice for nurses, midwives and AHPs.
Paul Gibara
(Director of Performance Improvement)
Mr Gibara is responsible for the performance, negotiation and effectiveness of contracts worth in excess of £1 billion with organisations commissioned by the CCGs. These include hospitals, mental health providers, the ambulance service and community health services, which deliver health and care provision for almost one million people.
Mr Gibara has over three decades of NHS experience, starting out as a Registered Nurse in the 1980s. Since then he has held a number of senior clinical, operational and commissioning leadership roles, within a diverse range of settings.
Dr Barham Talebpour
(GP and Joint Lead for Sudbury locality)
Dr Talebpour has been a GP in Sudbury since 2012 and has been on the Governing Body since 2016. He leads on Planned Care for the CCG.
Dr Victoria Wilson
(GP Lead for Bury and Blackbourne locality)
Dr Wilson has served the WSCCG since 2016, first as an associate and subsequently as a board member since 2019. Her interests include local maternity services and promoting GP recruitment, training and retention. She is an East Anglia peri-natal mental health champion and is co-chair of the local First Five Group of newly qualified GPs.
Dr Andrew Yager
(GP Lead for Cancer)
Andrew is an experienced GP having come to Botesdale Health Centre as a partner in 1986. In 1992 Andrew gained an MSc in Medical Ethics. In 2003 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners. In 2012 with the advent of CCGs Andrew became West Suffolk CCG clinical lead for cancer and now also works for Macmillan throughout Norfolk and Suffolk as a Macmillan GP. Within this role he has an interest in improving cancer services along the patient journey within primary and secondary care, particularly relating to early diagnosis and survivorship.
Geoff Dobson
(Lay Member for Corporate Governance)
In his role Mr Dobson will provide strategic and impartial advice on financial management issues to make sure the CCG meets its statutory guidelines and carries out its work according to nationally agreed standards. He will oversee key aspects of corporate governance including audit, remuneration and managing conflicts of interest.
Geoff worked in local government finance for more than four decades, most recently as Suffolk County Council’s director of resource management.
He has lived in west Suffolk for 30 years and possesses a commitment to ensuring resources are best used to deliver effective NHS services in the area.
Steve Chicken
(Lay Member)
Steve Chicken joined the CCG’s governing body in early 2017 as lay member. He is also working for Ipswich and East CCG in the same capacity.
Steve has held senior roles in global manufacturing businesses and is a specialist in continuous improvement. He and his wife have lived in Suffolk for 17 years as do his whole family including parents, grown children and grandchild.
