The Privy Council has appointed five new members to the GPhC Council
The new members, whose terms begin on 1 April 2019, are Aamer Safdar, Ann Jacklin, Neil Buckley, Penny Hopkins and Rima Makarem.
The new members will replace Berwyn Owen, David Prince, Mary Elford, Mohammed Hussain and Samantha Quaye who are stepping down at the end of March having completed two terms.
Three current members of Council, Arun Midha, Joanne Kember and Mark Hammond, have been re-appointed for a second term.
Nigel Clarke, Chair of the GPhC, said:
“We had a very high calibre of people applying to serve on our Council, and I am delighted that these five new members will be joining us. I’m also looking forward to welcoming back three of our current Council members for a second term.
We have an ambitious programme of work ahead and I am sure they will all make a significant contribution to helping us achieve our aims of assuring patient safety and improving quality in pharmacy practice.
I’d also like to thank our outgoing council members for their hard work and dedication and I wish them all the best for the future.”
Biographies of the new members
Registrant members
Aamer Safdar
Aamer is principal pharmacist and lead for Education and Development at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. Throughout his professional career, Aamer has held a number of senior and specialist pharmacist roles in the hospital sector. He also holds clinical and honorary lecturer roles within universities. Aamer has been an elected member of the RPS English Pharmacy Board for the last four years.
Professor Ann Jacklin
Ann is the Professional Lead for the Carter Review Programme, Mental Health and Community Services for NHS Improvement. Ann has extensive experience in hospital pharmacy and was Chief Pharmacist at Imperial College Healthcare for over 20 years. She created and leads the Centre for Medicines Safety and Service Quality, a joint academic pharmacy unit between University College London and Imperial College Healthcare Trust, and is a visiting professor at Imperial College London.
Penny Hopkins
Penny has extensive experience working as a pharmacy technician in both the NHS and private sector, and has held Chief or Lead Pharmacy Technician roles at several NHS Trusts. She is currently National Healthcare Development Executive at AAH Pharmaceuticals.
Lay members
Neil Buckley
Neil is currently Chief Executive, Accounting Officer and Board member of the Legal Services Board and Chairs the Chief Executives’ forum of the legal regulators. Neil is also a former Director of Investigations at Ofcom and currently serves as a Non-Executive Director of the Valuation Tribunal Service.
Dr Rima Makarem
Rima is a healthcare executive with a portfolio of non-executive directorships in health, social care and higher education. She is currently External Commissioner and Audit Chair at the House of Commons Commission as well as Senior Independent Director and Audit Chair at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).