UKOA TEAM
Allison Beal
Allison was instrumental in establishing the UKOA with the previous UKOA Chair Melanie Hingorani. Allison has led the operational activity of the UKOA since it began in 2017.
Allison has worked in the Public Sector for over 35 years in a wide range of roles, working at Executive Director/ Board level in two organisations and for the Department of Health at Senior Civil Service level.
Allison has a wealth of experience and competence in the delivery of major and complex transformation projects. She has a track record in efficiency and VfM, human resources, organisational design and change, establishing value based approaches, developing workforce and resourcing strategies and delivering organisational development solutions. Allison currently also works for a number of organisations on an ad-hoc and freelance basis providing leadership for transformational change across NHS organisations in the UK and Northern Ireland.
Heather Carlin
Heather works at the RNIB as the Pathway Coordinator for Health and Education
This role focuses on the Eye Care support Pathway and Educational pathways for parents, children and families. Heather also provides our administrative support.
UKOA BOARD
The UKOA Board provides organisational oversight, helps with strategy, themes for future meetings, approves any changes in UKOA terms of reference and is the decision-making body.
Board members are expected to be leaders or senior figures in the stakeholder organisations. The Board consists of 6-10 multidisciplinary members with a maximum term of 5 years, renewable for 2 years more by mutual agreement. Board members are currently self-nominated from recommendation of the chair, or another board member (or outgoing board member)
The UKOA Board is led by the chair and currently has one of each below.
- The UKOA Director
- RCO member of professional standards committee
- Ophthalmic nurse
- Ophthalmic manager/COO/CEO
- Optometrist or orthoptist
- Patient or charity rep
- Consultant ophthalmologist.
The Board meets, mainly via teleconference, at least three times per year.
Each board member is expected to help with at least one UKOA member meeting each year.
The Board will be quorate at 4 members
The UKOA Chair is appointed through a process of advertisement for expressions of interest and shortlisted based on experience and suitability for the role. Followed by an informal interview by the outgoing chair and another board member. Chair appointed for three years and tenure could be extended by another term to a maximum of 7 years.
Allison Beal
Allison was instrumental in establishing the UKOA with the previous UKOA Chair Melanie Hingorani. Allison has led the operational activity of the UKOA since it began in 2017.
Allison has worked in the Public Sector for over 35 years in a wide range of roles, working at Executive Director/ Board level in two organisations and for the Department of Health at Senior Civil Service level.
Allison has a wealth of experience and competence in the delivery of major and complex transformation projects. She has a track record in efficiency and VfM, human resources, organisational design and change, establishing value based approaches, developing workforce and resourcing strategies and delivering organisational development solutions. Allison currently also works for a number of organisations on an ad-hoc and freelance basis providing leadership for transformational change across NHS organisations in the UK and Northern Ireland.
Rebecca Turner
Rebecca is a Consultant Nurse and interim Clinical Director at the Oxford Eye Hospital. Prior to this have held many senior nursing and leadership roles including Matron, Clinical Lead and acting Divisional Nurse.
As a Consultant Nurse my practice is within the nurse-led cataract pre-operative assessment service. I have had numerous opportunities for professional development from membership of national guidance committees to leading local service development projects. Since 2018, have been part of a small team traveling to the Falklands Islands to provide specialist clinics and cataract and oculoplastic surgery.
I am passionate about patient care within Ophthalmology and the advancement of the clinical workforce in this field. My interest is in the promotion and delivery of a diverse, inclusive, and flexible workforce which maximises the skills and knowledge of each team member, registered and non-registered practitioners, alike.
Outside work I have recently studied for a part time degree in the History of Art through Oxford University.
Craig Murray
Rob Cooper
Rob has over 25 years’ experience of working within the health and social care landscape. During this time he has forged strong strategic alliances between the NHS, Social Care Services and third sector charities. He is dedicated to improving health literacy to ensure patients are informed and empowered to actively participate in their health care. He is the architect and co-creator of the Eye Care Support Pathway, COPD Patient Pathway, Pathway to Independence Model, Seven Steps Model and was the joint author of the Greater Manchester Community Sight Loss Strategy, all of which is driven by lived experiences and co-produced with patients. He is currently leading RNIB’s integration of The Eye Care Support Pathway across the UK.
Pardip Grewal
Ms Pardip Grewal is the Senior Service Manager for Ophthalmology, ENT, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and the Ophthalmology Research Unit at Hillingdon Hospital. She has over 30 years of NHS experience, including over 20 years in Ophthalmology.
Ms Grewal is a results-oriented leader, known for excellence in service modernization and patient care improvements. Her expertise spans innovative service redesign in ophthalmology, award-winning initiatives like nurse-led services, and co-founding the first Ophthalmology Clinical Trials Unit at Hillingdon Hospital. Internationally active in developing ophthalmic units and currently advises on global glaucoma pathway redesign. Holds leadership roles including Board Member of the UK Ophthalmology Alliance and Joint Chair of the London Ophthalmology Network.
Dr Gillian Rudduck
Gillian has over 20 years’ experience in a wide range of optometry, including primary and secondary care and academia, and currently practises as a consultant optometrist and a clinical lead at Wirral University Teaching Hospitals. Gillian is currently the President of The College of Optometrists.
Since graduating with a BSc (Hons) Ophthalmic Optics, Gillian has achieved an MSc in Management Practice and a Doctorate in Philosophy. She holds a Professional Higher Certificate in Glaucoma and a qualification in Independent Prescribing.
Gillian has worked with NICE as a guidance committee member and is a CQC specialist advisor. Her work at the College of Optometrists has involved the development of higher qualifications and competency frameworks.
James Laybourne
Julie Silvestri CBE
Professor Julie Silvestri is Clinical Director for Ophthalmic Services at the Belfast Health & Social Care Trust, Honorary Professor at the Centre Public Health at Queen’s University Belfast and Co-Lead for the NI Clinical Research Network.
In her capacity as Clinical Director and Clinical Lead for Northern Ireland Eye Network (NIEN) Professor Silvestri has led on the changes to the NI Cataract Pathway and on the establishment of Surgical Day Procedure Centres for Ophthalmology. Professor Silvestri also works closely with the Clinical leads in her service to drive forward innovations to maximise services for patients in other subspecialties and has created the opportunity to develop well-equipped Ophthalmic Outpatient Centres to facilitate 1-stop clinic attendances for common conditions. In 2023 Professor Silvestri was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for services to Ophthalmology in Northern Ireland.
Professor Silvestri’s programme of research focuses on genetic predisposition and causative genetic variants in ophthalmic diseases with emphasis on age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and inherited retinal disorders. Professor Silvestri has collaborated internationally with investigators in the Ireland, USA, Ghana and nationally with a number of research groups. She has also been lead and is current co-Lead of the Vision NICRN Research group which holds an impressive portfolio of industry funded and Investigator-led projects. Professor Silvestri has successfully led a research team with a cumulative grant income of circa 2 million, has published over 85 peer-reviewed publications. Professor Silvestri is internationally recognised for her clinical expertise in retinal disease and intraocular magnifying devices for AMD.
Professor Silvestri has extensive undergraduate and postgraduate clinical teaching experience, has held many administrative positions at both QUB and the Belfast Trust. Professor Silvestri has served as an Examiner for both the Royal Colleges of Ophthalmology, London and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and has held a number of positions on Grant Review Committees and held the post of Royal College representative for Northern Ireland.
Dr Elizabeth Wilkinson
Dr Elizabeth Wilkinson is a consultant ophthalmologist and National Clinical Lead in Ophthalmology for Getting it Right First Time (GiRFT). She is also the Clinical Director for the Centre of Excellence for Eyes at the Nightingale Hospital, Exeter which is an exemplar unit designed to provide innovative, high flow eyecare pathways in cataract, medical retina and glaucoma. She is the Ophthalmology Lead for NHS Devon Integrated Care Board and the GIRFT led One Devon Programme of elective recovery and transformation.
Having completed an MA in Medicine at the University of Cambridge, Dr Wilkinson also undertook law studies, before undergoing physician training at St Thomas’s Hospital. Dr Wilkinson was the second female President of Ophthalmology for the Royal Society of Medicine and is the immediate past president of the British Association of Retinal Screening.
Jon Bhargava
Jonathan (Jon) Bhargava, a consultant ophthalmic and oculoplastic surgeon at the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, joins Alison Davis and Lydia Chang as GIRFT clinical leads for ophthalmology. He replaces Professor Dame Caroline MacEwen, who left the programme in 2021 to become acting chair of the General Medical Council (GMC).
Mr Bhargava has been a consultant ophthalmologist since 2008, and specialises in safe and efficient cataract surgery. He was the chair of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists’ (RCOphth) Cataract Workforce Guidance Committee when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and was heavily involved with designing COVID-safe pathways which were endorsed by RCOphth to enable a return to operating during the pandemic.
As chair, he also provided streamlined clinical pathways for cataract surgery and enabled workforce planning for the next 10 years to help meet increasing surgical demand.
Lydia Chang
Lydia was appointed a consultant ophthalmologist at Hinchingbrooke Hospital in 2008. She simultaneously served as an honorary consultant at Moorfields Eye Hospital (from 2008 to 2016), setting up the glaucoma service at Moorfields at Bedford Hospital. In 2020, she relocated and was appointed as a substantive consultant at the Luton and Dunstable University Hospital.
Her subspecialty interest is glaucoma, having completed an MD thesis evaluating the role of inflammation in glaucoma surgery, based at the Institute of Ophthalmology and the Royal Free Hospital.
Lydia was the Royal College of Ophthalmologists’ representative on the working group set up by the Clinical Council for Eye Health Commissioning, assisting in the publication of the Community Ophthalmology and Primary Eye Care for First Contact Care Frameworks in 2015 and 2016.
Peter Thomas
Peter Thomas is the Chief Clinical Information Officer and Director of Digital Development at Moorfields Eye Hospitals. His primary interest is in digital transformation of clinical care, and creation of a hospital environment that can embed and sustain technologically enabled and automated services. To achieve this, he has founded the UK’s first Department of Digital Medicine. In 2022 he was named as “CCIO of the year” in the annual Digital Health Awards. By clinical training he is a paediatric ophthalmologist. He is the digital/clinical lead for the NHSE eyecare transformation.
Prior to medicine Peter undertook his PhD in computational neuroscience at the University of Cambridge and spent time working in research and development at IBM.
Elena Bechberger
Elena joined the trust in August 2024. Prior to this, Elena was national programme director for the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme, for NHS England – leading their high volume low complexity (HVLC) and elective hubs programme.
Elena has a wealth of experience and a proven track record in policy, strategy, and transformation – both within the NHS and wider public sector.
As former director for acute and planned care transformation with the South West London Health and Care Partnership and later director for London’s integrated care systems (ICS) network, Elena is adept at working with patients, staff and system partners to develop strategy, and achieving better life outcomes for patients.