Meet our Primary Care Pharmacy Expert Advisory Group
Stacey Middlemass (Chair)
Declaration of Interests
Contact PCPEAG
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Stacey Middlemass (Chair)
Hi, I'm Stacey, I currently work as Co-Head of Training and Development for Core Prescribing Solutions - one of the leading providers of clinical pharmacy services in primary care. I am a practicing Independent Prescribing Pharmacist with almost a decade of experience across Community Pharmacy, Outpatient Pharmacy and Primary Care. I am focused on optimisation of patient care through clinical consultations, service development, and training and education of clinicians. I specialise in Pain Management, Anticoagulation and Minor Illness. I pride myself on my motivation and ambition to exhibit a holistic and MDT approach, prioritising improving health literacy and shared decision making to maximise patient consultations and improve outcomes.
I have studied to complete various clinical qualifications: at The University of Bradford (Master of Pharmacy with Distinction, 2014), Sheffield Hallam University (Independent Prescribing, 2018), The University of York (Managing Minor Illness in First Contact Care, 2019), RPS (Core Advanced Pharmacist, 2023). I have worked across various pharmacy settings, supervising and delivering training for a range of Primary Care staff: Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians, Trainee Pharmacy Technicians, GP Registrars, Health and Wellbeing Teams, Physician Associates and Community Pharmacy Teams.
Raj Bajwa
Raj has been a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society for 30 years, studying pharmacy at King’s College London then medicine at Southampton Medical School before embarking on career in general practice in Little Chalfont, Buckinghamshire. He is a medical educator and appraiser and for 12 years was the PCT and then the CCG Medicines Management Lead before becoming the Clinical Chair of Buckinghamshire CCG in 2016.
Raj was designated as a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners in 2015 and also awarded an AHSN Fellowship that year to enable him to complete his Masters in Evidence-Based Health Care at Oxford University in 2017. He has an interest in maximising the “allocative, technical and personalised value” of healthcare and completed the Building Collaborative Leadership Course at the Kings Fund in 2020.
Raj is involved in the development of his local Integrated Care System and works closely with Training Hubs and Primary Care Networks to develop the multi-disciplinary primary care workforce. He believes that this is an exciting time for pharmacy with real opportunities for pharmacists to expand their roles in primary care, utilising their skills and talents to the fullest extent in a professionally rewarding manner for the benefit of patient care.
Shasta Chimhau
I am a registered Pharmacy Technician and have worked in pharmacy for over 15 years. I started out working in community pharmacy where I qualified as a Pharmacy Technician and went on to work in hospital pharmacy.
In 2016, I joined Buckinghamshire CCG’s Care Homes team as the first Pharmacy Technician in the team. In this role I developed a medication standards audit tool for systems and processes review in care homes which focused on reducing medicines waste and implementing best practice guidance in care homes.
I currently work in the Medicines Optimisation Team at the CCG supporting with General Practice work and have a good understanding of how Primary Care works. I am the lead for the PCN Pharmacy Technician Network in Buckinghamshire, and I am committed to championing for the role of Pharmacy Technicians in Primary Care and highlight the great contribution Pharmacy Technicians make to the profession.
I look forward to using my knowledge and experiences to help shape the future of pharmacy and to support other pharmacy professionals through this group.
I also lead the Buckinghamshire CCG BAME Network, and this is something I am very passionate about. I strongly believe the workplace should be a diverse and inclusive place where everyone feels like they belong, and our differences are celebrated and embraced.
Rosie Furner
I registered as a pharmacist in 1991, having first qualified as a pharmacy technician. I have spent most of my pharmacist working life in East Sussex, starting in acute pharmacy services, with a brief interlude in health authority work, before returning to acute. My roles have spanned from clinical pharmacist to leading the clinical pharmacy team, via medicines information and formulary pharmacist posts. In 2009 I made the move to community health services, which reminded me how much I’d missed the patient facing elements of being a pharmacist, and opened up a whole new world of pharmacy. The challenges of providing patient care away from an acute setting was a novel experience, requiring some creative solutions at times, whilst maintaining patient safety and care at the centre of practice.
I also led the pharmacy education and development team. This included supporting the development of a multisector vocational programme for pharmacists, and opportunities for integrated posts for trainee pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. This facilitated collaborative working across the interface, and opportunities to network with colleagues in other care sectors.
I was seconded to Specialist Pharmacy Services (SPS) in 2022 and have since been successful in securing a permanent position. I am part of the team that aids organisations in the use of PGDs and other medicine supply/administration mechanisms in practice. I support the development of national PGD templates and associated resources as part of the wider SPS ‘Do Once’ programme. I also contribute to the SPS PGD/medicines mechanisms query answering service.
Clair Huckerby
I joined Our Health Partnership, a GP Superpartnership responsible for ten PCNs in Birmingham and Shropshire with a population c. 450,000 as Consultant Pharmacist and lead for workforce in January 2020. Since then, my role has developed and I am now the Chief Pharmacist and Chief Partnerships Officer, I continue to work in general practice as a Consultant Pharmacist leading a team of c.70 pharmacists and technicians, who were delighted to win the PCPA Primary Care Pharmacy Team of the Year award 2024.
Prior to this I worked in Dudley as a Pharmaceutical Adviser and Consultant Pharmacist for 17 years leading and developing a large team of primary care clinical pharmacists winning multiple national awards for delivering innovative care.
I qualified as a Pharmacist from Bradford University in 1996 and spent the first year’s post qualification working in hospital and community pharmacy, prior to starting a career in primary care in general practice in Birmingham.
I have a passion for developing the role of clinical pharmacists and allied health professionals and over the last 25 years have pushed boundaries becoming one of the first pharmacist prescribers in the country in 2004 and the first primary care Consultant Pharmacist in the country in 2017.
I have a special interest in renal and cardiovascular medicine and have worked for NICE as an expert advisor authoring a number of clinical guidelines. Recently was appointed as the CVD Primary Prevention Clinical Lead for Birmingham and Solihull ICB. I am an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham School of Pharmacy.
Tom Kallis
Tom Kallis is a clinical pharmacist and research fellow, with experience of working across several sectors of primary care in Devon and Cornwall. He qualified from King’s College London and started his career in community pharmacy, before later moving into general practice. Alongside this, he was the vice chairman and project pharmacist for Devon Local Pharmaceutical Committee, later becoming the Training and Development lead for the organisation. He has clinical interests in the management of depression, anxiety, chronic pain and insomnia in primary care, as well as delivering structured medication reviews for patients with complex polypharmacy.
Tom is also the co-lead of the Cornwall GP Pharmacy Forum, which promotes peer learning and facilitates local interdisciplinary working through quarterly events. In addition to this, he supports with teaching on the independent prescribing course at Bath University and is an organising committee member for the South West Pharmacy Research Network.
Tom was one of the first pharmacists nationally to be awarded a ‘PhD for Primary Care Clinicians’ fellowship in 2023, a Wellcome-funded doctoral grant through the NIHR School for Primary Care Research. Based at the University of Exeter, his research is interested in how pharmacists make decisions when navigating clinical uncertainty involved with reviewing polypharmacy in practice-based primary care roles. Alongside his academic role, he maintains his clinical practice part time in general practice.
Jennifer McCutcheon
Jen is Lead Clinical Pharmacist for South East Oxford Health Alliance (SEOxHA) Primary Care Network (PCN) and was previously the PCN Clinical Lead Pharmacist for Oxfordshire CCG.
Jen graduated from The University of Nottingham, and qualified as a pharmacist after a pre-registration year at Oxford University Hospitals (OUH). She undertook a role as a Resident Pharmacist at OUH, while completing a Masters In Clinical Pharmacy from the University of Cardiff.
After qualifying as an independent prescriber and over eight years in secondary care Jen decided to take on the challenge and moved to a new role that was part of the Pharmacists in General Practice Pilot with four practices in Aylesbury. Recently she has established a new pharmacy team and service within the SEOxHA PCN, while working clinically to provide a service to each of its four practices, and forging better links with the community, hospital and clinical commissioning pharmacy teams in her link role with the CCG.
She has particular interests in patient safety, quality improvement, pain, anticoagulation and frailty.
Hadeel Mohamed
Hadeel is a senior pharmacist prescriber with a background in hospital and general practice.
She is currently Deputy Head of Clinical Pharmacy and Education Lead for a GP Federation in Leeds and has recently taken on the role of polypharmacy clinical lead for Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber. Hadeel has a keen interest in education, training and research, and volunteers as a RPS mentor, where she encourages the development of pharmacists to recognise their own accomplishments and gain confidence.
Hadeel recently founded a mentoring scheme specifically aimed at supporting female pharmacy professionals of ethnically diverse backgrounds to enhance leadership skills (ENIGMA). This has now been expanded to support pharmacists and pharmacy technicians from all sectors, nationally in England. As a member of the RPS Primary Care Expert Advisory Group, Hadeel passionately advocates the pharmacy profession and recognition of the value that pharmacy professionals add to patient care across all sectors.
Hadeel is in her final year of a PhD at The University of Bradford, which is exploring medication self-management behaviours in older patients using multiple medicines at the hospital-to-home transition. She is excited for research to become a more integral part of pharmacy professional roles and champions this nationally as committee member for the Primary Care academic CollaboraTive (PACT) and Research Lead of the Primary Care Pharmacy Association (PCPA).
Mohammad M. Rahman
Mo is a Specialist Pharmacist in preventative cardiology, and an Advanced Practitioner, and comes from a background in the Global Pharmaceutical Industry, Community Pharmacy and Primary Care. Nominated for several awards, Mo won the National Award (C+D’s Primary Care Pharmacist of The Year’2023) for his work in Primary Care and General Practices.
Having already worked in the capacity of Clinical Pharmacist, Lead Clinical Pharmacist and Principal Pharmacist in the Southeast, Mo is now the Director of Medicines and Chief Pharmacist in a leading Primary Care Network in Kent and Medway and is reputed himself as a progressive advocate of the Pharmacy workforce and transformation over the period.
Mo led several digital and service delivery Projects in Primary care, introduced Pharmacist-led chronic disease management clinics that eventually helped shape Pharmacy workforces’ competence in the long-term disease management domains. Some of his work attracted national interest, namely, the development of Florecne-metAdvise remote monitoring for improved patient outcome, CPCS that in time laid the foundation of today’s Pharmacy First and he is now leading several Clinical projects as part of ICB’s population health management agenda in Kent and Medway. He is also an educator, and academic tutor for University Bath Pharmacy Students in GP placements, a DPP and supporting the Pharmacists accessing DPP services, thereby overcoming the impeding challenges of further academic and career development.
Mo has a keen interest in Clinical Research and collaborating with NIHR Southeast team to expand the research activities in the Primary care setting.
Aiysha Raoof
Aiysha is a portfolio clinician currently serving as Deputy Chief Pharmacist - Head of Medicines Optimisation, Governance and Medicines Safety Officer, and Associate Lead for an Integrated Care System. Her cross-sector roles span primary care, urgent & emergency care, secondary care and strategic leadership at both system and national levels.
With a strong foundation in Primary Care, Aiysha 's experience includes working across General Practice, Primary Care Networks (PCNs), Care Homes, Enhanced Health in Care Homes (EHCH), and place-based partnerships. She is an alumna of the prestigious NHS England and Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management Clinical Leadership Fellowship and actively contributes to national policy and system development work.
Aiysha graduated with an MPharm from the University of Nottingham and completed her Pre-Registration year in the hospital sector, gaining exposure to Community, GP, and Mental Health settings. She has since built a diverse multisector portfolio, holding roles beyond traditional pharmacy and plays an active role in public health and tackling health inequalities.
She is a qualified independent prescriber with a specialist interest in Health Care of the Older Person and has completed several postgraduate programmes in clinical and leadership practice.
Aiysha is a passionate advocate for inclusive clinical leadership and the importance of giving the pharmacy workforce a strong voice in healthcare transformation. Her hope for the Primary Care Expert Advisory Group is to harness their shared passion to advocate for the workforce, influence change, and shape the future of pharmacy in primary care.
Anne Thomson
I am passionate about working in the diverse and dynamic environment of primary care.
In my current role I provide leadership for delivery of pharmacy services to the residents across the six Health and Social Care Partnerships within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Services include prescribing support, clinical pharmacy, and pharmacotherapy (within Scottish General Medical Services contract).
Nationally I am a member of the Scottish Pharmacy Practice and Prescribing AdvisorsGroup, where I lead on improvements in clinical pharmacy. Previously I was the primary care lead on the Scottish Antimicrobial Prescribing Group, which included QI, education, guidance and research.
I am interested in person centred integrated pathways of care having piloted a new community pharmacy discharge pathway and the redesign of clinical leadership structures.
Going forward I would like to see us utilise the positive changes to education, training and development to push the boundaries of care we deliver to patients within the multidisciplinary team, and truly advance our practice.