Involving patients is at the heart of all we do.
We have appointed Lay partners and Lay associates to work with us.
Lay partners
Lay partners are appointed by open application and interview. Successful applicants are appointed for one year in the first instance with the option to renew for up to three years by mutual consent.
Douglas Findlay – Lead Lay Partner
Douglas is a learning and development specialist with a background in the pharmaceutical industry. He is an NHS patient and has been a carer and advocate. Douglas is involved with a number of NHS organisations in a lay capacity. He started his voluntary work as a board member of his local Healthwatch and as a patient leader at his local NHS trusts. His work has grown and now also includes regional and national projects. In October 2019 Douglas formally joined the Oxford AHSN.
Georgina McMasters
Georgina is a retired public sector solicitor. She has been a patient/public contributor since 2007. Her extensive involvement experience includes sitting on patient panels, contributing to Care Quality Commission inspections and providing patient stories to NHS leadership training. Georgina is a rheumatology champion, working with the Oxford AHSN to raise awareness of inflammatory arthritis.
Alison Provins
Alison has a background in financial services specialising in customer experience, staff development and change management. She now uses this experience to help a wide range of organisations to improve. Alison is a lay representative for Health Education England and a member of the Pharmacy Executive Stakeholder Group at the University of Reading. She completed the Leading Together programme in 2016. Her Oxford AHSN roles include membership of the Patient Experience operational group and Patient Safety Collaborative oversight group.
Karen Swaffield
Karen is passionate about the NHS and patient and public involvement in all public committees and groups, at all levels. She is an advocate for marginalised and disadvantaged groups with a background in education, training and development. Karen has experience of caring, dementia, learning disability, ASD, ADHD and life-limiting disease. Read more about Karen’s roles here.
Lay associates
Lay associates are patients, carers or members of the public who work with the Oxford AHSN on specific time-limited projects and are appointed through an internal selection process.
Adrian Barker
Adrian’s professional background is in local authorities and national level local government organisations. More recently he has been on a Healthwatch board, a Health and Wellbeing Board, chair of a youth counselling charity, a lay member on a CCG governing body and a public member on the NIHR Public Health Research Funding Board. His current roles include chair of a patient participation group, patient leader at the Royal Berkshire Hospital and membership of local committees on public and patient engagement and on mental health.
David Cooper
David has over 15 years’ experience in organisational improvement and change management in the NHS, most recently at the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, where he implemented the Hospital at Night programme and was a Lead Governor from 2014-2017. David has a particular interest in expanding the role of dialogue and engagement as tools for designing and implementing solutions in complex systems.