The following staff changes have taken place in line with our recruitment policy to offer development opportunities to internal staff before advertising them on NHS jobs.

Welcome Toni Coulson to the Projects Assistant Role

Most members will know Toni from her Business Support role within the Sunderland GP Alliance, assisting with accounts and also more general queries. As of 24th July 2017 Toni will move into a secondment in her new role as Project Assistant and will be supporting Contract Delivery Manager Tara McGwinn on the Community Integrated Team Project and NHS England Clinical Pharmacy Pilot, along with other smaller locality based projects.

“Over the past year I have undertaken a role as Business Support Assistant at the Alliance which has been a great opportunity for me to gain experience within the health service. I am very much looking forward to building on this experience and moving onto a new challenge as Project Assistant.”

Welcome Robyn Graham into the Finance Assistant Role

In order to backfill Toni’s main finance responsibilities, Robyn has joined us on a fixed term contract to support SGPA in this role. Practices should continue to use the [email protected] for invoicing and any telephone queries should be directed to Robyn.

Welcome Karen Brook to the Project assistant Role

Karen has joined us on a fixed term contract to provide project support to the Enhanced Primary Care Programme as it moves into the third year.

Karen’s career started within a GP Practice setting in 1990, before progressing in 2000 working for a number of NHS providers and organisations where she built up a significant amount of Administration/PA and leadership experience throughout the past 27 years.

She has held various diverse roles working in a variety of NHS fields which helped her gain a fundamental and passionate understanding of the NHS and requirements of the patient within Community and Acute services. More recently she has been working within Secondary Care for the Continuous Quality Improvement Team for South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust. She has led and project managed the implementation of new processes and procedures to ensure effective standard service delivery on projects and pathways within the Trust and Community Services.

Welcome Maggie Cross Nurse Manager Clinical Services

Maggie is an RGN with 17 years’ experience in clinical settings. She spent 13 years in acute care and 5 years in primary care and has also worked overseas. Maggie has specialised in working with practices needing extra support and in the training of nurses new to primary care.

She is delighted to join the GP Alliance on a fixed term as our Nurse Manager for Clinical Services working to enhance primary care across Sunderland. Maggie will lead on the post discharge pilot currently underway in the Washington locality and will pick up other areas of responsibility which require clinical / nursing input.