Who we are

External Committee Members

Dr Peter Carter OBE - Independent Management Consultant

Dr Peter Carter was the Chief Executive of the Royal College of Nursing from January 2007 to August 2015. The RCN is the world’s largest professional union of nurses. The RCN has a membership of over 430,000 nurses, midwives, health visitors, nursing students, cadets and healthcare assistants. Before assuming the post of RCN Chief Executive in January 2007 Dr Carter spent almost twelve years as the Chief Executive of the Central and North West London NHS Trust, one of the largest mental health trusts in the UK with and international reputation for high clinical standards and an operating budget of over £200 million. Dr Carter commenced his career by training as a psychiatric and general nurse. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel. He also has an MBA and PhD both from the University of Birmingham. He was awarded the OBE for services to the NHS in the 2006 New Years Honours list. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners and was awarded the Presidents medal from the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2001. He has honorary degrees from three Universities.  He is a visiting Professor at Kings College London and Anglia Ruskin University.  

During his extensive career he has written numerous articles and papers relating to health care and has also appeared on many TV and radio programmes in addition to extensive work with national and local newspapers. He was asked by the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown to serve on his commission in 2009. He was a member of the NHS review on mental health service commissioned by Simon Stevens CEO NHS England. He is also a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists commission on inpatient services. He has conducted investigations into series untoward incidents. He was invited to apply for the post of CEO at the RCN. During his tenure the RCN’s membership achieved record levels and the organisation won several national awards most notably for five consecutive years they have been in the Sunday Times top 100 companies to work for and have the Gold award for Investors in people. Since commencing at the RCN he has been included each year in the Health Service Journals top 100 influential people.

In February 2015 he announced that he would be leaving the RCN. He is now working as an Independent Management Consultant.

Hilary Meredith - CEO of Hilary Meredith Solicitors

Hilary is a Law Society Panel member, panel member of Headway and Spinal Injuries Association (SIA), member of American Association for Justice (AAJ) and International Bar Association (IBA), Chairman of the Royal British Legion Solicitors Group and member of the Parliamentary Gulf War Committee. She continues to work tirelessly for all her clients who have suffered life changing injury and in particular with armed forces personnel at military rehabilitation centre RAF Hedley Court in Epsom. Her goal is to improve quality of life for the armed forces - and particularly for those after medical discharge, through adapted housing, rehabilitation, increased mobility and vocational work. She is currently Editor in Chief of the Claims Management Magazine and has made many media appearances for TV and Radio including Panorama, World in Action, Sky News, News at 10 and most National and Regional news programmes. Her Twitter site currently attracts over 2000 followers including MP’s, Service Charities and Defence Journalists. Hilary is currently the official sponsor of Jamie Burdekin the wheelchair Paralympian who won a bronze in Beijing and is currently ranked 5th in the world. Hilary is also involved in a campaign to provide specialist equipment to reduce the effects of blast injuries by roadside bombs in Afghanistan (see website petition at (House of Commons petition). Her CV contains multiple successful cases of note in defence of military veteran personnel. Hilary is a Visiting Senior Lecturer in the Westminster Veterans centre at the University of Chester.

Dr Bhairavi Sapre Consultant Psychiatrist - Cheshire and Wirral NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Bhairavi Sapre is a General Adult Psychiatrist working for Cheshire and Wirral NHS Foundation Trust as a Community Psychiatrist Trustwide Perinatal Mental Health Service. She has been an NHS Consultant since 2011 with previous experience working as an Acute Care Consultant in and Community Psychiatrist working in adult mental health in Wirral.

She is also a serving medical officer, holding the rank of Lt Colonel, with 208 Field Hospital, Liverpool since 2002 when she first qualified as a doctor. During her time with 208 she has spent time at the Department of Community Mental Health, Catterick with her military counterparts and has attended numerous military psychiatry training courses and conferences in Trauma focused CBT and EMDR.

She was involved in delivering post operational stress management to personnel in her unit returning for Operation Herrick and takes a lead role in delivering psychiatrist training within her unit. More recently, she has worked collaboratively with the Liverpool Medical Institute in delivering a number of military psychiatry lectures on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Brigadier Robin Simpson, QHS - Professor of Military Primary Healthcare and Veterans Health and Defence Postgraduate Medical Dean

Brigadier Robin Simpson QHS is the Dean for the Defence Medical Services. He joined the Army in 1984. He has considerable experience of military General Practice having served all over the world including tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He became a GP Trainer in 1990 and has been teaching GPStRs ever since. He is an MRCGP Examiner (since 1995) and is presently responsible for the training of all MRCGP Examiners. He is the Honorary Secretary for Midlands Faculty RCGP.

Brigadier Simpson is particularly interested in making GPs more aware of veteran’s health issues and co-authored the RCGP document entitled “Meeting the Healthcare Needs of Veterans”. In February 2014 he successfully pushed RCGP council to support a motion calling “for more in support of military veterans in this 100th anniversary year of the Great War”.

His awards include:

• John Fry Medal for leadership of Paderborn Region British Forces Germany Health Services 1999. Presented by DGAMS.
• Knott Memorial Prize for outstanding contributions to General Practice in the Army 2004. Presented by DGAMS.
• Defence Medical Services General Practice Medal Nov 2012. Presented by Dr Iona Heath, President RCGP.
• Royal College of Surgeons Mitchiner Medal. December 2013. Presented by the President RCS.
• Order of St John. October 2014 confirmed by Her Majesty the Queen. 

Andy Simpson, Research Manager Royal British Legion

Currently Andy is leading on the Royal British Legion’s 2021 Household Survey of ex-military veterans. Prior to taking up his present position Andy worked with Help for Heroes. Andy also spent ten years working within the Ministry of Defence as Head of Profession for Community Development & Learning and as the Army Welfare Service Chief Community Development Officer.

Andy also has considerable experience within the university sector, initially as a Senior Lecturer before becoming Head of Division for Non-Formal Education & Social Pedagogy at the University of Birmingham.

Andy Bacon, NHS England & NHS Improvement, Head of Policy & Strategy for Armed Forces

Andy Bacon has been a senior health leader for over 20 years in England and overseas.  He has worked in the public and the charitable/not for profit sectors. He has also worked with and in primary care, community and hospital-based services (including specialist tertiary teaching hospitals). He has led both the providing of clinical services and in the commissioning, purchasing and procurement of them.  His areas of interest are armed forces health, mental health, health system management, developing integrated health care, and improving health in low income countries. He has been responsible for the delivery of new networks and types of providers to enhance the capacity of in the English National Health Service (NHS). He was also the Chief Executive of the only specialist children’s hospital in East and Central Africa.   His current job is developing the policy and strategies for the NHS support for healthcare for the Armed Forces community, having served for over 10 years in the Army as an infantry and staff trained officer before his work in health. He is “passionately curious” about finding new ways of improving people’s health. 

Andy holds and has held several non-executive posts in charitable bodies concerned with the armed forces and international health and is a past Trustee and Honorary Advisor of Tropical Health Education Trust. Most recently he led to the development of mental health awareness for peacekeepers from the Ugandan People’s Defence Forces, Kenya Defence Forces and management training for a mental health charity in India. He was awarded a Post Graduate Certificate in Global Mental Health in 2019 and appointed as a visiting professor at the University of Chester the same year.

Fiona Timmins, Professor of Nursing, Dean & Head of School at the School of Nursing, Midwifery, and Health Systems, University College Dublin

Fiona Timmins is Professor of Nursing, Dean & Head of School at the School of Nursing, Midwifery, and Health Systems, University College Dublin. She is a UCD graduate holding a Bachelor's Degree in Nursing (UCD, 1997). She also holds a master's degree in Educational Management (2000) from Trinity College Dublin and a PhD in the Nursing from the University of Glamorgan (2006). She has studied at the Open University (including BSc in Health & Social Care, 2005 and BA Open 2013).Her primary speciality is cardiovascular nursing, and she was appointed Nurse Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland within this speciality in 1998. She was also appointed as Nurse Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology in 2001. Her interest in this field continues and has expanded into the area of spirituality and in 2013 she formed the Spirituality Research and Innovation Group (SRIG) at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin. Fiona is an active researcher within this field, and also within the broader remit of professional nursing issues and nurse education and has published numerous papers (220 listed in Scopus) and 11 authored/co-authored textbooks. Her H-index (Scopus) is 27. She is Chief Editor of the Journal of Nursing Management, and Associate Editor at the Journal of Advanced Nursing, and has several representations on International Conference Committees (currently 3) and Editorial Boards/Advisory Panel (currently 10). She is also Visiting Professor at the University of Genova, Waterford Institute of Technology and the University of Maribor, Slovenia.

Abbie Fordham-Barnes, Associate Dean and Head of School of Nursing, University of Wolverhampton

Abbie started her nursing career in Birmingham when she qualified as a registered nurse in 1993, at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. She worked for the NHS for several years in emergency medical care before moving into higher education in 2000, when she qualified as a NMC Approved Registered Teacher. Abbie has a strong record of leadership in quality assurance for the disciplines of nursing, midwifery, and the allied health professions and this has been recognised by her Advance HE Principal Fellow award. In recent years she has been instrumental in promoting changes within the Faculty of Health. Education and Life Sciences at Birmingham City University, whilst transforming the quality of the student experience and supporting the Defence School of Healthcare Education staff and students. Pivotal to her success has been enhancing the quality of learning that meet the requirements of practice partners and professional bodies. This has required a deep appreciation of the military’s requirements, healthcare systems and professional ethics, as well as her ability to build and cultivate effective relationships with stakeholders. Abbie can work with academic and practice colleagues in a highly collaborative and consensual manner.

Abbie has recently joined the University of Wolverhampton as Head of School of Nursing and Associate Dean. Nursing is the largest School in the University with over 3,000 students, teaching across all three of the campuses, offering undergraduate and postgraduate programmes for resident and international students. The Head of School role is a senior academic leadership and management role with both institutional and local responsibility. The principal responsibilities of the Head of School are to provide academic leadership ensuring the school delivers excellence in the full portfolio of academic and research activity, within the context of the operation and strategic development of the Faculty and University. To lead on the academic and research development and enhancement of the School’s offer and to create new demand and meet the requirements of the existing market. To lead, manage and support School colleagues, including the school management team, by recruiting, developing, coaching, motivating, and managing their performance and promotions, and in so doing act as a role model for the behaviours and values espoused by the University. Abbie acts as a change agent to identify areas for improvement to enhance undergraduate and postgraduate programmes across the School, and she makes appropriate recommendations to help understand the future needs of the workforce across the Midlands. This is achieved by her ability to work collaboratively with partners to manage, monitor, and deliver agreed outcomes.

Abbie has had opportunity to undertake additional nursing roles, including the Deputy Polyclinic Manager at the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham. She was responsible for all elements of healthcare delivery and management at the Polyclinic in the Commonwealth Games Athletes Village, meeting the requirements of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF). The Polyclinic was the primary healthcare facilities for athletes and team officials who required medical assessment and treatment throughout the Games period. Abbie has extensive experience of being a registrant panel member for the Fitness to Practise Committee at the Nursing Midwifery Council, UK, and a registrant panellist for the Student Fitness to Practise Committee at the University of Manchester.

Abbie was awarded Doctor of Philosophy in professional regulation, fitness to practise in 2019, from Birmingham City University. She is a PhD supervisor, and she has also been an external examiner for PhD students at their Viva oral examination. Abbie is passionate about coaching, mentoring, and supporting others. She has a growing national reputation in health with a scholarly profile as demonstrated in her record of publication and other forms of scholarship. Abbie has presented at international and national conferences and undertaken consultancy to support her professional development.