Our executive team

Meet Our Executive Team

Veronika Wagner

Co-leader

Prior to my election in 2015, I had been an NHA supporter for a couple of years and a full member for about a year. This is the first time in my life that I have joined a political party.

I work in the NHS and can see for myself how NHS cuts and privatisation under the guise of austerity affect patients and staff. I want no part in privatisation, I wish to campaign for a socially just, publicly funded and delivered NHS.

Alastair Fischer

Nominating Officer and Co-Leader

I was a founding member of NHA in 2012, and was elected as Nominating Officer for the first 12 months. I stood down from the Executive of the party as there was a potential conflict of interest arising from my work at NICE. Since then I have acted in a non-voting advisory role on elections to the committee. Any potential conflict of interest was resolved when I changed jobs this year and so I would like to stand again for the executive.

I have a PhD in voting theory and practice and have been the author of two amendments to the Australian Electoral Act of 1983. Since migrating to the UK in 1996, I have worked as a health economist, both as an academic and as an economic advisor to NICE Appraisals and Public Health committees. This work has given me a number of insights into the way that the NHS has been run.

As a follower of the Nobel prizewinners Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman, I have never been a fan of the harsh austerity plan that was followed by the UK government since 2010. I am deeply concerned at the lack of funding for the NHS, for health prevention, social care and other local government activities. France and Germany spend some 25% more on health per head than we do in the UK, and the gap is widening. They are not cutting back like the UK, even when their economies are growing more slowly than ours. Of course we can afford to spend significantly more on hospitals, GPs and ambulances. They have been starved of funds which has meant missed targets. Privatisation may sometimes provide a cheaper service, but usually at the expense of quality. You and I could buy a car for £400, but most of us don't, because a jalopy is poor value for money. So is a jalopy privatised health service.

Naveen Judah

Treasurer

I am a retired accountant and ex Further Education College Principal. For about 10 years I was Finance Director and team leader for mergers and acquisitions for a very large American multi national company and latterly as a Senior Business consultant resolving management. I am married with a 15 year old son who has severe learning needs and so I have first hand experience of Health and Social services. I understand the issues both from a user and a management point of view.
I am very involved in the voluntary sector as well. I am

  • Chair of a local Healthwatch
  • Governor at 2 special needs schools
  • Parish Councillor
  • Chair and founder of my town's Disability network

I am very concerned about how the changes in our health and social services sectors are affecting not only the quality and access to services but also our approach to societal change which at the moment seems to be regressive rather than progressive.
I feel it my duty to help to influence these changes by playing a role in achieving the vision and delivering the mission of the National Health Action Party.

David Lawrence

Minutes Secretary

I am a consultant in Public Health in the NHS for many years, specialising in health care needs assessment and service planning. I now work part time in the NHS as a consultant in clinical commissioning and as an independent consultant in NHS service improvement projects. I am an honorary senior lecturer in health services research, I have carried out many research projects to improve health and social care.

I am a founder-member of the NHA Party and have been minutes secretary for three years. I am passionate about achieving better health for all of us and there is evidence that a more egalitarian society is a healthier society. It is crucial that we have a comprehensive health and social care service which is of excellent quality and available for all.

Marcus Chown

Twitter Lead

Formerly a radio astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Marcus Chown is a writer, journalist and broadcaster (www.marcuschown.com). His most recent book, The Ascent of Gravity, was The Sunday Times Science Book of the Year 2017. He is a prolific and informative user of Twitter and in 2014 was named by The Telegraph the 5th most influential over 50 on Twitter (after Simon Cowell, Gary Lineker, Lord Sugar and Jeremy Clarkson) . In 2014, Marcus stood for NHA in the London euro elections. His wife, who has been an NHS nurse for more than 30 years, is a community palliative care nurse.

Bernice Ancill

I retired from my full time NHS job as Associate Specialist in Anaesthetics in August 2017 having worked for the NHS since 1984. I am continuing to work part time in anaesthetics as and when required for my local NHS hospital. I live and work in Somerset.

For several years I had been increasingly concerned by many of the changes imposed on the NHS by politicians. I had also begun to notice the increasing social injustice throughout our society. I felt I had to do something more constructive than just grumbling. It was then that I joined the National Health Action Party. Very recently I joined Citizens Advice as a volunteer. This has given me further insight into many social problems some of which I had not previously encountered.

Since joining the party I have attended several marches. I helped campaign for Helen Salisbury in the Witney by-election caused by David Cameron's resignation as an MP. I also helped campaign for Louise Irvine against Jeremy Hunt in South West Surrey in the June 2017 general election. I have a little past experience of committee work. I was treasurer of our local group of the Institute of Advanced Motorists for two years.

These are very exciting times politically, anything is possible. I believe the National Health Action Party can make a real difference and enable people who believe in the NHS and social justice to influence their local MP and thereby ultimately influence decisions in parliament. I believe that we can increase our influence if we work together with other like minded groups wherever we have shared aims. I also believe that during the next general election campaign there will still be many people dissatisfied with the current main political parties who will turn to a party like ours.

I believe I would be a useful member of the committee because I am passionate about returning our National Health Service to being the envy of the world. I still have first hand experience of working in the NHS although very part time now. I have some experience of campaigning and I am prepared to
work hard for the party.

I hope you will feel that you can vote for me so that I have the opportunity to play my part.

Andrew Sharp

I have been a member of the NHA since 2014 and stood for the party in the European elections in London that year. I live in North East London with my partner and our two sons. I am a children's book publisher by trade.
My connection to the NHS is as a patient and a relative of patients. We lost my older brother to childhood cancer, an experience which demonstrated the commitment of our NHS staff and which in turn left me with an enduring commitment to support them. My family's experience has also heightened my awareness of how few people would survive financially without a socially-funded health service.
In addition to campaigning with the NHA, I am a member of Keep Our NHS Public and my local NHS campaign group, Waltham Forest Save Our NHS. Our local hospital Whipps Cross is part of the Barts Health NHS Trust. Despite being one of the biggest providers of specialised services in England, Barts has been beleaguered by debt due to the combination of the funding formula and the fact that it continues to fund the largest Private Finance Initiative contract in the UK. The impact on staff morale and patient care remains a deep concern.
I want no part in the dismantling and privatisation of the NHS and wish to join the NHA Exec to help drive the party as a campaigning organisation that remains true to its founding spirit and stays in touch with its grassroots, its membership.

Anne Summers

Anne Summers Ph.D is a historian and archivist, a former Wellcome Trust Research Fellow who has written and published extensively on the history of nursing and of military medicine.  Currently she is an Honorary Research Fellow of Birkbeck College, and Chair of the Friends of The Women's Library.  Where health services are concerned, she feels that those who have failed to study the history are condemning us to repeat it, in the first instance as tragedy, and in the second instance ... as tragedy.  The NHA has to expose and challenge a return to 'pre-Victorian Values' in medicine as in the market.

Harry Hayfield

Harry Hayfield stood in the local elections for Ceredigion council where in his ward he polled 22% of the popular vote (ranking him as one of the top five highest vote gainers for candidates not standing for a mainstream party in those elections). He has been a member of the NHA Party since June 2016 after defecting from the Liberal Democrats over his grandmother’s treatment in the NHS (which saw her have to pay to have a hip operation after being unable to stand the pain whilst on a waiting list, being discharged from the private hospital having been prescribed medicines that she was listed as being allergic to her medical records and having to rely on the NHS to oversee her recovery) and the lack of action that a party with only eight members of Parliament (at the time) and one Assembly Member (who was a member of the Welsh Cabinet) could do.

As a registered carer to both his grandparents (since 2005) Harry is only too aware of the lack of thought given to those who care in this country and hopes to raise awareness of carers in his position. His main aims during his term on the committee will be to address the constitutional affairs of all four parts of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) during the discussions on Brexit as well as putting forward suggestions to allow the many to have an active role in politics, not just the few.