Meet the Team
Our Clinical Leads
Clinical Director
Marilyn McDougall
Marilyn McDougall, Clinical Director of STPN, is a consultant at Evelina London PICU and South Thames Retrieval Service. Her interests include multidisciplinary team working and medical leadership. She has supported and championed development of the first Retrieval Nurse Practitioners in the South Thames region and throughout the UK. Marilyn’s areas of interest include education, simulation training and wellbeing.AHP Clinical Lead - Tony Hudgell Rehabilitation Programme
Samantha Randall
Sammy is the AHP Clinical Lead for the Tony Hudgell Transformation Programme.
Critical Care Clinical Lead
Sachin Patil
Sachin is a Paediatric Consultant with training from India and UK. Along with his general paediatric training, he also has over five years experience in Paediatric Critical Care and Retrievals. His interests include Education and delivering Simulation based training. He is the Deputy Lead for Undergraduate Simulation training at Medway..
Critical Care Lead Nurse
Sarah Levitt
Sarah is our Lead Nurse for Critical Care and completed her PGDip in Paediatric Nursing at City University following the completion of a Bachelor of Medical Science Degree at Birmingham University. She has worked in both District General Hospitals and in Tertiary centres in a variety of fields and combining these experiences to improve healthcare for children and young people across the region is where her passion lies, particularly when it comes to critical care and the deteriorating patient. She is currently completing a Senior Leader Masters Degree Apprenticeship with Henley Business School.
Before this post she worked as a Clinical Nurse Educator and also supported Governance, multidisciplinary working and recruitment within the team. Professionalism, supporting and developing a resilient workforce for the changing paediatric landscape along with education and training has always been a priority and is something she will continue to focus on within the Network.
Epilepsy CNS Clinical Lead
Florence Kennard
Flo is the Epilepsy CNS Clinical Lead. Flo is the Epilepsy Specialist Nurse for Epsom & St Helier Trust having had a keen interest in Epilepsy for ten years and leading on the completion of the National Epilepsy12 Audit for the Trust as well attending and being a member of the South West Thames Paediatric Epilepsy Group. Flo started her career at Evelina London on their neurology and metabolic ward and then spent five years at a charity specialising in caring for children with brain injury. She has been in her role as Epilepsy Specialist Nurse since 2021 and is passionate about the role nurse specialists have to play in delivering high quality epilepsy care.
Epilepsy Secondary Care Clinical Lead
Chinwe Ude
Chinwe is the Epilepsy Clinical Lead for Secondary Care. She is also a Consultant Paediatrician with a Special Interest in Epilepsy at Darent Valley Hospital and after building her Epilepsy service, became the the Clinical Lead for Paediatric Epilepsy for the past six years. Chinwe is also the Trust Lead for the National Epilepsy12 Audit and a member of the South East Thames Paediatric Epilepsy Group (SETPEG).
Epilepsy Tertiary Care Clinical Lead
Elaine Hughes
Elaine is the Epilepsy Clinical Lead for Tertiary Care . She is also a Consultant Paediatric Neurologist specialising in complex Epilepsy based at Evelina Children’s Hospital & King’s College Hospital, Chair of SETPEG, Lead for Regional Paediatric Epilepsy Services & Surgery and a member of Children Epilepsy Surgery Service National Steering Group.
Gastroenterology Co-Clinical Lead
Mohamed Mutalib
Mohamed is a Consultant and Head of Service for Paediatric Gastroenterology at Evelina London and previously held the position of Chair of the Motility Working Group of the British Society of Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition.
Gastroenteroloy Co-Clinical Lead
Sarmad Kalamchi
Sarmad is the Associate Director for Quality and Safety for the Children and Young People’s Division and Lead Clincian for Paediatric Gastroenterology at the University Hospital of Lewisham. He is leading on the Constipation workstream within the Gastroenterology ODN.
Long Term Ventilation Clinical Lead
Richard Chavasse
Richard is a Consultant in Respiratory Paediatrics at St George’s University Hospital. His main interests are in Long Term Ventilation in Young People, Congenital Lung Lesions and Asthma. He trained at Southampton University and undertook paediatric respiratory training in Brighton, Kings and the Brompton in London and a fellowship in neonatology in Melbourne. He is passionate about ensuring fair access to services and joined up teamworking to facilitate better outcomes.
Dr Chavasse previously contributed to the BTS/SIGN national asthma guidelines, the London Asthma Leadership Group and is Acute Lead for CYP in South West London ICB.
Surgery in Children Clinical Lead
Feilim Murphy
Feilim is the surgical lead for the STPN children’s surgical network. He is a Consultant Paediatric Urologist at St George’s University Trust for many years where he has previously been the care group lead and clinical director for paediatrics. Having trained and worked extensively in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and the UK he is passionate about ensuring that the ODN ‘provides the best surgical care for children in Europe by 2030’. Presently he is also running a leadership, management and medical philosophy course to develop the next generation of leadership within the NHS.
Surgery in Children Lead Nurse
Laura Snow
Laura Snow is the Lead Nurse for Surgery in Children for the Network. She is familiar with the hospitals across the region, having worked with STRS for many years. Laura is particularly keen to support nurses, and the wider MDT, looking after children on any surgical journey and hopes to share learning between specialist services and the rest of the network.
STPN Core Team
Co-Network Manager
Harriet Ward
Harriet is a Network Manager for the South Thames Paediatric Network, sharing the role with Sally Watts. Harriet was appointed to the role in August 2018. She joined the NHS via the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme in 2010 and prior to STPN worked in various management roles within South East London and NHS England. Harriet leads the Paediatric Critical Care ODN and provides support to the Surgery in Children ODN and other areas of STPN work.
Co-Network Manager
Sally Watts
Sally is a Registered General Nurse with a Masters Degree in Leadership & Management. After a 20 year clinical career mostly as a Genetic Counsellor, an NHS CASS Business School course in 2013 ignited a passion for service improvement leading to a change of career direction into strategy and transformation in 2016.
Clinical Nurse Educator
Sarah Fleet
Sarah’s is the Clinical Nurse Educator. Her paediatric nursing career began in PICU where she worked for 4 years and completed my PICU course. She also has a special interest in tropical nursing and infectious diseases and completed her diploma in tropical nursing. Sarah then went to work in Paeds ED at a DGH where she developed a passion for teaching which led her into a career in clinical education. She has worked in clinical education for 3 years focusing on HDU education and then joined the STPN team as a clinical educator in March 2022.
Data Analyst
David Taylor
David is the STPN Data Analyst, splitting his time between Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust and the STPN.
LTV Skills Programme Regional Implementation Lead
Emma Whitcombe
Emma is a paediatric nurse who specialises in Long Term Ventilation (LTV). The early parts of Emma’s nursing career was working in General Medicine and HDU. This is where Emma gained a special interest in Long Term Ventilation (LTV), becoming Deputy Ward Sister for the newly opening LTV unit and then becoming the LTV Clinical Educator, completing her PG Certificate in Clinical Education. Emma joined the STPN team in June 2022.
Project Coordinator
Mary Aklog
Mary is a Project Coordinator at South Thames Paediatric Network. Mary comes from a management background and has passion for making lives much easier for both patients and her team.
Project Coordinator
Rosie White
Rosie is the Project Coordinator working with the AHP Clinical Lead for the Tony Hudgell Programme.
Project Manager
Sara Mahjabin
Sara is the Project Manager for Epilepsy, Gastroenterology and the Transition into Adult Services workstreams. Sara previously worked at Barts Health within the Strategy & Transformation Team in a network based role supporting adult services across the Trust as well as being the Get it Right First Time (GIRFT) Trust Lead. Prior to this, she worked as a Manager within Care & Supported Housing at Family Mosaic, working with Support Workers and Care Workers to help those most vulnerable to live independently.
Senior Project Manager
Joanne Arenas
Joanne is the Senior Project Manager for the Surgery in Children and Long Term Ventilation Workstreams.