Our board

Kirstie Black
Dr Rishi Chopra
Dr Saul Kaufman
Dr Afsana Safa
Dr Jan Maniera
Dr Paul O’Reilly
Ruth Sandu
Dr Sheila Neogi
Siobhan Browne

Kirstie Black

Managing Director

Kirstie started her career in insurance broking and management consultancy but soon realised it was not for her. She moved into healthcare and worked at Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospital as a General Manager for 10 years, looking after Dermatology, Sexual Health & HIV and Renal, Transplant & Urology services.

She went on to run her own healthcare consultancy for seven years and worked in private and NHS hospitals focusing on Urgent Care and Emergency departments. Kirstie then moved into Primary Care, working in Digital Healthcare at Babylon (GP at Hand) and Sumitomo (Africa) PTY, and then to Hillingdon Health and Care Partners as a Programme Consultant before moving to Westminster to support Central London Healthcare (CLH) with the COVID-19 vaccination programme.

Having become Managing Director of CLH in October 2021, she now mirrors this role at HCL and is enjoying making the organisation a better place to work whilst also offering a great service to its members and their patients. She is ambitious for the organisation’s future and is diversifying to encompass Primary Care Research, Data & Business Intelligence and Joint Ventures with digital health providers.
Dr Rishi Chopra

HCL Chair, Regent Health PCN Clinical Director & GP Partner Paddington Green Health Centre

Rishi is a GP at Paddington Green Health Centre and has been at thePractice for over 16 years. He has also held the role of Clinical Director for Regent Health Primary Care Network (PCN) since its inception in 2019. Rishi joined the CLH/HCL board in 2020 and became Chair of the board of Directors in April 2022.

He is an experienced educator, teaching medical students at Imperial College, supervising Foundation Year 2, providing GP training for St Mary’s Vocational Training Scheme (VTS), doing GP appraisals and teaching/mentoring A-Level students who are interested in becoming doctors. Rishi is also the Clinical Lead for HCL’s Clinical Pharmacy service and was the borough’s COVID-19 vaccination lead for care home residents, housebound patients and pop-up sites.

Rishi leads the board at HCL and is passionate about the impact the organisation can have on the residents of central London and beyond. He is excited and proud to see the progress being made and how the organisation’s plans demonstrate agility and are evolving in an ever-changing landscape.
Dr Saul Kaufman

HCL Vice-Chair, St Johns Wood and Maida Vale PCN Clinical Director and GP Partner, St Johns Wood Medical Practice

Having previously worked in various Practices in neighbouring boroughs, Saul joined St John’s Wood Medical Practice as a GP in January 2016. He has also spent nine years as a colorectal clinical assistant at the North Middlesex Hospital and six years at the Urgent Care Centre in the Royal Free A&E.

He is the Clinical Director of St John’s Wood & Maida Vale Primary Care Network (PCN) and joined the board of CLH/HCL in 2020. In addition, he is the Clinical Lead for First Contact Physiotherapists (FCPs), leads on mental health and the community offer for the Demonstrator programme, and was heavily involved in the COVID-19 vaccination programme.

Saul is proud of what HCL has achieved so far and looks forward to working with his HCL colleagues to continue offering a high level of service to patients. He is particularly excited about the work of the Octopus programme and how it can shake up the way local residents’ health and wellbeing is managed.
Dr Afsana Safa

Clinical Director, West End & Marylebone PCN and GP Partner, Covent Garden Medical Centre

Afsana grew up in Camden and trained at Imperial College School of Medicine. She was a salaried GP at Marylebone Health Centre for 11 years before becoming a GP partner at Covent Garden Medical Centre, and has been the Clinical Director of West End and Marylebone Primary Care Network (PCN) since 2021.

She was also a member of the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) governing body from 2013 to 2021 and the cancer lead for North West London. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Afsana created and led the largest community COVID monitoring hub in England, which covered five boroughs and four A&E departments.

Having joined the HCL board in 2021, Afsana enjoys the work that PCN Clinical Directors do with HCL and believes that the strong HCL team underpins many of the organisation’s successes. She is also a board trustee of a charity called Amna that supports the mental health of refugees worldwide.
Dr Jan Maniera

Borough Medical Director, South Westminster PCN Clinical Director and GP, Millbank Medical Centre

Jan has been a GP for more than 30 years and a partner at Millbank Medical Centre since 1995. She was previously an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Imperial College Medical School, a GP trainer and Programme Director at St Mary’s and is a GPwER in dermatology. She was also heavily involved in the COVID-19 vaccination programme.

At the inception of South Westminster Primary Care Network (PCN) in 2019, Jan was elected Clinical Director, and in April 2021, she was appointed Borough Medical Director in readiness for the new North West London Integrated Care System (NWL ICS). She is also the Clinical Lead of the Demonstrator 20:80 programme, which will be a beacon for addressing health and wider inequalities in Westminster, and is the Clinical Lead for access.

She served as the Chair of Central London Healthcare (CLH) during a major change in the constitution, a new board, new governance and an MD appointment, and her work on COVID-19 vaccinations led to a CLH-wide collaboration for vaccinations at scale, which helped to form the foundation of how the Federation functions.
Dr Paul O’Reilly

GP, The Doctor Hickey Surgery

Following a brief stint in renal medicine, Paul has worked as a GP at The Doctor Hickey Surgery in Westminster for more than 20 years. The Practice is dedicated to patients who are homeless and he describes it as an immense privilege to care for some of the sickest and frailest people and make enormous improvements in their lives.

In the past, Paul has chaired the Local Medical Committee (LMC) and represented GPs as commissioners on the Central London Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). He is also a prison chaplain, currently at HMP Brixton.

Paul joined the HCL board in May 2022 and chairs the People and Culture Committee, which is charged with ensuring the wellbeing of its members’ workforce.
Ruth Sandu

Practice Manager, The Newton Medical Centre

Ruth has been the Practice Manager at Newton Medical Centre for eight years and joined the HCL board in August 2020.

A Child Psychologist by training, she began working in General Practice by chance. She soon discovered that the complexity and challenges of General Practice would become the driving force for her so she retrained to fit the role. She enjoys the operational side of her work and gets great satisfaction from contributing to other people’s growth and development.

As an HCL board member, Ruth appreciates being exposed to new perspectives and ways of doing things that she can take into the Practice she manages.
Dr Sheila Neogi

Chair, South Westminster PCN and GP Partner, Pimlico Health @ The Marven

A GP in Pimlico for 23 years, Sheila realised early on that she needed to get involved in system change in order to deliver the best care for her patients. She helped to create the prescribing incentive schemes, was a founding member of the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) governing body and helped with the formation of the South Westminster Primary Care Home.

More recently, she was a board member of the Westminster Federation, worked with the Primary Care board to develop and embed localised services for local Westminster patients, and was involved with the COVID-19 vaccination programme. She joined the HCL board in 2021.

Sheila enjoys mentoring younger doctors who wish to become GPs and hopes to continue helping patients in central London to focus on their physical and mental wellbeing.
Siobhan Browne

Chair, Regent Health PCN and Practice Manager, Paddington Green Health Centre

Siobhan started her career in General Practice at the age of 16. She joined a Camden Practice as a receptionist in 1992 and got her first Practice Manager role at Maida Vale Medical Centre. In 2009, she moved to The Westbourne Green Surgery where she worked for over a decade.

Siobhan has been the Chair of Regent Health Primary Care Network (PCN) since 2019 and became Practice Manager at Paddington Green Health Centre in 2021. Having worked as the Network Manager at Central London Healthcare (CLH) between 2015 and 2017, Siobhan joined the CLH/HCL Board in April 2022.

With a passion for General Practice, especially the issues of sustainability and workforce wellbeing, she is proud to work with other Practice Managers and support HCL’s members so they can thrive.

Our board

Kirstie Black

Dr Rishi Chopra

Dr Saul Kaufman

Dr Afsana Safa

Dr Jan Maniera

Dr Paul O’Reilly

Ruth Sandu

Dr Sheila Neogi

Siobhan Browne

Kirstie Black

Dr Rishi Chopra

Dr Saul Kaufman

Dr Afsana Safa

Dr Jan Maniera

Dr Paul O’Reilly

Ruth Sandu

Dr Sheila Neogi

Siobhan Browne

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