Our Team
Our Team
We have a Board and Executive Team together with their central office staff. They are here to support all our GP practices, cutting down on local admin and applying best practice throughout Our Health Partnership.
The Board
Our Health Partnership is led by committed and experienced GPs and healthcare specialists. They share a passion for outstanding primary services and a deep practical knowledge of community healthcare. The board is made up of 8 elected GP partners, an appointed practice manager and 2 officers (Chief Operating Officer & Chief Pharmacist). The board is supported by a non–executive adviser. The Board is responsible for the central functions of Our Health Partnership, including accounting, HR, finance and CQC registration. It also investigates and shares best practice and innovation, provides a strong voice for the collective locally and nationally, manages our partnerships and is in constant communication with all our GP practices to support their individual needs.
Dr Vish Ratnasuriya MBE – Chair
Like many local GP’s, I graduated and trained in Birmingham and have continued to serve our local population. As a GP partner at Lordswood House Medical Practice in Harborne, I enjoy the variety that General Practice has to offer, from teaching medical students to looking after a nursing home and doing baby clinics. I particularly value the continuity of care for patients that a personal list system offers.
I have a special interest in Sports and Exercise Medicine, and was team doctor for Solihull Moors football club for 10 seasons. I was clinical contracting lead for the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital and musculoskeletal medicine across Birmingham for CrossCity CCG for over 5 years. I have jointly led the formation of the Alliance of GP providers in the BSOL STP, and I am also the RCGP Regional Ambassador for the Birmingham and Solihull, and Coventry and Warwickshire STPs.
Outside medicine I enjoy rock climbing, cricket, DIY, and playing the guitar, all whilst retaining a balance with family life, and I particularly enjoy doing the school run a few mornings a week
To me, OHP’s unique model allows GPs and practices to retain the best of diversity in general practice that has evolved to serve our different communities require, whilst the scale provides the platform to provide influence within the health system, to create efficiencies and most of all to make life better for patients and practices.
Dr Philip Saunders – Vice Chair
Having grown up in Guernsey, I qualified in Birmingham in 1991 and have worked here as a GP ever since. My practice is Ridgacre House Surgery in Quinton, which was awarded an Outstanding rating by CQC in 2016 and again in 2019, with a sister practice in Nechells. I owe much of my career progression to a valued team of colleagues that have supported me for the last 25 years.
I am the Clinical Director for Quinton and Harborne PCN. I was also elected by my colleagues to be one of two representatives for South Birmingham on the BSOL GP partnership board.
In the changing world of our NHS, I see Our Health Partnership providing stability and opportunity for our staff and patients. The current health climate is at risk of being shaped by politics rather than patient need. OHP lets practices and PCNs maintain their personality, but retain the strength of scale, something that are patients and our teams value.
Outside of my work, I am the proud father of 2 grown up children who are not following in my professional footsteps! I try and keep fit by playing anything with a racket with friends and colleagues, which has kept me happy and opened many doors over the years including meeting my wife!
Dr Helen Sweeney
I have been a GP partner in Small Heath in East Birmingham since 1997 and a GP trainer since 2008. I believe having the voice of a regular GP on the board is essential: I understand our contract, I understand the regulatory environment, I manage the seemingly inexhaustible patient need. I believe that OHP should continue to develop the core offer to support practices & have a strong voice in scrutinising the impact of other parts of the NHS on our work, pushing back where needed. As a GP trainer, I can harness my knowledge of the needs & aspirations of trainees to help support future workforce development.
Recently, I have become deputy clinical director of Bordesley East PCN. I value the financial governance provided by OHP to our PCN & appreciate the speed with which the OHP offer to PCN’s has been developed. Our PCN’s will face huge challenges as they develop as new public bodies. I see the opportunity for OHP supported PCN’s to work closely together to ensure that we get the best value for patients and practices from the resources due to come through PCN’s .
The revolution in digital healthcare presents opportunities & threats. We need to maximize the bene-fits of digital healthcare for our patients whilst ensuring digital developments do not lead to worsening health inequality, either directly through deliberately excluding ‘unsuitable’ patients or indirectly through creaming off well patients, potentially destabilising practices.
I support the strategic direction of the board members who have represented us so far & deeply appreciate their commitment, energy & creativity in carrying us forward. It would be a great honour to serve with them.
I have been a full time GP partner in Birmingham since 2010. Started off as a single-handed GP partner at Bunbury Road surgery, was thrown straight in the deep end at the start of my GP career, but not only managed to stay afloat but thrive and understand the general practice to its core.
With time, I realised that in order to sustain, grow and deliver quality of care to patients, the practice model should change and adopt to working in bigger partnerships. In 2015, merged with my neighbouring practice to form BG Health, same year as we joined the newly formed OHP.
In April 2021, we moved to our brand-new premises showcasing state of the art General Practice after merging with Granton Medical Centre. The new practice is called College Green Medical Practice, providing health care to the people in Bournville Northfield in South Birmingham.
I have been responsible for aligning several processes in our merged practice to enable us to continue to provide high quality of care to the patients in a safe, effective, and efficient way.
I am also care home lead, PCN lead, Cancer, and Palliative Care lead for the practice.
I am the Care home and Cancer lead for the PCN.
I have been a Macmillan GP Facilitator for BSOL CCG and work alongside the Cancer Leads and commissioners to improve the Cancer care in general practice until March 2022 when the post ended. My experience over the last few years in this role has helped me to develop a strategic vision and my main interest has been helping the PCNs deliver the Cancer DES and developing the cancer champions. We were instrumental in the role out of the FIT programme in Birmingham in the last 12 months and prior to few years ago we helped in rolling out the ReSPECT forms in the BSOL area.
I am passionate about teaching as this helps us to instil our love for general practice in the younger generation and grow and support our fraternity. I enjoy my role as a GP trainer and Year 4 undergraduate tutor for Birmingham University.
I came to the UK in 1997, after graduating from South Gujarat University in western India times when internet was considered a luxury and foreign world an unknown territory but in the last 25 years this foreign land is my home now.
I am a mother to two young girls, love outdoors, especially hiking in the peaks and Indian classical dancing.
I enjoy cooking curries as long as it’s not a daily chore.
I am looking forward to working with other inspirational people in OHP to drive our love, passion, and vision forward.
I work as a full time GP at Kingsbury Road Surgery. I have been a GP over 14 years and keen to make General Practice a desired vocation once again. I am a GP trainer and Program Director HEE and teach medical students from Aston and Birmingham Medical Schools. I am excited to be part of the General Practice Staff and Allies EDI Network and we aim to work towards improving opportunities for staff and create a level playing field for across all job roles. I have in recent past held position of Clinical Director of a PCN and GP Specialist Advisor to the Care Quality Commission.
I trained in Liverpool and completed the Merseyside VTS in 2009. I then worked as a Family Physician in rural Canada for 5 years before returning to the UK, settling in Sutton Coldfield in 2014. I first worked in Erdington as a salaried GP at the Dove Medical Practice and then as a Partner in Sutton Coldfield at the Manor Practice since 2015.
In 2020 I became the Clinical Director of the Alliance of Sutton Practices PCN, which includes both OHP and non-OHP practices as members. In my time as CD I have grown the PCN to 10 WTE team members supporting quality improvements across the practices: a core pharmacist team, 3 Physician Assistants, a First Contact Physio, Care Coordinators and Social Prescribers.
In my experience as a CD, I have found that the support that OHP affords the PCN in governance, contractual issues and anticipating upcoming changes has convinced me of the importance of working together at a super-partnership level. I have experience of collaboration at locality level, having worked with the practices that would become SCGP on the ACE nurse project that helped manage frailty and reduce admissions. We are currently working together to promote GP input on the development of the North Birmingham Integrated Care Service Model.
I have been closely involved in the OHP population health data project, including the collaboration with Birmingham City University, which has resulted in a PhD student working with OHP. I see real potential in having combined resources and access to data to make meaningful changes to inequalities and the health of our patients, as well as providing solid metrics upon which to build bids for service development.
I qualified from Nottingham in 1995 and have been a full-time partner in Much Wenlock & Cressage in beautiful rural Shropshire since 2002. My particular interests include Teaching & Training (undergraduate tutor with Keele and now a GP Trainer), musculoskeletal medicine and Sports & Exercise Medicine, having spent a number of years working with Shrewsbury Town FC. With Jennie’s imminent retirement I am now about to embark on the role of senior partner! Despite the obvious changes within the practice, I feel that now is the perfect time for me to take on a new challenge and joining the board at OHP seems a logical step. The warm and inclusive approach from the board members at the recent Shropshire partners event only helped to reinforce this.
We have been an OHP practice since 2017 and during that time I have seen how much Jennie has enjoyed working with the OHP board and have experienced what can be achieved through collaborative working. I have come to understand and appreciate the importance and strength of our practices working together and supporting each other. I believe we are stronger within OHP and that with a collective voice we can be successful in influencing change and representation on the new ICS. It remains vital that our Shropshire practices are well-represented within the local health care economy and also within OHP and I am passionate about continuing with all the previous hard work that has gone on to maintain this. It will be a privilege to represent our group of practices and I look forward to working with Paul and the OHP board, on behalf of us all.
Outside of medicine I love spending time with my family, walking the dogs and camping holidays. I am a huge football fan and still help to manage a junior Sunday league team.
Having grown up in the Rock of Gibraltar, I qualified as a Doctor with an additional intercalated degree in Health Promotion from Cardiff University in 1995. I am interested in Public Health and moved to Mexico City for eight years working in Primary Care and Hospital settings. In addition, I was an assistant lecturer in Public Health at a Mexican Medical University.
I returned to the UK in 2004 and completed my GP training in Surrey VTS. My husband and I decided to relocate to Shropshire for family reasons. I started working as a Salaried GP in 2008, then becoming a partner at Portcullis Surgery, Ludlow in 2013. I currently work full time as the Business Partner aswell as a GP trainer and thoroughly enjoy the mixture of duties my job entails: teaching and mentoring, managerial and clinical.
I was the Public Health and Education lead for Shropshire CCG from 2013 to 2016. Within South Shropshire PCN I have led on provision of Extended Hours. Medically, I have a special interest in Teaching, Gynaecology and Family Planning and also enjoy working in Elderly Care. We are lucky in Ludlow to continue to support the Community Hospital.
I really like the OHP model which allows practices to retain their own autonomy whilst enjoying the advantages of scale and joint leadership. I am passionate about providing excellent medical health care within rural communities and I am hopeful that I can offer this perspective to the OHP Board. I also consider myself a Champion for returner doctors as I know how challenging a move to a different medical system aswell as a subsequent return to the UK can be.
Outside of Medicine, I enjoy travelling, Zumba and swimming. I love spending time with our four children and my baby grandson.
Hi all, my name is John Hood and currently look after The Oaks Medical Centre and Blackwood Health Cente as well as supporting KEN PCN in a Stregic and Service Design role. I’ve been in Geneal Practice for 6 years now, having spent 8 years previously in secondary care in variety of roles including Operational and Management roles in A&E, Cardiology, Regional Capacity and Complex Discharge. It is my hope I can utilise my experience of the different sectors, as well tap into my special interests in informatics and new technology to support the board and help OHP and its Practices to meet its strategic and business objectives.