PCDS Committee election candidate biographies (2024)

Caroline Ashwood

Caroline is an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in South Wales. She has a special interest in diabetes, underpinned by the MSc qualification. She has previous experience of project management coupled with training delivery and fundraising, which has equipped her well to lead a cluster project.

She is currently leading a project working in her local Mosque, which has 10 000 members. She secured funding to identify people who are undiagnosed with diabetes. The project uses point-of-care testing, giving an HbA_1c. This project is working with a hard-to-reach population, helping to bridge inequality of care.

Caroline is always looking for innovative ways to meet the holistic health challenges diabetes brings, including renal and liver complications. It is clear we have an obesity crisis, and the focus shift towards GLP-1 receptor agonists for weight management will bring another layer to primary care.

She would be both excited and privileged to be considered to be part of team who are considering such challenges.

Su Down*

Su is a Nurse Consultant in Diabetes and is the Clinical Lead for the Diabetes Service in Somerset. Her diabetes nursing career began in 1989, when she set up the diabetes specialist nursing service in South Somerset. Su took up the role of Nurse Consultant in 2005 and has played a key part in redesigning the diabetes services across Somerset. Her role includes the delivery of a pregnancy service within one of the acute hospital trusts in Somerset and delivering virtual clinics in general practice and with the district nursing service. Nationally she is the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Diabetes Nursing and was previously co-Vice Chair of the PCDS.

The constant challenge of ensuring that an equitable service is delivered to the ever-growing population of Somerset is one that Su finds highly rewarding. Furthermore, she has relished being able to have an influence on both national and international projects.

Alia Gilani

Alia is a Senior Diabetes Clinical Pharmacist whose interests lie in ethnic inequalities and diabetes. She helped established and run a bilingual medication review service in NHS Glasgow in 2002. This was the “MELT” service (Minority Ethnic Long Term medicines Service) which operated for over a decade. She has also been running outreach clinics for ethnic minorities for over a decade in various locations such as mosques and elderly centres.

Alia was a member for 13 years of the diabetes working group for the South Asian Health Foundation and had the role of regional lead and CEO for 2 years. She was previously a PCDS Committee member for 7 years and the first pharmacist to join the Committee. She currently works as a Diabetes Specialist Pharmacist managing and delivering care for people with type 2 diabetes and ethnic inequalities. She also delivers education around the UK to healthcare professionals.

Nicola Milne*

Co-Vice Chair

Nicola qualified as a Registered General Nurse and Midwife in 1998 and 1991, respectively, prior to moving into primary care in 2002, where she worked as a Practice Nurse for sixteen years until April 2018. Whilst retaining a generalist role, Nicola had a special interest in diabetes, with a key focus on ensuring effective, accessible care. She moved to establish the Community Diabetes Education and Support Team within central Manchester – a finalist in the Diabetes Quality in Care Awards in 2022.

As a co-author of the document Best Practice in the Delivery of Diabetes Care within the Primary Care Network, Nicola worked to put the evidence from the document into practice as the DiAST (DIabetes SupporT) Lead across a PCN in South Manchester from 2022 to 2024. Nicola continues to work in primary care and is also the Diabetes Specialist Nurse Lead for the Greater Manchester and East Cheshire Strategic Clinical Network.

Nicola has presented abstracts at multiple conferences and has become increasingly involved in the education of healthcare professionals. She has published works in chronic kidney disease and diabetes and continues to be involved in projects focusing upon various aspects of diabetes management.

Nicola has previously served as Chair of the Diabetes UK Professional Conference Organising Committee for Liverpool and was a member of the NICE Diabetes Guidelines suite 2019–2020. Currently, she is co-Vice Chair of the PCDS, an editorial board member of the journals Diabetes & Primary Care and the Journal of Diabetes Nursing, a member of the Diabetes UK Research Study Group for diabetes-related complications, member of the Diabetes UK Healthcare Professional Advisory Committee, and a course tutor for i-Heed for the diabetes diploma modules.

Unopposed

Lisa Devine*

Lisa Devine is a GP in County Wicklow. She initially trained in hospital medicine, gaining her Membership of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland before realising that her vocation lay in general practice. She trained as a GP and gained her Membership of the Irish College of General Practitioners of Ireland.

She has several special interests, in particular diabetes, chronic care and medical education. In recent years she has enjoyed contributing to the Irish general practice point of view in Ireland via her work with the East Coast Area Diabetes Steering Group. She collaborates internationally in the field of diabetes care in her role as a PCDS Committee member. She has worked in medical education as a writer, tutor, education creator and course director. She is delighted to take up the role of HSE ICGP National GP Lead in Diabetes.