Governing Body

Dr Wilson trained as a pharmacist and completed an MPhil by research in pharmacology before training in medicine, graduating from the University of Birmingham in 1996.

He worked as a hospital doctor at both Leighton and Macclesfield hospitals before completing his training as a GP practice in Sandbach.

After times as a locum GP, salaried GP and then GP Partner in Crewe he returned to Sandbach where he's been a partner for the last 13 years.

As well has his varied clinical interests which include musculoskeletal medicine and holistic approaches, he is interested in quality improvement and leadership. He is particularly passionate about the value of generalist like district nurses, practice nurses and GPs and about the use of the front line the care professional voice alongside those that use the services, in the redesign and improvement of services.

Clare Watson started her role as Accountable Officer for the four Cheshire CCGs on 1st January 2019

Working in the NHS for over 25 years, Clare has a clear focus on integration and partnership working. Bringing her experience of transformation in Greater Manchester to commissioning in Cheshire, Clare has a passion for commissioning based on holistic health and wellbeing, making a real difference to local populations.

Since Clare’s appointment as interim Accountable Officer of NHS South Cheshire CCG and NHS Vale Royal CCG in September 2017 she has worked with GP Members and other partners to support primary care at scale, enabling general practice to thrive and transform. Her leadership of both CCGs delivered organisational and financial turnaround, leading the organisations out of special measures moving from inadequate to requires improvement IAF ratings in the first six months of her leadership.

Clare will bring her experience and passion for delivering place based integrated care and sustainability to her new role as Accountable Officer for the Cheshire CCGs. She will support the improvement of outcomes through developing Integrated Care Partnerships as well as leading the Working Together across Cheshire programme in order to make a real difference to the patients and public of Cheshire.

Lynda is a chartered accountant by profession and has worked in the NHS for over 25 years. After qualifying as a chartered accountant, Lynda moved into the NHS in North Wales initially in audit and then as Associate Director of Finance, looking after the financial accounts, a number of secondary care contracts and GP fund holding.

After a period of four years Lynda moved to the North West Regional Office as the primary care finance lead for the North West Region, and became the North West Primary Care Red Book expert. With the changes of government Lynda became involved in the development of many primary care initiatives including PCGs, PMS, PDS and ultimately PCTs.

Feeling the need to get back to the coal face, Lynda moved to South Cheshire and became the Head of Finance for the Central Cheshire and Crewe and District PCGs, this involved managing devolved PCG based financial budgets and a contracting portfolio including Mid Cheshire NHS Foundation Trust.

After the advent of PCTs, Lynda moved into the commissioning team, taking on performance, information and contracting and their related management accounting functions. This ultimately involved the development and implementation of payment by results. As the contracting function became more complex and the PCTs in East and Central Cheshire merged, Lynda became more focussed on the contracting agenda.

When CCGs were implemented Lynda decided to move back into mainstream finance and became the Chief Finance Officer for NHS Vale Royal and NHS South Cheshire CCGs. In 2019, Lynda interviewed for and was appointed to the Executive Director for Finance and Contracting for NHS Cheshire CCG.  This is a role Lynda feels very privileged to have been awarded and hopes to help improve the health outcomes of the population of Cheshire.

Tracey started her career as an NHS management trainee in Wales and went on to work in a number of acute and specialist trusts across the North West of England as a general manager. She has qualifications in project management, patient and public involvement, NHS management and executive leadership. Tracey sits on a national committee for NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) which makes clinical and cost effectiveness decisions on new treatments and technologies.

Joining NHS South Cheshire and NHS Vale Royal CCGs Executive Team in January 2018 as the Executive Director of Commissioning she went on to be appointed as the Executive Director of Strategy and Partnerships for the Cheshire CCGs in June 2019. Tracey brings over 20 years of NHS and third sector senior management experience with her along with a passion for leadership development and a track record of delivering clinically led service improvements. 

Tracey is very proud to be mum to two teenagers. When not at work, Tracey is a keen gardener (winning second place in the local show for her roses!). She plays netball defence for Cheshire stars netball team and volunteers as a befriender for a local organisation which reaches out to isolated individuals.

Neil joined the NHS in 2008 having previously worked in a variety of operational, planning and change roles in the banking sector. Neil was recruited to the NHS through a national leadership development programme and initially worked in the acute sector in both operational and change management roles before moving to Central and Eastern Primary Care Trust in August 2009.

Neil was involved in setting up NHS Eastern Cheshire CCG and went on to take the role as Director of Commissioning. Within this role Neil led the CCG commissioning agenda including; contracting and performance, primary care and also took on the role of Turnaround Director leading on the development and delivery of the CCG QIPP programme.

Prior to moving into commissioning 10 years ago Paula worked for 20 years in clinical services, both as an occupational therapist and a clinical manager. She has delivered and managed health care services in many of the NHS providers across Wirral and Cheshire and in social services too.

Paula is responsible for securing continuous quality improvements in the care delivered by providers of NHS care; including primary care, community, mental health, learning disabilities and acute hospital services. She is a passionate advocate of using patient and carer experiences to improve care.

Paula is also the lead executive director responsible for the statutory duties of the NHS to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, and the protection of adults at risk from harm.

Alongside this quality and safeguarding role, she is the lead Allied Health Professional in commissioning and promotes the involvement of therapy staff in commissioning work streams. 

Paula is responsible for commissioning the kind of care we want for ourselves and holding providers to account for achieving that standard.

Matthew started his role as Director of Governance and Corporate Development for the four Cheshire CCGs on 1 June 2019.

Prior to this Matthew has worked in both local authority and NHS organisations for over 17 years in a variety of roles. The early part of his NHS career was focused on the planning and delivery of health promotion and public health initiatives across Stockport and Eastern Cheshire before taking on more senior roles within Central and Eastern Cheshire Primary Care Trust, including the role of Assistant Director of Public Health. Matthew joined NHS Eastern Cheshire CCG in 2012 and has been responsible for the oversight and delivery of corporate services since then, including undertaking Board/Governing Body secretary responsibilities, and executive lead for communications and engagement.

Matthew is married with two children and lives in Macclesfield.

Dr Fiona McGregor-Smith BSc MB ChB MRCGP graduated from St Andrews University in 1983 and Manchester University in 1986. 

Fiona has been a GP Partner at Danebridge Medical Practice since 1991 where she is currently the executive partner. She has a particular interest in women's health.

She has held roles in clinical auditing and medical advisory previously for NHS organisations. She has most recently been the prescribing lead for the Vale Royal area working with the medicine’s management teams in the community and local hospitals.

Fiona is looking forward to helping the Governing Body develop a strategic approach to commissioning across the wider Cheshire footprint.

Originally from Aberystwyth in Wales, Gwydion most recently trained in Warwickshire and Staffordshire, and is currently doing research on musculoskeletal pain at Keele University. Gwydion has a variety of medical interests, particularly dermatology.

At weekends he enjoys gardening, woodworking and playing badminton. Gwydion is currently enjoying looking after a new brood of chickens.

Dr Rachel Hall joined the Middlewood group as a clinical fellow in 2019 and became a GP Partner in 2020. She is based primarily at Disley. Rachel has an interest in Sports Medicine and Acute Medicine. Prior to becoming a doctor, Rachel was a management consultant and maintains her enthusiasm for quality improvement and service design. When not at work, Rachel enjoys running (marathons) and triathlons (she is an Ironman!) and spending time with her family and dog.

Lesley has been a GP in Cheshire GP for 9 years following completion of her training in South Wales. Currently, she is a salaried GP in Neston.

Clinical Lead for NHS West Cheshire CCG in Planned Care for 8 years, in December 2019 she was voted by the West Cheshire GP Membership to become one of the Governing Body GPs for the NHS Cheshire CCG. She is also an Educational Lead for Health Education Northwest teaching GP trainees in Liverpool.

Lesley is passionate about leadership and education, through her role in the Governing Body she looks forward to improving care for patients across Cheshire.

Lesley lives in Cheshire with her family and enjoys being outdoors with them whatever the weather.

Pam is an Occupational Therapist by profession. She worked in Local Government for 32 years in social care, during which time she managed care homes, inspected and redesigned services and worked in various management positions. Her last role was Executive Director in Warrington where she managed adult social care; environmental health; trading standards; libraries; culture, sport and leisure services, and neighbourhood development. She was also a member of the PCT Board and Professional Executive Committee.

Suzanne graduated as a Chartered Accountant in 1996 having trained at Price Waterhouse first in Liverpool then in Manchester before working for several years in internal audit at Airtours plc.  From there Suzanne moved back into practice at Ernst & Young as a senior manager in their Business Risk Services division based in Manchester.

In 2007 Suzanne moved into the public sector and joined Transport for Greater Manchester (TFGM) as their Head of Risk and Assurance.  Other current roles include independent audit committee member for a social housing organisation in Lancashire, and lay member for NHS England’s pharmaceutical regulatory committee.

Peter is a qualified accountant living in Macclesfield. He works as a management consultant, coach and lecturer/trainer, predominantly in the healthcare sector.  He has 25 years of working with NHS organisations and has experience of the healthcare systems in Ireland and the United States,

He operates mainly in service development and change roles, with a particular interest in health economics and new capital investment.  He has extensive experience of delivering business cases for new schemes in primary, community and acute care, including mental health.  He also has a strong interest in leadership and management development.

Peter is fully committed to the aims and values of the NHS and recognises the enormous effort made by its dedicated and professional staff. Given the huge challenges faced by the NHS, he is also committed to helping ensure that the people of Eastern Cheshire have continued access to first-class healthcare services.

Peter also teaches part-time at Lymm High School, as part of a Manchester University outreach scheme.  He is active in the local community, as Welfare Officer at Tytherington Juniors Football Club and as a coach at Macclesfield Boys Boxing Club. He is married with four children.

Wendy’s commitment to the NHS over the last 20 years has been extensive and she recently completed her term of office as Chair of the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre.  She has held three previous Non-Executive Director positions in the NHS - Liverpool Heart and Chest Trust, Countess of Chester NHS Trust and the Walton Centre NHS Trust.  Other NHS activities include assessing for the ACCEA (Clinical Excellence Awards), coaching doctors in difficulty and being a voluntary mentor for a wide range of NHS staff.

Wendy is also in her fifth year as a member of the Board of Governors for Liverpool John Moores University.

As a result of her experience as a Change Director in both the private and public sector, Wendy was brought in to lead large-scale change projects in several UK central government departments as well as private sector organisations in France, Germany and the USA.  She continues to coach executives on handling change.

Wendy has always lived in the North West and has an honours degree in Psychology/Communication Studies from Liverpool University.  She has served as a school governor twice: one comprehensive school and one private charitable status school.  Wendy is also a Trustee on a private estate and was, for a time, a member of a regional NSPCC Business Board.

Mr Dan Howcroft MBBS MRCS FRCS (Tr&Orth) graduated from Newcastle University in 2002.

Dan undertook his Basic Surgical Training in South Manchester before securing specialist orthopaedic training on the West Midlands programme based out of the Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt (RJAH) orthopaedic hospital in Oswestry and the University Hospital of the North Midlands (UHNM) in Stoke. He was added to the GMC specialist register in 2013.

Since then he has worked for the Medical Protection Society (MPS) as a medicolegal adviser and now works as a medical director in the UK insurance business at Bupa. He is particularly involved in the network of clinicians and hospitals across the UK along with exploring novel ways of contracting that focus on getting the right outcome for patients. Aside from these roles Dan has been a member of the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) medicolegal committee and was a former Governor at RJAH and is currently a Trustee of a small musculoskeletal charity in London.

He currently lives in North Cheshire with his wife and two young daughters.

Dan is looking forward to helping the Governing Body explore greater integration between services and organisations that is made possible by the new Cheshire CCG that will help achieve the very best health outcomes possible for the residents of Cheshire.

Christine is a Registered Nurse who has had a long career in the NHS in a variety of roles from ward based roles in orthopaedics, hospital operational management to working with health and social care as a joint commissioner. Latterly working in a CCG as Executive Director for Quality and Safety and Deputy Chief Officer.