Helapet:net - Educational Initiatives

Tim Sizer
Director, Regional Quality Assurance, West Midlands
 

A pharmacist with 23 years experience in the NHS, Tim has had varied roles covering paediatrics, ITU and clinical nutrition, as well as the management of personnel and environments for the aseptic preparation of medicines, lecturer and researcher. He has at various times run classical sterile production units, non-sterile manufacturing and quality control laboratories for the NHS.

For 10 years Tim was the Course Director for the MSc in Pharmaceutical Technology and Quality Assurance, at the University of Leeds; and was responsible for postgraduate and CPD programmes for healthcare professionals with links to pharmaceutical activities at the University of Leeds.

Tim thoroughly enjoyed his role as a lecturer and administrator in the academic world, but has recently returned to the NHS to lead the quality assurance agenda for medicines preparation and use in the central region of England. He is now based at QCWM, the regional pharmaceutical laboratory in Kings Norton, Birmingham.

Tim is also an occasional consultant to the pharmaceutical industry, and is still involved in the development of parenteral nutrition services and works hard to keep up to date in this field.

• A member of Kings Fund Working Party on Clinical Nutrition. (1990 92).
• Founder Member of the British Association for Parenteral & Enteral Nutrition (BAPEN). Former BAPEN Councillor and current member of BAPEN Education and Training Committee.
• Current Vice Chairman, Past Chairman & Honorary Life Member of British Pharmaceutical Nutrition Group (BPNG).
• Past Advisor to Joint Formulary Committee for the British National Formulary (BNF).
• Co-editor of 'The CIVAS Handbook' (1993, 1998, 2009/10), with Richard Needle; and contributing author.
• Past Secretary & Current member of NHS Pharmaceutical Technical Services Education & Training Group.

Mark Oldcorne
Principal Pharmacist, Quality Assurance, Wrexham Maelor Hospital
 

Mark studied at the De Montfort University of Leicester and obtained his degree in pharmacy in 1980. He trained in hospital pharmacy before returning to University to a teaching and research post, specialising in aseptic processing, sterilisation, Good Manufacturing Practice(GMP), Quality Assurance and Quality Control, and pharmaceutical dispensing.

Returning to the hospital service in a senior position in 1990, Mark’s current role means he is responsible for the development and direction of the pharmaceutical Quality Assurance service in the Wrexham Trust and North Wales area.

He has additional responsibilities for Health and Safety, Information Technology; and research & development. His research interests include environmental monitoring and the development of ‘risk-reduced’ products for patients An advisor on Quality Assurance and control to other NHS hospital groups.

Qualified Person under the Provisions of the Medicine Act (1991 to date)

Member of Society of Environmental Engineers. (1988 2006)

Member of the PTQA Course Management Committee (University of Leeds) and Module Director for Module CONT 5010M Aspects of Pharmaceutical Technology and Quality Assurance

Member of Welsh QA/C and WASPP groups)

Part-time Teaching Fellow, University of Leeds.

Dr Richard Needle
Chief Pharmacist, Essex Rivers Healthcare Trust, Colchester
 

Richard Needle qualified as a pharmacist in 1979 having taken his pharmacy degree at Bath University. He returned to Bath University to undertake a PhD, which he completed in 1983.

After a short period of time working at the Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham, Richard moved to Colchester to take up a Technical Services post. He has been Chief Pharmacist for the Essex Rivers Healthcare Trust since 1996 and maintains a clinical specialist interest in Oncology and Palliative Care. Richard was chairman of the Pharmaceutical Aseptics Services Group from its inception until he stepped down in December 2006.

He is immediate past chairman of the Hospital Pharmacist’s Group of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and was a member of the Implementation Board for the NHS Pharmaceutical Manufacturing and Modernisation. He is a contributor to the Quality Assurance of Aseptics Preparation Services book, the Cytotoxic handbook and is joint editor of the CIVAS handbook.

Paul Tunstell
 

Paul qualified as a pharmacist in 1989 and worked as a rotational pharmacist for 3 years at Guy’s and Lewisham NHS Trust.

He developed an interest in technical services while working in classical manufacturing and QC and was appointed aseptic services manager at Guy’s and St Thomas in 1996. He combined clinical duties on the neonatal unit along with supervision of the TPN service to adults and children.

With the expansion of CIVAS and the incorporation of chemotherapy services into mainline production he dropped his clinical commitments to concentrate on production full time. He has been involved in a number of clean room build projects as well as IT, education and training and CIVAS development initiatives.

He is past course director for the Leeds Aseptic Preparation and Dispensing of Medicines course as well a member of the PTQA course management committee. He is past chair and secretary of the South Thames Aseptic Services managers group and an expert member of the Guy's Research ethics Committee.