Conference Programme

Mr Dimitri Pournaras

Upper GI, Bariatric & Metabolic Surgeon at North Bristol NHS Trust. National leader in patient outcomes in obesity

Dimitri Pournaras graduated from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece and undertook all his postgraduate training in the UK. He was awarded Research Fellowship by the Royal College of Surgeons of England to conduct research on obesity, diabetes and metabolic surgery.  He completed his PhD in the Department of Investigative Medicine, Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College London and then trained in all aspects of laparoscopic oesophagogastric surgery in Cambridge and Norwich. Following a Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery Fellowship approved by the Royal College of Surgeons, he was appointed as a Consultant in Bristol where he works as part of a multidisciplinary team.  He is on the editorial board of journals Obesity Surgery and Clinical Obesity and has authored more than 50 peer reviewed publications, including articles in the Lancet, the Annals of Surgery, the British Journal of Surgery and the British Medical Journal. He delivers more than 10 invited international lectures every year.

Dr Denise Chaffer

Director of safety and learning, NHS Resolution

Dr Denise Chaffer is a registered nurse and midwife and currently holds the post of Director of Safety and Learning at NHS Resolution. Her PhD is in health care leadership and she has a master’s degree in management and social care. She also has a first class undergraduate degree and a higher education teaching qualification. Denise is a professional clinical nursing leader with multiple years’ of executive and board level experience.
Denise has been an executive Director of Nursing in two acute trusts and was a Director in a Primary Care Trust commissioning organisation. Dr Chaffer was previously Director of Nursing for the North West London area team at NHS England and also led on patient safety across the London region. She has significant experience of working at regional, national and international level in acute and community settings, nursing, midwifery, education, and on major change and reconfiguration initiatives.
Denise published a book in 2016; ‘Effective Leadership, A Cure for the NHS?’ which draws on the personal experiences of a range senior health care leaders.

Ms Anne Pullybank

Colorectal Surgeon at North Bristol NHS Trust. Clinical Director for Patient Safety Collaborative at West of England Academic Health Science Network

Miss Anne Pullyblank is a Consultant Colorectal surgeon appointed to North Bristol NHS Trust in 2003 and was Clinical Director for Surgery from 2010 to 2015. Anne has been involved in medical education as a Clinical Tutor and has an interest in patient safety.  She was chair of the Trust Clinical Risk Committee for 2 years.  Anne was part of the Safer Patient’s Initiative, working in the peri-operative work stream.  She then became faculty for the peri- operative workstream for the South West Safety collaborative.  Anne is now Clinical Director for Patient Safety Collaborative at West of England Academic Health Science Network. Anne was shortlisted for a Health and Social Care Award in 2009 for work on the surgical safety checklist, winner of a National Patient Safety Award in 2011 for work on nasogastric  tube safety, shortlisted for a NHS leadership award in 2012 and shortlisted in 2 categories for a national patient safety award in 2014 for work on reducing surgical site infection.
Anne is currently lead for lower gastrointestinal surgery and emergency surgery at North Bristol NHS Trust and is lead for the West of England Emergency Laparotomy collaborative. In 2016, the Enhanced Recovery team won hospital team of the year at the Bristol Evening Post Awards. In 2017 Anne was shortlisted with a team for Cancer Team of the Year at the BMJ Awards for developing an electronic cancer referral system.

Bryan Jones

Improvement fellow at the Health Foundation

Bryan Jones is an Improvement Fellow at the Health Foundation. Since joining the Health Foundation in 2013, Bryan has focused in the main on the analysis of quality improvement and improvement capability building efforts within the NHS. He is the co-author of a number of publications on improvement including the Improvement Journey (2019), How to Get Started in QI (2019), Making the Case for QI (2017),  The Challenge and Potential of Whole System Flow(2016) and Building the Foundations for Improvement (2015).

Prior to joining the Health Foundation, Bryan worked in Westminster for an MP on the Health Select Committee and for a number of health related charities. He has a PhD in Social Policy and has been a Labour Councillor in Kent.

Helen Crisp

Editor-in-Chief of BMJ Open Quality

Helen Crisp is Editor-in-Chief of BMJ Open Quality, an online open access journal which publishes reports of quality improvement in action. She also runs her own company, Crisp QI Ltd, supporting quality improvement in healthcare through strategic consultancy, training and research. Helen has over twenty years’ experience of working in the field of quality improvement in health care, as a practitioner, advisor and evaluator.  This has included working on service accreditation programmes - developing the quality standards and peer review visit methodology; service review projects and evaluation. Her previous experience includes eight years as Assistant Director of Research at the Health Foundation, where she managed a £4 million per year grants programme for research into patient safety, quality improvement methods and improvement science.