End of Life Care
Team update

The End of Life Care Programme has recently appointed seven Clinical Champions who have responsibility for specialist work areas. All bring expert local and professional knowledge to the programme. This input is proving invaluable as we are progressing each of the workstreams.

The Clinical Champion team

Dr Cathy Burton, Community Clinical Champion Cathy Burton qualified as a doctor at Kings College Hospital Medical School. She has been a principal in the same GP practice in Clapham since 1983. She now works part- time in her practice, and divides the rest of the week between several different roles including Primary Care Cancer Lead, Macmillan GP Facilitator and associate PEC member for Lambeth PCT, Associate Director for Primary Care for the South East London Cancer Network, Macmillan GP advisor for LASER and Clinical Champion for the new Modernisation Initiative End of Life Care programme in Lambeth and Southwark. She has a particular interest in palliative care in primary care and has the Diploma in Palliative Medicine from the University of Wales Medical School Cardiff.

Dr Irene Carey, Specialist Palliative Care / Acute Clinical Champion

Dr Adrian Hopper, Acute Clinical Champion

Dr Raj Mitra, Special Projects (Out of Hours) Raj Mitra has been a GP at the Lambeth Walk group practice since 1995. He has been interested in end of life care for many years and helped introduce the Gold Standards Framework into his practice in 2003. He is currently serving on SELDOC council and works as a GP trainer with an interest in teaching and training all members of the primary care health team, as well as working part time for the Modernisation Initiative End of Life Care Programme. Raj is also Honorary Senior Lecturer in General Practice at King’s College London (KCL).

Dr Amanda Thompsell, Clinical Champion: Dementia / Cognitive Impairment Pathways Amanda Thompsell is a consultant old age psychiatrist. Having trained originally as a GP, she moved into general care of the elderly, particularly in day hospitals and the long stay wards. She then retrained in psychiatry with the aim of working in old age psychiatry. In 2003 she joined the multidisciplinary care homes support team to set up a service to improve the mental health of residents in 36 care homes with nursing in South East London. She has been closely involved with the implementation of better end of life care in the care homes and has extensive experience of different models of care in the UK.

Dr Polly Edmonds, Specialist Palliative Care / Acute Clinical Champion
Polly Edmonds is a consultant and lead clinician in Palliative Medicine at King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and honorary clinical senior lecturer in the Department of Palliative Care, Policy & Rehabilitation, KCL. She qualified from St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, and trained in General Medicine, Medical Oncology and Palliative Medicine prior to taking up her consultant post in 1997. She has led the development of the clinical Palliative Care Team at King’s and is closely involved in the undergraduate curriculum at the KCL School of Medicine, as Palliative Medicine teaching lead, deputy head of year 4 and year 4 OSCE coordinator. Jointly with Dr Rachel Burman, Polly is training programme director for the London and KSS Deanery Specialty Training Programme for Palliative Medicine. She has previously chaired the Southeast London Palliative Care coordinating Group of the South East London Cancer Network and remains an active participant.

Dr Emily Gibbs, Community Clinical Champion
Emily Gibbs completed her undergraduate training in Manchester and General Practice training in central London. Later training posts included an 18 month role at St Joseph's hospice in Hackney, where she spent 10 months as part of the community palliative care team. Emily has been a sessional GP at New Mill Street Surgery in Southwark since 2004, where she leads on the Gold Standards Framework and cancer care. She facilitated the use of the Gold Standards Framework in Lewisham GP practices, and is currently a Community Clinical Champion for the Modernisation Initiative End of Life Care programme.

To find out more contact the End of Life Care team on Tel: 020 7188 0016

To download a copy of the progress report on the first six months of this major project, click here »