Meet the Board
Meet the Board
Meet the board of Healthwatch Camden! We recently said our thanks and goodbyes to Dr Louise Jones who has been our chair for the last five years, and warmly welcomed onto our board, our new Chair, Philippa Robinson.
Just as it is the local community who inform and shape our priorities at Healthwatch Camden, so it is our strategic board who, in turn, oversee the delivery of those priorities. We are deeply grateful to both the people of Camden for sharing their concerns with us, and our board for all the wealth of expertise and experience that they bring.
Philippa Robinson: Chair
Philippa is our Chair. Born in New Zealand, Philippa has lived in the UK for longer than she has lived in New Zealand, most of that time within the London Borough of Camden. Having worked in the City for a number of years, Philippa moved into the public sector and has worked in senior roles within both the public and private sectors as a turnaround, programme and transformation director, latterly within healthcare over the past 10 years. She brings a wealth of experience within performance, finance, procurement and IT-enabled change programmes across local authorities, central government and the NHS.
Philippa is currently the London Transformation Delivery Partner for Community Health Partnerships (CHP). It is a varied role that is currently focussed on the Community Integration Programmes in North Central London and South East London. CHP is proud of its estates within the NHS and wishes to maximise the use of these buildings for not just health, but to create vibrant community hubs.
The ultimate goal is the delivery of high quality integrated care and community services within buildings the community recognises as belonging to them.
Corinna Gray : Trustee
Corinna worked in the voluntary sector for 10 years at a variety of different national and local charities. Her passion lay in working with and advocating for older people, which led her to spending 5 of those years working on the Ageing Better in Camden Partnership, aimed at reducing social isolation and loneliness among older people in the borough. Through this work, Corinna gained an in-depth understanding of the health and social care needs and provision in the area.
After a period of being a full-time carer, Corinna was inspired to train as an adult nurse, qualifying with an MSc from King's College London in 2022. She worked in acute care at the Royal London hospital before undertaking a specialist qualification in general practice nursing. She is now very happy to be back in Camden, working at Adelaide Medical Centre as a general practice nurse specialist practitioner.
Corinna has a particular interest in inclusion nursing and continues to be interested in tackling social isolation and loneliness, both of which are incorporated into her role through her work with housebound patients. She loves working in Camden, despite being born and bred in south east London.
John Hoar
John Hoar joined Healthwatch Camden in 2019 while working with a local housing association. John’s background is primarily in inpatient psychiatric care. He spent 20 years building and helping to manage a private psychiatric provider that provided much needed additional capacity to the NHS.
He had many operational roles and ended his career with this organisation as the Commercial Director. John enjoys spending time on his allotment and also enjoys making ceramics at his home studio.
Tracey McDermott
Tracey McDermott has volunteered and worked in the voluntary sector in Camden for the last 15 years. She currently works as a manager of a dementia wellbeing and befriending service within Camden, and has been doing so for 11 years. Tracey is also one of the safeguarding leads in her organisation and sit on a number of subgroups contributing to the Safeguarding of Adults.
She also attends the Dementia Action Alliance in Camden and help support a very active peer-led dementia engagement and empowerment project.
Tracey has been a carer for a number of years. She is aware of the pressures and needs of carers, the difficulties of accessing support whilst also trying to maintain good physical health and psychological wellbeing. With her knowledge about Camden’s services from working and residing in the borough, she hopes this will be positive benefit when acting as a trustee for Healthwatch Camden.
Jiten Raval
Retired dental surgeon Jiten Raval worked in the NHS for 33 years, with 25 of those in King’s Cross. He served on the Camden and Islington Local Dental Committee, playing a vital part in the implementation of the – now sadly closed – walk-in emergency dental clinic known as Kentish Town Access Centre.
He was involved in research projects with the UCL Dental Public Health department. One in particular, SWITCH, looked at reducing the sugar intake of 11-17 year olds.
He built vital links with many agencies including UCL’s Mortimer Market Centre, Age UK’s Great Croft Health & Positive Living Hub, St Mungo’s homeless charity. This diverse experience allows a real insight into problems faced by Camden residents.
Interests include theatre, gardening and sport (Watford Football Club season ticket holder).
Paul Webley
Paul grew up in Liverpool and has been living in Islington since the 1980s.
He has been working at Age UK Camden since 2010, he is currently the Manager of the Information and Advice Team that provides support for residents aged 55+ across Camden. He has worked on various projects at Age UK Camden which includes working very closely with the older LBGT+ community, people aged 75+ with multiple health issues who are unable to leave their own home, older people living with memory loss and dementia, as well as the general population and the issues they face as they age.
He has a keen interest in the more vulnerable in society getting their voices heard and their needs met.
Paul was a palliative carer for 10 years before joining Age UK Camden and this has given him a vast experience of the issues that people face trying to access the Health and Social Care that is right for them.
Why Have a Board?
Local Healthwatch offices are required by the Health and Social Care Act to be the voice of local people in the design and provision of health and social care services.
Healthwatch Camden is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. This means that:
- Governing body members are selected according to an agreed skills profile;
- Eight to ten governing board members is the maximum number we can have at any time;
- The board also has the option of co-opting other people with specific skills to serve on the board for an agreed period of time.