Enhancing care,
Advancing health science

Presidential Address - Stand up, speak up, step forward

Stand up, speak up, step forward: Leadership, innovation and equity in a changing healthcare landscape
Dr Caren Walsh graduated from Queen’s University Belfast in 2002 and initially trained in general medicine before moving into General Practice. She completed her GP training in Northern Ireland and has been a GP partner at Grosvenor Road Surgery in West Belfast since 2014.
Alongside clinical practice, she works as a Medical Adviser to the Strategic Planning and Performance Group (SPPG) and is the Quality Improvement Lead for RCGP Northern Ireland. Her professional interests include population health, tackling health inequalities, and embedding quality improvement approaches across primary care.

Navigating the turbulent data ocean of the cradle to grave records in Northern Ireland

Dr Margaret O’Brien, Assistant Director of Primary Care / Head of General Medical Services, SPPG and Dr Brendan O’Brien, Former CCIO NHS National Services Scotland and before that CCIO for the HSCB
Both obtained medical degrees from Queen’s University Belfast in 1994 and master’s degrees in healthcare informatics from University College Dublin in 2008.
Margaret completed her GP vocational training in general practice in Cornwall in 1999. She had a portfolio career, including multiple leadership roles, until taking up her current role in 2010. She led the development of MDTs in primary care and primary care elective initiatives.
Brendan trained in public health medicine and worked as a consultant in public health at the Institute of Public Health before taking up the role of Chief Clinical Informatics Officer (CCIO) at the Health and Social Care Board in 2013. He joined NHS National Services Scotland as CCIO in 2020. In late 2024 he took early retirement from the NHS to establish his own company.

Love and Power

Robert Campbell Oration lecture.
Professor Andy Knox MBE, Medical Director NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board, GP Partner Ash Trees Surgery Carnforth and Honorary Professor Lancaster University Management School
Andy Knox is a husband, a dad and a friend. He is also Interim Medical Director in the Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB, a GP Partner at Ash Trees Surgery, Carnforth and Honorary Professor at Lancaster University Management School. His work is primarily focused on improving Population Health, tackling Health Inequity, System Improvement and creating Compassionate Cultures. He co-founded the LSC Population Health Leadership Academy, is Population Health Associate at the King’s Fund, Associate at the Centre for Population Health, on the faculty of the Institute for Health Improvement, a member of the NHS Assembly, Chair of The Well Communities and part of the Poverty Truth Commission.
He has recently published his first book, ‘Sick Society’ (www.drandyknox.com/sicksocietybook).
He is impressively tall when sat down, but disappointingly short when stood up and has a ridiculously loud laugh. He is often found singing on walks with his Springer Spaniel and Labradoodle around the beauty that is Morecambe Bay. He was recently awarded an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours list for services to Primary Care and Health Inequalities. Blog: www.reimagininghealth.com
His claim to fame is that his Grandpa invented Fairy Liquid and his cousin won the Great British Bake Off (2019 beforeyou ask)!

Gary Love Lecture - 'An Evening with….’

Members only (restricted numbers).

An introduction to Generative AI in Healthcare

Dr Keith Grimes is founder and CEO of Curistica, a Healthtech Innovation Consultancy dedicated to helping builders and buyers of Clinical AI innovate faster, safer, and smarter.With a background as a GP and former Director of Clinical Product Management, Digital Health, and Innovation at Babylon, Keith is internationally recognised as a thought leader and speaker. He has contributed as an expert panelist for the Topol Review and AI All Party Parliamentary Group, advised the UK Government on Generative AI in Healthcare, and holds lecturer roles at the universities of Warwick, UCL, and Bayes Business School, focusing on entrepreneurship, digital health, and Generative AI in healthcare.With Ambient Voice Technology and AI rolling out rapidly in our surgeries and hospitals, Keith is working with those building and using this technology to make sure that they are used safely and effectively by clinicians and patients alike.

Genitourinary Medicine & HIV

Joint meeting with Ulster Obs and Gynae.
Dr Suzy Todd graduated from Queens University Belfast in 2009, completed her speciality training in Belfast and qualified as a Consultant in Genitourinary Medicine and HIV in 2019. She has a special interest in hard to reach populations and safeguarding. Suzy currently leads HIV care in the community for people who inject drugs in Belfast and sexual health at the Young Person’s Clinic. Outside of clinical practice she is extensively involved in under, post graduate teaching and research. Suzy currently works in Royal Victoria Hospital (Belfast Health &Social Care Trust).

When the Dust Settles - lessons from a life in disaster

Sir Thomas and Lady Edith Dixon Lecture.
Lucy Easthope is a leading authority on responding to and recovering from emergencies. For over two decades she has challenged others to think differently about what comes next after complex, tragic events. She is a passionate and thought-provoking voice in planning for pandemics, conflict, sudden death and disaster, and has been a tactical advisor to international emergency responders since 2001.
She is the author of The Recovery Myth and of the Sunday Times Bestseller ‘When The Dust Settles’. Her new book ‘Come What May’ was released in May 2025.
She has a special interest in the care and return of personal effects after disaster, writing and advising internationally on this subject. Her further research interests include the effectiveness of legislation in the field of emergency management, children and young people in disaster and the human aspects of risk management, insurance and business continuity processes. She is also regularly called upon to provide reflective debriefs and ‘lessons’ reports.
Her research and practice portfolio includes the UK coronial process, mass fatalities planning, legal aspects of emergencies, identifying lessons post incident, the effectiveness of public inquiries, interoperability, and community resilience in practice. Lucy has developed contingency plans, training programmes and exercises with many organisations including government bodies, charities, airports and airlines, universities and emergency services.
Lucy is a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath, UK.
She is a former member of the UK Cabinet Office Behavioural Sciences Expert Group.
She is a member of the International Counter Terror Preparedness Network Humanitarian Assistance Group. She also sits on the Disaster Working Group for the British Association of Social Work.
She holds an LLB (Bristol), Masters in Risk, Crisis and Disaster management (Leicester) and PhD in Medicine (Lancaster).
Links:
www.whatevernext.info
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/05/22/lucy-easthope-profile-disaster-response

The NHS: Sink or Swim

Joint meeting UMS with BCH.
Joint Meeting with Belfast City Hospital.
Professor Mark Taylor is a Consultant HPB Surgeon at BHSCT and Visiting Professor at Ulster University. He trained in Belfast and at the Regional HPB and Transplant Unit in Edinburgh.
He is the former President of GBI Hepato-pancreato-biliary Association (GBIHPBA) and the Pancreatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (PSGBI). He sits on the Medical Advisory Board of Bowel Cancer UK. He served as the Lead for Education, Training and Research with The Association of Upper GI Surgeons (AUGIS) from 2014-2019. In 2016, he was appointed by the then Stormont Health Minister to an independent expert panel (Bengoa panel) tasked with reconfiguration of Northern Ireland’s Health Service. In 2017 he was appointed to the Department of Health’s Transformation Implementation Group (TIG) and in 2020 to its Regional Management Board. In 2018 Mark was appointed Director of Professional Affairs (NI) for the RCS of England, a post held for 5 years stepping down at end of tenure in 2023. He is a member of the Department’s Elective Care Management Team & Expert Clinical Panel and recently chaired the ‘Review of General Surgery’ for DOH.
He has published extensively in the field of Hepatobiliary Surgery. His current research interest is in sonodynamic drug delivery therapy in pancreatic cancer (sonotarg). He is passionate about innovation, change and collective leadership within the HSCNI. He is a trustee NIPANC.

Team culture matters – a recipe for team resiliency

Desmond Whyte Lecture.
Marie McGrath, Director FutureSpark Coaching
Maire is a team and resilience coach, facilitator, and trainer. Maire supports a diverse range of organisations in enhancing team and group work through systemic and resilience coaching approaches, as well as team/leadership training. She is a member of the Association for Coaching.
As an active leadership member of the Irish Chapter of the International Association of Facilitators, Maire works extensively across Ireland as an independent facilitator in the public, community, and voluntary sectors. Her work includes facilitating public consultations, strategic planning, co-production projects and working with seldom-heard voices and activists to shape services and policy. She is also a Trustee of Alcoholics Anonymous Ireland.
Before establishing FutureSpark Coaching in 2016, Maire worked in the non-profit sector for over 20 years. She has held community and voluntary sector CEO and other leadership roles across various fields, including mental health, community development, the age sector, employability, and economic regeneration in both ROI and NI.

Mike Farrar, Permanent Secretary - 'Resetting Northern Ireland’s Health and Social Care System – The need to lead with integrity and courage'.

Mike Farrar, CBE, FRCGP, FRCP, Dip.H.Ed, BA Hons
Mike is a highly respected health and care leader, latterly as an independent management consultant with 13 years of CEO experience in the NHS. He has built two successful independent consulting practices, working with clients such as PwC, Celesio, ABPI, J and J, Health Foundation, Medtronic, Intuitive, RCGP, Visionable, Hanover and Pfizer.
He remains a prominent thought leader and consultant to the NHS, supporting over 15 ICSs and NHS Boards. Additionally, he works internationally, transforming healthcare in the Middle East, Japan, Northern Ireland, US, and Australia.
Mike was previously the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, North West England SHA, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire SHAs, Tees Health Authority and Head of Primary Care at the Department of Health, where he negotiated and introduced PMS and then the new GMS Contract including the use of QoF, moving away from the previous fee for service model.
He also works in the charitable sector and in sport, where he has held a variety of influential roles including Chair of Swim England, having also served as the Vice and Interim Chair of Sport England, and as National Tsar for Sport and Health.
He was awarded the CBE in 2005 for services to the NHS and is an Honorary Fellow of both the Royal College of GPs and of the Royal College of Physicians.
During the COVID-19 Crisis and Recovery, Mike worked between March and July 2020 on a pro bono basis as the Acting Deputy CEO at Kings College Hospital NHSFT in London. Mike was appointed as ProChancellor and Chair of Keele University in 2022 and also, in the same year, as Chair of ukactive the national representative body for the physical activity and leisure sector.

Redefine Possible: Spread and scale your impact with the Model for Unleashing

Ruth Jordan , Spread and Scale Programme Director, Dragon’s Heart Institute and Fellow of the Billions Institute and Paul Twose, Consultant-Level Therapist, Cardiff and Vale UHB and Honorary Lecturer, School of Healthcare Sciences, Cardiff University.

Having started her career as a physiotherapist, Ruth is a quality improvement specialist with over 20 years of experience in the South Wales health system. A naturally curious leader, Ruth is passionate about helping others to make services better. Ruth was instrumental in establishing the Spread and Scale Academy in Wales in 2019, which has since become a successful programme under the All-Wales Intensive Learning Academy for Innovation in Health and Social Care. She is now the Spread and Scale Programme Director at the Dragon’s Heart Institute and a Fellow of the Billions Institute, with whom she co-delivers the academy.
Together, Ruth and her team have helped train hundreds of teams working on cutting-edge innovation and best practice on how to spread and scale their projects, giving them the tools, skills and self-knowledge as large-scale change leaders to ensure that as many people as possible can benefit from their work.

Paul is a consultant-level therapist working within critical care at Cardiff and Vale UHB. He is also an honorary lecturer within the School of Healthcare Sciences at Cardiff University. He graduated in 2005, completed his MSc in 2013, and is now undertaking a PhD via portfolio at the University of South Wales.

Paul’s recent focus and research is on therapy workforce planning within critical care which has included multiple peer review papers exploring therapy practice within critical care, and the impact of therapy staff on service and patient level outcomes. This research has contributed to national guidance for physiotherapy workforce in critical care and wider AHP workforce in critical care within NHS Wales.

Paul is also leading a project to improve the quality of care provided to patients with a tracheostomy, which has included the development of electronic education platforms for both acute and community environments, use of immersive technology for training, as well as the development of a patient and carer app. His current work is focusing on innovations to improve tracheostomy equipment with a aim of reducing costs and improving outcomes.