Meet the Team

Doctors

Dr Mammen Ninan

GP Partner, MBBS MRCP MRCGP DRCOG

Works Mon pm, Tues am, Wed am & pm Fri am Dr Ninan is a GP with Special Interest in Cardiology and holds his clinics here. He also undertakes Minor Surgery inc. steroid injections and ingrowing toenail removal. Dr Ninan is also a Medical Undergraduate & Postgraduate Trainer. Dr Ninan is also GP Clinical Lead for Stroke Prevention for Lancashire & South Cumbria.

Dr Mohammed Umer

GP Partner, MBChB BSc MRCGP DROG

Work Mon am & pm, Wed am, Fri am & pm Dr Umer has an interest in Palliative Care. He is also Chair of Local Primary Care (Federation of general practices in Blackburn with Darwen).

Dr Jane Killalea

GP Partner MBChB MRCGP

Works Mon am & pm, Tues am Fri am & pm Dr Killalea graduated from Liverpool University in 2005 and completed my GP training in Merseyside in 2010. She joined the practice in 2014 and have interests in child health surveillance and women's health.

Dr Qashuf Hussain

GP Partner, MBChB BSc

Works Mon pm, Tues pm, Thurs am & pm, Fri am & pm Dr Hussain started off at the practice as our long term locum GP covering maternity leave and then became a salaried GP before joining the partnership. He works at the practice 4 days a week. He is our Undergraduate Training Lead.

Dr Safwaan Hafez

GP Partner MB ChB 2011

Works Mon to Thurs am & pm Dr Hafez joined the practice in March 2019 and became GP Partner October 2019. He is our Medicines Lead, Complaints Lead, Audits Clinical Workflow and is also an FY2 Trainer. He works at the practice 4 days a week.

Dr Akram Alzamani

MD (Doctor of Medicine) MRCGP

Works Tues to Friday am & pm Dr Alzamani graduated from medical school in 2002 and started practising in NHS from 2011 first with Acute care (A & E) experience followed by GP training in Bolton. Her interests are mental health and child health; Dr Alzamani is planning to expand her skills and knowledge in managing diabetes and skin diseases.

Dr Jill Davies

MBChB DRCOG DFSRH

Works Wed & Friday am & pm Dr Davies graduated from the University of Manchester in 2005. She completed her GP training in Manchester and worked there for several years before working for the extended access service in Blackburn with Darwen from 2016. She has interests in frailty and medical education

Dr Emilie Slack

MBBS RCGP

Works Tues to Thurs am & pm Dr Slack graduated from the University of East Anglia in 2016. She completed her GP training in August 2021 in Bristol. Her interests are women's health and palliative care. This year she is undertaking a diploma in Palliative Care at Cardiff University and hopes to use this to improve the care of palliative patients within the practice.

Medical Trainees

Dr Ouzmah Shafiq

Works Mon am & pm, Tues am, Wed am Dr O Shafiq is a GPST3 at Darwen Healthcare and expect to qualify as a GP in October 2020, she studied Medicine from Imperial College, London. Her General Practice speciality interests include Women’s and Child Health and previously completed Obstetrics and Gynaecology within the hospital setting.

Dr Oluremi Ige

Works Mon am, Wed to Friday am & pm I graduated from medical school in 2013 Joined Darwen healthcare in February 2021 as GpSt3. My interests are endocrinology, child health and acute care.

Dr Nwoyi Oka

Works Mon am & pm, Thurs & Friday am & pm Dr N Oka graduated from medical school in 2010. He joined Darwen Healthcare as a GPST3 in August 2021. His General practice Specialty interest include Endocrinology, respiratory medicine, and child health

Dr Muhammed Abbas

Works Mon pm Tues pm, Wed & Thurs am & pm I have more than 15 years of clinical experience of Hospital Medicine ( Internal Medicine). I joined Darwen Health Center as GPST1. My main interests are Elderly Population and Mental Health. I switched to primary care because I believe that there is more room to get connected to patients in Primary Care

Dr Motunrayo Alo

Dr Mo Alo Works Mon, Tues and Thurs. Graduated from medical school in 2009. Joined Darwen healthcare in August 2021 as GPST3. Her interests are child health and women's health

Clinical Associates

Clinical Associates are Health Professionals who have received intensive training in other types of clinical practice. They have then undertaken further intensive training to allow them to compliment the range of skills within general practice

Neil Sinclair

Physician Associate

Works Mon am & pm, Tues am, Wed am & pm, Friday am & pm Neil is currently our only Physician Associate. He works alongside GP’s to provide medical care and can assess, manage and treat patients of all ages with a variety of conditions. Neil carries out physical examinations, undertakes residential, nursing and home visits as well as reviewing, analysing and acting on diagnostic test results. Neil works autonomously through the guidance of his medical supervisor.

Simon Holden

Paramedic Practitioner

Works Mon am & pm Wed to Friday am & pm Simon joined Darwen Healthcare as a Paramedic practitioner seeing patients in clinic, and doing home visits. Previously to this Simon has spent 15 years registered as a HCPC Paramedic with North West Ambulance service and has 19 years altogether experience working on an Emergency Ambulance. With range of clinical skills from basic observations to 12 lead ECG interpretation, cannulation to intubation, trauma management, emergency medical presentations, acute exacerbation of chronic conditions.

Zeeshan Zulfeqar

Senior Clinical Pharmacist

Works Tues am & pm, Thurs & Friday am & pm Zeeshan is the Senior Clinical Pharmacist based at Darwen Health Centre and is the Senior Clinical Pharmacist for the Blackburn With Darwen locality. He has been working in general practice for the last 3 years and is an independent prescriber. His roles include general medication reviews, hypertension reviews, contraceptive pill reviews, dealing with medication queries, seeing patients for minor ailments, action medical mail such as hospital discharge letters, re-authorising repeat prescriptions and processing acute medication requests.

Claire Foster

Clinical Pharmacy Technician

I have worked in medicine management for 12 years. The majority of my work has been carried out in hospital and community pharmacy. Within my current role at the surgery I will work closely with the clinical pharmacist two days a week, helping with all types of medication queries, discharge letters and medicine reconciliation

Practice Nurses

Our highly qualified nurses deal with a range of conditions and health concerns. They examine patients, make a diagnosis and plan care, including prescribing certain products.They are experts in many areas of disease management such as diabetes and asthma. They can be seen during normal surgery hours – by appointment where possible – and at specific clinics.

Katrina Margerison

Works Monday am/pm Tuesday am/pm Thursday am/pm Katrina sees patients in clinic for Chronic Diseases such as Diabetes, Asthma, COPD, CKD, Childhood Vaccinations, Travel Immunisations and Cervical Screening. Katrina is also a mentor for Student Nurses.

Raesa Moosa

Works Monday to Wednesday am pm & Raesa holds Childhood Vaccination Clinics, Travel Vaccinations, Diabetes, Cervical Screening Clinics and NHS Health Checks. Raesa is also a mentor for Student Nurses.

Sarah Yates

Works Monday pm Tuesday all day Sarah sees patients in clinic for Chronic Diseases such as Diabetes, Asthma, COPD, CKD, Childhood Vaccinations, Travel Immunisations and Cervical Screening.

Assistant Practitioners & Health Care Assistants

Maria Slater

Works Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri am & pm Maria is an Assistant Practitioner and holds clinics for Phlebotomy, Blood Pressures, Well Person Clinics, CKD monitoring, Asthma, COPD, Pre- Diabetes & Diabetes Clinics and Learning Disability.

Terri Livesey

Works Mon, Tues, Wed & Friday am & pm Terri is a Trainee Assistant Practitioner and hold clinics for Phlebotomy, Blood Pressures, Well Person Clinics, CKD monitoring, Asthma, COPD, Pre- Diabetes & Diabetes Clinics and completes weekly chronic disease home visits for house bound and care/nursing home patients.

Gully Patel

Works Tuesday to Friday am & pm Gulnaz is a Healthcare Assistant and hold clinics for for Phlebotomy, Blood Pressures, Well Person Clinics, CKD monitoring, Pre- Diabetes and weight management

Eliot Wright

Works Mon, Wed, Thurs & Fri am & pm

Nurse Practitioners

Julia Mullaney

Advanced Nurse Practitioner

Works Mon to Thurs am & pm Julia is our Advanced Nurse Practitioner and works alongside our GPs in our on the day surgeries. Julia does home visits most mornings. Julia also sees patients with Chronic Diseases and is a mentor and Sign Off Mentor for Student Nurses and holds a Practice Teacher qualification.

Reception

The Reception Team are the first point of contact for the Practice and can help you find out about the services we provide. They are trained in Care Navigation and can direct you to the most appropriate Clinician to meet your needs

Louise Allen

Amanda Barton

Medical Receptionist

Sofia Bhobha

Apprentice Medical Receptionist

Tracy Davey

Joan Dougherty

Diane Hartley

Prescription Clerk & Medical Receptionist

Lewis Hartley

Jaqui Howard

Jess Kenny

Joanne Mclean

Debbie Taylor

Senior Receptionist

Sandra Ward

Shelley Pilkington

Prescription Clerk & Medical Receptionist

Prescription Team

Sarah Whittle

Sarah is the Prescription Team Administrator

Alex Johnson

Prescription Clerk

Brenda Smith

Prescription Clerk

Jess Kenny

Diane Hartley

Prescription Clerk & Medical Receptionist

Shelley Pilkington

Prescription Clerk & Medical Receptionist

Practice Management

Ann Neville

Practice Business Manager

Ann Neville is our Practice Business Manager and has worked at the practice since August 2013 starting in post as our Customer Service Manager and promoted to Practice Manager in December 2014 and Business Manager in 2018. Ann has many years experience in Management and has worked in several areas of the NHS including GP Practice, Physiotherapy, Cancer Services and within a Hospice setting. Ann is responsible for the smooth running of the practice and is here to assist you should you have any queries or comments regarding administration or non clinical aspects of your care. Ann can be contacted via reception on 01254 226691 or darwen.healthcare@nhs.net

Craig Robertson

Finance Lead Craig assists the business manager with several financial elements within practice such as payroll, pensions, claims and has been with the practice for 8 years.

Practice Leads

Nichola Wright

Quality Lead

Kim Cunningham

Operations Lead

Susan Taylor

Patient Engagement Lead

Administration

We have administrative staff including receptionists, Secretary, Clerical Officers and Notes Summarisers. All staff have undergone training and are ready to help you at any time. They may need to ask you for further details when you telephone for medical advice. – This is to ensure we can assist you as speedily as possible. All staff are bound by the same rules of confidentiality.

June Reid

Medical Secretary

Keri Byrom

Medical Secretary

Phillip Cribb

Note Summariser and Data Protection Officer

Gillian Turner

Gillian is our Nursing Team Administrator

Catherine Ditchfield

Clinical Coder

Eileen Pye

Clinical Coder

Research Team

Yvonne Rafferty

Works Friday am & pm Yvonne is our research nurse in the practice

Lewis Hartley

Attached Staff

Attached to the practice, we have a Community Matron, District Nurses, Health Visitors, Midwifery Staff, a Counsellor, Alcohol Dependency Service, Practice Pharmacist and drug counselling service. The District Nurses can be contacted on Tel. 226785 – they have an answerphone and messages are picked up daily. The Health Visitors can be contacted on Tel. 226796 - they have an answerphone and messages are picked up daily. Access to all other attached staff is after consultation with a member of the clinical team.