Conference Committee

• Pam Miller - Conference Secretary

  

  Pam Miller is the Associate Director of Facilities at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.

  Pam is responsible for a wide range of traditional facilities services including Catering, Switchboard, Porters, Laundry, Cleaning, Transport, Accommodation, Security, Car Parking as well as Occupational Health and Emergency Planning. Pam has worked in the NHS for 27 years at Trusts in Wales, Bradford and Leeds and has held her current post since 2003.

  This is Pam’s second stint as National Conference Secretary, but she has been involved in organising three previous Conferences within the Yorkshire region. Pam has held various posts within the HCA which culminated in her becoming National Chairman in 2000. This was an exciting time in the HCA’s history and Pam was heavily involved in the ‘Better Hospital Food Programme’, which was formed as part of the NHS plan.

  Pam was awarded the HCA Personality of the Year and Cost Sector Caterer of the Year in 2003.

  Although in her current post she is no longer manages catering on a day to day basis, she does have overall responsibility for catering within the Trust which comprises of 2,200 beds and over 10,000 staff.

• Andrea Dalton - Conference Treasurer

  

  Andrea Dalton is the General Manager for Non Clinical Support Services for Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She manages a number of facilities services including Catering, Portering, Cleaning, Switchboard, Accommodation, Linen, Security, Waste, Post and Transport and is responsible for over 550 staff.

  Andrea started her career within the NHS as a trainee chef at Leeds General Infirmary, and embarked on her training via Thomas Danby College, Leeds and Manchester Metropolitan University, and as an ex National Catering Management trainee, Andrea is a true advocate for training on the job. She has worked in most hospitals in the Yorkshire region in her 30 year career and has a wealth and variety of experience in catering and facilities management.

  Although Andrea does not manage catering on a day to day basis she is ultimately responsible for catering at the Bradford Trust and catering will always be her comfort zone, much to the annoyance of her Catering Managers!

  When the last HCA Conference was held in Yorkshire - the 50th National Conference - Andrea was Conference Secretary, and this is the second time for Andrea as Conference Treasurer – you would think she would have learnt by her mistakes by now!

• Helen Andrews - Entertainment

  

  Helen Andrews is a Dietetic Manager working within Bradford Teaching Hospitals Trust. Her role involves responsibility for a team of dietitians providing services to patients in a variety of locations including the two acute hospital sites.

  Trained at Leeds Metropolitan University and qualified in 1988, her first position was within Birmingham Selly Oak Hospital where she developed the interest in catering and food services, which has continued to develop throughout her career.

  Over a varied clinical career including working with people with diabetes, learning disabilities and a variety of patients in both acute and community services, Helen joined the dietetic team in Bradford in 1998 as an Acute Dietetic Service Manager, where her remit included the responsibility for working with catering services in helping to plan menus. It was within Bradford that she first met Pam Miller and was introduced to the Hospital Caterers Association and it’s where she now works with many of the Organising Committee.

  Helen is passionate about the importance of meeting the nutritional needs of hospital patients through food. This led to her joining the Yorkshire Branch of the HCA in 2000 and the ‘Food Counts!’ Specialist Group of the British Dietetic Association (BDA), in 2002. Currently, the Public Relations representative for Food Counts! has allowed her to promote her views around the importance of food and fluids within hospitals and the need to make sure that dietary coding, if used, is actually useful!

  An invitation to speak at the BDA conference in 2010 allowed Helen to promote the use of food over sip feeds in the treatment of malnutrition to dietetic colleagues and she continues to encourage a closer working relationship between catering and dietetic services.

  This is her first involvement in organising a conference but Helen has attended the HCA’s last 10 Conferences, and so is aware of the challenges facing the Organising Committee.

• Mark Winckles - Hotel/Menus

  

  Mark Winckles is the Hotel Services Manager at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

  He is responsible for the provision of catering to staff, patients and visitors across two sites within Bradford. He is also responsible for the Linen Services across these two sites which is provided by an off site laundry contractor.

  After attaining his City and Guilds, Mark then started his catering career in hotels and restaurants in and around Bradford and Leeds. He then worked as a Chef in a hotel on the Isle of Mull for a year before successfully gaining a position as part of the brigade of Chefs at Bradford Royal Infirmary. Since then he has worked at various hospitals within Bradford, completing various management certificates working his way to Hotel Services Manager.

  During his last 30 years working with the Trust he was given a ‘secondment’ to work with Camp America, where he was responsible for organising the catering for a six month period for over 500 people.

  Mark has been a Member of the HCA’s Yorkshire Branch for 15 years, where he has held the position of Branch Secretary for five of these years. Mark was also part of the Organising Committee of the last HCA National Conference held by the Yorkshire Branch in 1998.

• Michael Ellison - Entertainment

  

  Michael Ellison is the Production Manager at The Bradford Teaching Hospitals Foundation NHS Trust.

  He is responsible for the effective organisation of the kitchens and the quality of food served to patients, staff and visitors including a wide variety of menus, including a menu for functions. The catering department, with 96 staff, serves nearly 2,800 meals per day to staff and patients and is currently undergoing review.

  Michael has worked in the NHS for the last 33 years and he has held a variety of different roles including cooking, butchery, bakery and now management. He trained at The Victoria Hotel in Bradford before joining the Merchant Navy and then worked off shore as a Chef.

  Michael remains very passionate about the quality of all the food served and is constantly reviewing services to look for improvements.

  He has been a Member of the HCA for the last five years and enjoys both the networking and socialising that Membership brings.

  Michael feels that there have been many changes in healthcare over the last 33 years, many of which could have been very good, if appropriately implemented.

  This is the first time that Michael has been involved in organising a Conference and he is looking forward to working with the Organising Committee to make the HCA’s Conference 2011 a great success.

• Paul Bowers - Exhibition

  

  Although relatively new to the HCA and hospital catering in general, Paul has a significant wealth of experience gained from organising and participating in over 100 Trade Shows and Exhibitions throughout the UK and Europe. This experience, together with an inability to get out of the way quickly enough when volunteers are sought, make him an ideal Member of the Conference Committee!

  Paul’s background is primarily production-based, having come to sales only ten years ago, most recently joining Calomax Water Boilers as Sales and Marketing Director.

  In the four years since joining Calomax, Paul has visited over 200 hospitals, dining in at least 50 of them, making him somewhat of an expert in hospital food (from the customer’s perspective at least).

  After attending evening-classes for 25 years (picking up degrees in Business Studies and French along the way), Paul was involved in the Scout Association and as a School Governor for many years. An active Rotarian, any spare time now is taken up by the HCA, organising social events like the Branch Christmas Dinner and the trip to Copper Dragon brewery.

• Sarah Sharpe - Exhibition

  

  Sarah is Regional Sales Manager for Burlodge Ltd, covering the North of England. She also has a National remit for the Temprite range of equipment. She joined Burlodge in 1998 and is responsible for all aspects of customer care in her area including training and the implementation of new equipment, in addition to sales.

  Prior to joining Burlodge, Sarah had worked in the NHS for over ten years. She started her NHS career as a National Trainee Catering Manager for the Trent Regional Health Authority in 1985, after training as a Home Economist at Leeds Polytechnic and completing the HCIMA Postgraduate Diploma in Hotel & Catering Management. Sarah continued her career in Hospital Catering Management in Nottingham, Bradford, Liverpool and Dewsbury (not all at the same time!), before taking up her present role within Burlodge.

  Sarah joined the HCA as a full Member whilst working in Nottingham in 1986, and continues to be an active Associate Member of the Yorkshire Branch.

• Robert Maxwell Clark - Entertainment

  

  After completing two years of study at Bradford School of Food Technology in the late 60s, I then spent the first five years of my working life in the Hotel Industry in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales. I left the Catering Manager post at the Bolton Arms Hotel in Leyburn , working ‘all the hours God sends’, to return to Bradford, get married, and join the ‘marriage friendly’ world of Hospital Catering.

  The ‘Thatcher Years’ saw the demise of the then called ‘Geriatric and Psychiatric’ Hospitals, and in 1994, I was made redundant.
  After an 18 month contract at St. James’s University Hospital, Leeds, to help with the cook chill pilot scheme, and a short stay at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, I joined the Goldsborough Group as a Catering Manager. Goldsborough were bought out by BUPA in 1998, and I’m still working as the Catering Manager for BUPA.

  In order to improve our ‘Carbon Footprint’ we have recently introduced consolidated deliveries, which have reduced deliveries from 20 a week, to just five, with obvious savings on air pollution and congestion on the roads, and noise pollution and congestion at the sites. We also grow a lot of our own vegetables, herbs and salad items on site, being almost self-sufficient in several items of produce at certain times of the year.

  In my spare time I visit the local antique auctions and play golf if my knees are up to it!