Category: Speakers

Philip Arnold

Philip Arnold is a Consultant in Paediatric Cardiac Anaesthesia working at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool since 2002. His interests include the management of severe bleeding during heart surgery, blood conservation, intraoperative TOE for congenital heart surgery, and ‘fast tracking’ during paediatric heart surgery.

He has written a number of review articles and book chapters on these and other topics and has delivered lectures in several countries.

He is a former director of the Congenital Cardiac Anaesthetist Society and Chair of Scientific Committee for APAGBI.

Sara Mele

Dr Sara Mele is a dedicated Consultant Cardiothoracic Anaesthetist at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, where she provides comprehensive care to patients of all ages, encompassing both congenital and acquired disease.

Beyond her clinical responsibilities, Sara is invested in education, serving as faculty for various courses within her institution and for the Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA). Her areas of expertise include airway training, simulation, crisis resource management, end effective feedback methodologies.

Driven by her commitment to enhancing patient care and satisfaction, Sara currently holds the role of Pre-Assessment Service Anaesthetic Lead. In this role, she works diligently to optimise pre-operative assessment processes, ensuring patients receive the highest standard of care throughout their surgical journey.

Jess Mcardle

Jess works as a consultant in paediatric anaesthesia at the Great North Children’s Hospital (GNCH). The newest recruit to the team at Newcastle, Jess completed her post-CCT fellowship at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. As well as working at GNCH, Jess has a keen interest in research and quality improvement and has been a committee member of the paediatric trainee research network (PATRN for the past 3 years), currently holding the position of chair. Come and say hello at the PATRN stand while you’re here at the conference.

Clare Friel

Clare Friel has been a consultant paediatric anaesthetist at the Great North Childrens Hospital since 2022, after training in the West of Scotland and North East of England.

Her clinical interests include anaesthesia for burns, scoliosis, and colorectal surgery. She is known in the department for her colourful hand drawn designs on her patient’s cannula stickers, and when not in work she enjoys travelling the world, hiking, and drinking cocktails.

Lisa Daniels

Lisa is a Consultant Paediatric Anaesthetist working at The Great North Children’s Hospital in Newcastle upon Tyne. Prior to this, she trained as a registrar in Cape Town at Groote Schuur and Red Cross Children’s Hospital. She returned to London, UK to complete her training at Great Ormond Street. Her specialist interests are paediatric airways, cleft palates and the management of anxious children. In addition she runs the MEPA (Managing Emergencies in Paediatric Anaesthesia) simulation course for trainees. She also set up and chairs the North of England Paediatric Anaesthetic Network.

When not at work she can be seen trail running trying to retrieve her collie chasing deer or baking cakes for the department.

Simon Courtman

I am a consultant paediatric anaesthetist at University Hospital Plymouth, where I am currently the Divisional Director for Women’s and Children’s Services. I have particular experience in looking after children and young people with severe anxiety and behavioural disorders attending for procedures or surgery.

I am the clinical lead for the Surgery in Children Operational Delivery Network in the SW and have been involved in supporting all surgical services in the region through the pandemic and now the ongoing challenges of recovery for children and young people. I also sit on the ICS CYP Board in Devon and have recently joined the NHSE National Clinical Reference Group for Surgery in Children.

I am the president elect of the Association of Paediatric Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland. I have worked on council for over 10 years, and most recently have driven the establishment of the Paediatric Perioperative Care committee and led the working group which recently published the Best Practice Guidance for Paediatric Preassessment Services in partnership with the RCOA.

Surprisingly not interested in cycling, lifelong committed surfer.

Edward Kunonga

Edward is a Director of Transformation and PHM for the North England Commissioning System (NECS) and the Director of Population Health Management for NENC ICB. He is a passionate public health professional with knowledge, experience and expertise on improving population health and tackling health inequalities. Until 2019, He was the joint Director of Public health for Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland Council. He has worked across parts of the health and social care system in different roles mainly across the north east of England. He is an honorary professor at Teesside University and a visiting lecturer at the Queen Mary University of London Wolfson Institute of Global Health.

Anisa Bhettay

Anisa is a passionate and enthusiastic paediatric anaesthetist, committed and dedicated to the perioperative care of children. She is a pioneer in paediatric pain medicine in South Africa, and actively seeks to empower other pain champions and leaders to create a community who will transform care of our most vulnerable. Areas of special interest include acute and procedural paediatric pain management, anaesthesia for hepatobiliary and transplant surgery, regional anaesthesia, global surgery, education, simulation and patient safety. She is committed to outreach to improve access to safe paediatric anaesthesia and improved pain management.

Dr Lynne Waring

After graduating from the University of Dundee Dr Waring ventured south and undertook her anaesthetics training in the Northern Deanery. She achieved a Certificate in Clinical Education along the way before completing a Paediatric Anaesthetic and ICM fellowship in Adelaide, Australia. Returning to the Northeast she has been a Consultant Paediatric Anaesthetist at the Great North Children’s Hospital since.

A regular anaesthetist for the paediatric oncology sessions since 2018, Dr Waring has worked with the team to improve patient experience and pathway through the theatre suite.

Dr Waring is the current lead for training in paediatric anaesthetics and has a passion for education and believes strongly in the wealth of knowledge inherent in her department and trying to improve trainees access to it. Recently Dr Waring has taken on the TPD for stage 2 Anaesthetic trainees.

She is working hard to develop the non-pharmaceutical pathways for managing the anxious child and is part of the regional team at the GNCH.

Outside of work Dr Waring enjoys the outdoors and exploring new places. She loves cooking and baking and has a great recipe for carrot cake.

Mr Chris Lewis

Mr Chris Lewis is a Consultant Burn Surgeon at the Northern Regional Burn Centre based at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary, with a special interest in emergency burn care, reconstruction, and laser treatment. The Northern Regional Burn Centre provides care for both adults and children with major burn injuries and is the only UK paediatric and adult burn centre co-located on the same site.

Mr Lewis is the clinical lead for the laser service at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, receiving tertiary referrals from the North East, Yorkshire and Cumbria and has a specialist interest in using lasers to treat burn scars.

Chris provides humanitarian work overseas as a team member of the Bright Northumbria Charity, travelling to Northern Tanzania annually to train local surgeons and provide acute burn care and reconstruction.