Picker welcome five new appointments to its Board of Trustees

Picker is delighted to announce five new appointments to its Board of Trustees.  Danby Bloch, Alf Collins, Clive Flashman, Tahreema Matin, and Victoria Thomas bring a wealth of experience from the private, public, and third sectors.

The Trustees join as Picker is moving into an exciting phase of growth and innovation, as we expand and deepen our influence across the spectrum of health and social care organisations.  We look forward to working with our new colleagues in support of our vision of the highest quality person centred care for all, always. 

Angela Coulter, Chair of the Board of Trustees, Picker, said:

“The Board of Trustees are delighted to welcome our five new members, Alf, Clive, Danby, Tahreema, and Victoria. Individually they bring a broad range of valuable experience that will support all aspects of the Charity’s work, and we are fortunate to be able to draw on their skills and expertise as leaders within their respective fields. Collectively, they share our vision and commitment to person centred care, and we will work together to set and review Picker’s strategy as we focus on improving the impact that we have for our ultimate beneficiaries – patients, the public, and health and care staff.”

Chris Graham, Group CEO, Picker, said:

“With health and care organisations under pressure from the after effects of Covid and the daily realities of a challenging economic environment, Picker’s work is more important than ever. Evidence shows worrying declines in the quality of people’s experiences as health and care patients and staff, and we have a key role both in ensuring that person centred care remains a priority and in supporting organisations to understand and improve experiences. Our new appointees come from a range of different backgrounds and, together with our existing team of Trustees, will ensure that our Board has the skills and knowledge to help Picker flourish. We are fortunate to have such a distinguished Board of Trustees and look forward to working with them for years to come. “

The new Trustees are:

Danby Bloch

Danby Bloch has worked in the financial advice and investment world in many different roles: as practitioner, entrepreneur and business owner, author, journalist, publisher and latterly as business research consultant. His voluntary sector activities have included being Chair of Governors of Oxford Brookes University, chair of Oxford Playhouse and currently vice chair of the Equal Rights Trust. He lives in Oxfordshire with his wife Sandy.

Alf Collins

Professor Alf Collins is NHS England’s Clinical Director for Personalised Care. Shared decision making, care planning, self-management support, social prescribing and health literacy sit within his policy portfolio.

He was a community consultant in pain management for many years and in parallel worked for a decade with the Health Foundation, helping lead applied research and implementation programmes in person centred care. He has researched and published widely on all aspects of person-centred care and has a particular interest in ‘changing the relationship’ between patients and healthcare professionals.

He has honorary fellowships from the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of General Practitioners and a Visiting Professorship in Healthcare Policy at Coventry University.

Clive Flashman

Clive is a strategy expert who has worked in healthcare for nearly 30 years. His interests lie in digital innovation and patient safety, and especially where those two domains align. He regularly mentors’ health and care startup founders, including those on the NHS England Clinical Entrepreneur Programme.

Tahreema Matin

Dr Tahreema Matin is a multi-award-winning medical leader with a strong commitment to patient and public empowerment for driving healthcare innovation. She is a board-certified Consultant Radiologist with more than 15 years’ experience in NHS frontline healthcare.

As Associate Medical Director at NHS England, Tahreema has expertise in healthcare workforce, education and digital healthcare having authored 10 internationally cited white papers and lead transformation in these fields. She is the clinical lead for the NHS Enhance programme and has upskilled more than 500 multi-professionals in contextual leadership, digital and population health to support delivery of integrated person-centred care across England.

She is a certified Clinical Safety Officer, Board Member for the Institute of Engineering and Technology’s Healthcare Sector Executive Committee, and Scientific Editor for European Radiology.

Victoria Thomas

Following a degree in Art History, Victoria has worked exclusively in the public and voluntary sector, specializing in healthcare quality improvement activities and in patient and public involvement. Victoria’s MSc, in Science and Society, concentrated on issues of science communication, science and the public, and lay people’s engagement with evidence-based healthcare initiatives.

Victoria has recently joined Cancer Research UK as its new Head of Patient Involvement. Prior to this new role she ran the Public Involvement Programme at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) from 2001 to 2023.

Victoria has an interest in shared decision-making, in particular how patient evidence shapes informed decision-making by both patient and clinician.

Ends 

Notes for Editors 

• Picker is an international charity working across health and social care.  Established in the US in 1987 and UK in 2000, our work is at the forefront of understanding and furthering the link between patient experience, person centred care, and clinical excellence.  We believe in high quality person centred care for all, always.   
• The Picker Principles of Person Centred Care set out a framework for understanding what matters most to most people, and what constitutes high quality person centred care
• For further details about our Board and Team click here.
• For all media enquiries, the Marketing & Communications Manager at Picker, Lorraine Pullen pressoffice@pickereurope.ac.uk Mobile: 07825 952160.