Chair - Dr Mary Salama
Dr Mary Salama works as a Consultant Paediatrician at Birmingham Children's Hospital. She has an interest in human factors and quality improvement. She has been the medical lead in the multidisciplinary 'Children with medical complexities' (CMIC) team at Birmingham Children's Hospital since its inception in 2015. She enjoys running and is learning to crochet.
Hon. Secretary - Dr Susie Lapwood
From her background as a general practitioner, Susie moved to work at Helen and Douglas House (palliative care for children and young people) for over 20 years until her recent retirement clinically. She is passionate about supporting colleagues’ professional development. This motivates her continuing work in medical appraisal, in coaching, and in collaborative development of evidence-based resources to inform and improve patient care (curriculum, care pathways, advance care plans, formulary, symptom control manual). She has a particular interest in the use of blended ‘table food’ diet via gastrostomy for children with complex needs. She continues to serve on the CYPACP Collaborative and Together for Short Lives / APPM research group and is an RCGP clinical advisor.
Expert Advisor - Dr Hilary Cass OBE
Dr Hilary Cass is currently a Trustee for Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice. She has recently led an independent review on behalf of NHS England into gender identity services for children and young people. Hilary is Past President of RCPCH and Past Chair of British Academy of Childhood Disability. Her consultant clinical practice was as a tertiary neurodisability consultant from 1992 to 2018 in 3 very different specialist centres and she has published widely in this area. In addition to her neurodisability practice, she was closely involved in the development of paediatric palliative care services at Evelina London Children’s Hospital.
Research Lead - Dr Bethan Page
Bethan Page is a researcher at the Kings College London. Her background is in Psychology and Patient Safety. Bethan is passionate about supporting families who care for children with medical complexity. In her PhD/DPhil she investigated the challenges parents caring for children with complex medical needs experience through surveys and interviews. She also analysed incident report data on children with feedings tubes and on long-term ventilation. More recently Bethan has been developing a library of videos for families new to gastrostomy care, working with families, nurses and paediatricians from the community and hospital.
Expert Advisor - Prof Lorna Fraser
Lorna Fraser is a Professor of Palliative Care and Child Health at Kings College London. Her background is in clinical paediatrics and main research areas are complex and life limiting conditions in childhood and how to utilise routinely collected health and administrative data to improve care for children.
Parent Representative - Steph Nimmo
Steph Nimmo is an “expert by lived experience”. Steph’s youngest daughter Daisy was born prematurely and soon after diagnosed with a rare genetic disease and intestinal failure. Steph has documented her journey and shared her knowledge via an award-winning blog; Was this in the plan? She is also the author of two best-selling books around the subject of palliative care, end of life planning and grief. Steph has written for many mainstream publications as well as the BMJ and is regularly called to comment in the media. She has a strong interest in improving communications between patients and HCPs, particularly around engaging in “difficult conversations”, particularly around death and dying and is regularly involved in training staff in these areas.
Additional Members of the Executive
Hon, Treasurer & Education Lead - Dr Hannah Nicholson
Exec Member - Dr Lisa Kauffmann
Parent Carer Representative - Gabriella Walker
Expert Advisor (Nursing) - Joanne Martin
Paediatric Trainee Representative - Dr Nicola Bartram
Administrator - Kelly Robinson
