Meet the Team
We work to support our teams in delivering high quality health care to patients across Durham Dales.
Through managing contracts, recruiting a highly skilled workforce and analysing our performance we make sure we are giving the NHS the best possible value for money, and the best possible care for patients.

David Robertson
Chairman

Dave Hall
Operations Director

Kevin Lee
Finance Director

Ross Hetherington
Business Development Manager

Andrew Dowson
Business Intelligence Manager

Tom Lee
Finance Controller

Helen Dawson
Clinical Lead

Tania Callard
Administration Team Lead

Thomas Watkinson
Team Lead, Clinical Pharmacist

Ellie Franklin
Team Lead, Health Care Coordinator
We work closely as a team to provide support to the 12 GP Practices in the Durham Dales.
The team work directly with patients in a number of different settings and locations. We see patients in local surgeries and visit them in their homes, we staff overflow appointments at Bishop Auckland Hospital and provide support to more than 20 care homes in the area.
We also provide wraparound care for elderly and frail patients, as well as providing pre-bookable appointments as part of the provision of extended hours services to patients.

Helen Dawson
Clinical Lead, Emergency Care Practitioner

Lorna McLean
Extended Access Team Lead

Toni Baker
Emergency Care Practitioner

Sonia Fendell
Emergency Care Practitioner

Toni Grey
Emergency Care Practitioner

Joanne Havert
Community Nurse Practitioner

Jane Simpson
Emergency Care Practitioner

Andrea Kaye
Portfolio Nurse

Safak Kocu
Advanced Nurse Practitioner

Pauline Lee
Advanced Nurse Practitioner

Barbara McCabe
Advanced Nurse Practitioner

Alice Mann
Junior Practitioner

Eleanor Brown
Junior Practitioner

Sarah Denham
Junior Practitioner

Zoe Whensley
Junior Practitioner

Rachel Warford
Health Care Assistant

Dr Shashikiran Chandrasekhar
General Practitioner

Dr Julia Pickworth
General Practitioner
We’re part of an innovative new way of supporting people with mental health needs in the community.
We create personalised care plans, provides links to other services, and help patients when they are discharged from secondary care.
Through regular reviews with patients, working alongside practices, we can give continuity of care to those who need it.

Sarah Scott
Team Lead, Community Psychiatric Nurse

Debbie Atkinson
Community Psychiatric Nurse

Tom Brookes
Community Psychiatric Nurse

Faye Gosney
Community Psychiatric Nurse

Chris Oakes
Community Psychiatric Nurse
We work provide services both directly and indirectly to patients. Behind the scenes we check hospital discharge and clinic letters to make sure medications are accurate, deal with repeat dispensing and prescription requests and monitor blood test results for high risk drugs. We work with other staff to oversee how medicines are prescribed, and to answer specific questions.
Patients will see us more and more as we hold clinics, do in person and telephone reviews for medications and long term health conditions, as well as answering medication queries and offering counselling.

Bindy Rowcroft
Clinical Pharmacist

Thomas Watkinson
Team Lead, Clinical Pharmacist

Charlotte Burnage
Pharmacy Technician

Andrea Evans
Pharmacy Technician

Sue Everett
Senior Dispenser

Mandy Gowland
Clinical Pharmacist

Marika Kostusiak
Clinical Pharmacist

Marco Leadbitter
Clinical Pharmacist

Kate Waistell
Clinical Pharmacist

Sophie Wynne
Clinical Pharmacist
We provide support to our 12 member practices as well as 24 care homes in Durham Dales.
This involves central coordination of visits to patients with acute needs, diary management for our Community Psychiatric Team, helping triage patients, producing letters and dealing with queries.
The team also provide admin cover in the 12 practices during the week, reception cover for the extended hours services in the evenings and at Bishop Auckland Hospital at weekends.
We also coordinate and provide training for the Federation, member practices and local commissioning groups.

Tania Callard
Team Lead, Administrator

Holly Cowton
Business Admin Apprentice

Victoria Carfoot
Administrator

Megan Knighton
Medical Receptionist

Ann Liivand
Administrator

Ben Patterson
Business Admin Apprentice

Emily Pearson
Administrator

Rachel Smith
Data Intelligence Support Officer
Social prescribing is a means of providing non-clinical care to our patients. As a team we primarily visit the elderly frail within our community who need support to remain safe and healthy in their own homes.
With the advent of the new Primary Care Networks (PCNs) we are excited to have taken on 3 new link workers to work with a more diverse group of patients.

Ellie Franklin
Team Lead, Health Care Coordinator

Gillian Bruce
PCN Social Prescribing Link Worker

Amy Cotterill
Health Care Coordinator

Pippa Graham
Health Care Coordinator

Rachel Harrison
PCN Social Prescribing Link Worker

Hollie Pallister
Health Care Coordinator

Katie Roberts
Health Care Coordinator

Karen Robertson
Health Care Coordinator

Katy Smith
Health Care Coordinator

Lisa Turnbull
Community Wellness Coordinator

Tracy Williams
PCN Social Prescribing Link Worker