Meet our Board

Patrick Mitchell (he/him)

Patrick has lived in north Lambeth for over 15 years but his association with the borough goes back to the early 90’s when he was a manager at Guy’s and St Thomas’s. He has a 38-year service record in the NHS and joined Healthwatch seeking to help address the inequalities that exist in both access and experience of the NHS for some parts of our community. His last role was Director of Innovation, Digital and Transformation at Health Education England, the training and education body for the NHS. He has held senior roles at the Department of Health, St George’s Healthcare and Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust. He also worked for PwC in their California practice in San Francisco.

His interests lie in workforce development and in particular how organisations can better utilise the skills and capabilities of all the healthcare professions. He brings an expertise in how digital technologies impact on the NHS workforce and the resulting education & training implications having overseen the widely acclaimed Topol Review, led by Dr Eric Topol of the Scripps Institute in San Diego.

Patrick has recently stepped down as Vice Chair of Framework, a large homeless charity covering the East Midlands, and continues to have an interest in this area, including the causes of homelessness and how we overcome them to provide people with safe homes. He also holds an Honorary Professorship at University of Coventry.

Our Board

Eileen Pembridge (she/her)

Eileen studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University and went onto study postgraduate courses in Languages at Bath University. After her studies, she went on to work for various United Nation bodies as a scientific translator.

In addition to this, Eileen was a practising solicitor for 45 years within Lambeth, Southwark and Central London and retired in February 2020. Eileen splits her time living both in Lambeth and Wiltshire where she has a cottage. Eileen keeps her professional knowledge up to date by attending meetings and lectures as a committee member of the Royal Institution on the latest developments in science.

In her spare time, she volunteers with Cranbourne Chase AONB doing environmental work, going for walks and dinghy sailing at Chichester Harbour and Blashford Lake. Furthermore, Eileen continues practising her French, Russian and Spanish via reading and listening as well as visiting museums and theatres.

After retiring, Eileen was looking for something worthwhile to do whereby she came across Healthwatch Lambeth. Her goal for Healthwatch Lambeth is for the organisation to be better known amongst residents and primary care services.

André Blackman – Strategy and Programmes Committee Chair

André Blackman is a graduate of Exeter University Masters of Art in International Affairs and Diplomacy. Professionally, he has over 10 years experience in Internal Control and Quality Assurance in Higher Education. André continues to help institutions and colleges review and improve the way standards are maintained within Higher Education and related industries by implementing processes and policy mapped to regulatory and sector expectation, and preparing reports that analyse and summarise data.  

André is committed to giving back and, as well as being on the board of Healthwatch Lambeth, he is a Governor of Langford Primary School and Wilberforce Primary School (part of the United Learning Trust).

Fran James

I have experience of regularly interacting with a wide range of local health and social care services as a carer for two family members. My work experience is primarily in the public sector, having been a civil servant for 20 years, working in policy development, implementation and strategy roles. Alongside caring responsibilities, I run a football and climate change newsletter. I also have a long-standing interest in community activity including having recently been Vice-Chair of the Friends of Streatham Hill Theatre.

I have been a Public Member of the National Institute for Health and Care Research, Research for Social Care Committee since 2020, and have also sat on additional funding calls as a member of this committee on Mental Health and Dementia; Equality, Diversity and Inclusion; and (with UKRI) the Transforming Care and Health and Independence at Home Panel.

I decided I wanted to become a trustee of Healthwatch Lambeth to combine my personal experience of health and social care services, my interest in community activity, and my skills from working in the public sector, to help move the critical mission of the organisation forward.

Ruth Atkinson

Ruth has a first-class Bachelor’s degree in English Literature from the University of Sussex and a Master’s degree in Human Rights from University College London. Since graduating, Ruth has been working in research and policy roles within a range of organisations including Imkaan, AVA (Against Violence and Abuse), Fulfilling Lives Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham and is currently the Associate Director of Evaluation at Kantar Public whereby she works within mixed social research. Additionally, Ruth has a wide-ranging volunteering background which includes teaching English to children in Peru and was a researcher in Argentina and is currently a befriender for Age UK Lambeth. Her expertise lies within public policy and violence against women and girls.

Tom Lee (he/him) – HR Committee Chair

Tom has a history of volunteering including volunteering for micro-finance projects in Samoa and he was previously a volunteer adviser and chair for the Refugee and Migrant Forum in London and Essex. He has extensive experience working for the NHS and Cancer Research UK notably in project implementation, developing performance indicators and he led Cancer Research UK’s Intelligence function to ensure that research data has the greatest impact on policymakers. Currently, Tom works as the Cancer Portfolio Lead for NIHR (National Institute for Health and Care Research).

Andrew Dobson (he/him)

Andrew has lived in Lambeth for 40 years. He was involved, as a volunteer, with Healthwatch Lambeth in its early days and with its predecessor Lambeth LINk. He has spent recent years volunteering at a community hospital in remote rural Uganda, and now continues this part-time remotely.

Andrew is a mathematician, and has worked in the public, private and voluntary sectors, as an operational research, financial and systems analyst, statistician, IT system developer and data scientist. For 18 years, he was a government analyst and senior manager of analysts. For the last 17 years, he has worked full-time, mostly pro-bono, with non-profit organisations in London and East Africa. The work in Uganda has been to build local capacity in a variety of ways, including systems development, strategic planning for a nursing school, coaching local staff to undertake and publish health research, and day-to-day use of data and analysis.

Locally, he was a trustee of a small user-led domiciliary care co-operative, for 8 years. He also helped set up the Operational Research Society’s Pro Bono OR service, which provides pro-bono consultancy to charities.

Having returned to Lambeth this year, he has rejoined Healthwatch Lambeth, believing it has a crucial role to play in our democracy and in tackling unfairness, and wants to put his skills to maximum value towards its aims. He has a Ugandan wife and daughter, who he is now trying to help navigate such things as the NHS.

Dr Chioma Okonji

Chioma graduated from University College London with a degree in Medicine. As a doctor, she has a passion for improving patient care and community health. Serving as a trustee for Healthwatch Lambeth, she leverages her frontline healthcare experience to advocate for the needs and voices of local residents. Chioma is particularly interested in health equity, patient engagement, and the intersection of healthcare delivery and policy. She is committed to ensuring that all members of the community have access to quality healthcare and that their experiences drive meaningful service improvements.

David Maguire 

David has lived in Lambeth for 5 years, since moving over from Northern Ireland. He works as a Senior Analyst, supporting the leaders of health and care systems across the country bring health and social care organisations together to provide better care. 

Previously, he worked at the King's Fund as an analyst across a range of topics, from health inequalities to NHS performance and at the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland where he worked on bringing the public voice into public health and the provision of domiciliary care and high-cost children's care.

Jennifer Walker 

Jennifer comes from Brixton and is an advocate for more inclusive practice in public services - underpinned by her experience in mental health services over the years which has exposed her to persistent disparities across the health service, whether that be in mental health or general health. Jennifer has a background in data and performance improvement, specialising in population health - using data to report patient journeys to support service improvement and change.

Jennifer is passionate about grassroots-led change, believing there is nothing more powerful than cultural intelligence. She has also been exploring health inequalities at a community level through project work as a cofounder of a non-profit grassroots group working in Lambeth and South London. The group focuses on empowering marginalised communities through transformative practices which value their lived experience. 

Jennifer has a keen interest in addressing health inequalities and believes that this can be improved by encouraging not only wider but deeper engagement. By becoming a trustee Jennifer believes she can campaign for the community. 

Max Ottaway

Max lives in Kennington and is a qualified Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) who has spent the last three years in KPMG’s Finance Transformation Consultancy team. Works closely with global financial services institutions to develop strategies which drive financial efficiency and implement innovative solutions.

Zahra Abbas 

Zahra has worked in the healthcare sector for over 15 years at national and local level both within public policy at the national regulator and as a senior management consultant at PwC. She is  excited by the opportunity to contribute to the mission of Healthwatch Lambeth and support the organisation to ensure it fully represents the patient voice in Lambeth, including hard to reach communities. Zahra and her family have lived in Lambeth for decades, making her acutely aware of the issues faced by many of our communities with regards to health and social care.