Trainee Representatives

The FICM has two elected trainee representatives. They serve one year as the Deputy Trainee Representative and then one year as the Lead Trainee Representative.

Both trainee representatives sit on the Faculty Board and one or the other is also present at all of the committees or working parties that effect training and require a trainee perspective:

  • Training, Assessment & Quality Committee (FICMTAQ)
  • Careers, Recruitment and Workforce Committee (FICMCRW)

The principal duty of the Trainee Representatives is to represent the views of ICM trainees during Board, committee, working group and other meetings as appropriate:

  • Ensure there is a true representation of trainee concerns and views and ensure the Faculty has a means of seeking trainee input.
  • Effectively inform and alert trainees to issues affecting them and to be able to address grass roots concerns.
  • Encourage greater trainee engagement with the College.

Further duties of the FICM Trainee Representatives include:

  • To establish a communication network with all ICM trainees.  The email database is kept by the FICM Secretariat from trainees who have registered with the Faculty.
  • Maintaining two-way communications with all ICM trainees in order to update them on Faculty developments and to keep the Faculty abreast of information and concerns relevant to its work.
  • Attending all meetings of their assigned boards, committees or working groups.  Travel expenses are reimbursed subject to the usual arrangements.
  • Involvement in Faculty projects that may arise from time-to-time.
  • Producing research or written documents from time-to-time including contribution to the FICM newsletter, Critical Eye, and the Faculty website.
  • To maintain regular liaison with the ICS Trainee Advisory Group.
Dr Waqas Akhtar
Lead Trainee Representative & Chair of the StR Subcommittee

waqas.akhtar@nhs.net

"I completed my medical training at Oxford University in 2010 and am currently the only (hopefully to change!) UK trainee specialising in cardiology and intensive care. I have trained in the Southwest and London and am currently working at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust where I have just ended my term as Chief Registrar. I am particularly interested in cardiogenic shock, heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support. If you are interested in learning more about any of these topics then please do check our educational content at mls.training.

I am honoured and grateful to my colleagues to be elected as a national trainee representative. Intensive care is a fantastic speciality full of wonderful people who provide the best care possible to patients. However, the training experience of our doctors stands to be improved significantly. I hope to work with the board to improve the lives of our doctors and make the UK the best place in the world to train and work in intensive care. Please do get in touch anytime with any issues or ideas."

Dr Rosie Worrall
Deputy Trainee Representative & Deputy Chair of the StR Subcommittee

rosemary.worrall@nhs.net

"I completed my medical training at Oxford University in 2012 and to date have spent all of my postgraduate years in the West Midlands Deanery. I am a dual anaesthetic and ICM trainee, and although I’ve always been an intensivist at heart, I was relatively late to formally join the specialty, and considered non-training routes before committing to a training number. I am also less than full time, and have been through multiple iterations of the curriculum, as well as various portfolio changes, which I believe makes me well seasoned in navigating training difficulties and the politics that go alongside it.

My main non-clinical interest is research and I am currently involved in a project modeling postoperative risk in elective major non-cardiac surgery. During the pandemic I held a local Trainee Wellbeing Lead position helping to develop longer term wellbeing strategies and increase awareness that wellbeing is more than just yoga and meditation. Since then have also been a Less Than Full Time Trainee Lead and managed bespoke rotas in a large tertiary centre where 30/100 trainees were part time. I am also currently the joint West Midlands ICM Trainee Representative and have been involved in projects to develop the local post-FFICM education programme, as well as produce a handbook that troubleshoots the common training issues. I am really looking forward to bringing my experience from regional roles to the national level and strengthening the regional representative network to empower our trainees at both local and national levels.

Outside of work, I spend my time refereeing my two boys, juggling the school run, attending children’s birthday parties and very occasionally I do a little ringside doctoring for England Boxing events."

FICM StR Subcommittee Members

Please see below for the remaining members of the StR Subcommittee and who to contact should you have any queries with your training. 

Dr Taqua Dahab
IMG StR Representative

Taqua.Dahab1@nhs.net

I am an ST8 Acute Internal Medicine & Intensive Care Medicine StR at Liverpool University Hospital in the Mersey region. I am also an International Medical Graduate (IMG) from Sudan.

I am the IMG trainees' lead for the NHSE North West and IMG representative on the FICM StR Subcommittee. During my years in training, I worked on multi-award-winning projects to address differential attainment among the NHS international workforce in my region. Happy to answer any queries for IMGs in ICM, please get in touch.

To find out more about Taqua read her article in Trainee Eye Autumn 2022. 

Dr Sofia Hangar
Dual/Triple ICM and Medicine StR Representative

sofia.hanger2@nhs.net

Hi, I’m Sofia. I am the Medicine/ICM representative on the StR subcommittee, joining in 2022. I am a triple ICM/Respiratory/GIM trainee in the London Deanery, having started my StR training in 2018. My focus during my time as ICM/Medicine rep has been to improve the working lives of trainees, working on the FICM trainee survey and helping to advocate for Medicine/ICM trainees during the current curriculum changes.

Dr Chris Jacobs
FICM LLP StR Representative
chris.jacobs2@nhs.net

I graduated from The University of Manchester in 2012 and with the exception of completing my core training in the East of England, have spent the rest of my working life in the North West. I am a single-specialty ICM trainee looking to combine this with a portfolio career in medicine and I am currently spending my SSY year working in respiratory medicine. I also have a background in web development and design and have been appointed as the FICM LLP representative where I hope to push forward developments to the platform.

When I’m not in work you’ll find me keeping fit, walking in the Lake District (which I am very lucky to have on my doorstep!) and spending time keeping up with my increasingly energetic 3 year old and two dogs. Please reach out if I can be of any help, particularly if you have any ideas about how we can make LLP better or if you have any questions about combining ICM with a portfolio career.

Dr Tae Lee
Dual ICM and Anaesthetics StR Representative

tklee@doctors.org.uk

Hi I’m Tae — I’m an ST5 in the Mersey deanery and your dual ICM and Anaesthetics StR representative. I have experience in both education as an Associate Clinical Teacher for the University of Liverpool and representation as regional ICM STEC representative and my role as the RCP chief registrar at the Royal Liverpool Hospital.

In the last couple of years enormous challenges have been staked against our training needs, professional development and mental wellbeing. As your representative, I want to ensure all our voices and concerns are heard, fed back swiftly, with every effort being made to provide tangible solutions for us. Representing you guys is a privilege and I will do my upmost that the efforts and sacrifices that our group have made to continue doing what we do are recognised and supported.

Dr Helen McKenna
Academic & LTFT StR Representative

I am a dual anaesthesia/ICM trainee in the South West deanery, and as an NIHR academic clinical fellow at the University of Plymouth, I hope to represent academic and less-than-full-time trainees on the ICM programme.

My priority for the role is to identify the ICM trainees with research positions across the country and provide a forum for us to share experiences and identify issues specific to academic ICM training.

Dr Gareth Thomas
Single ICM CCT StR Representative

I am a single specialty ICM trainee in the Mersey region. Originally, I began dual training with Emergency Medicine and made the decision to continue as single specialty last year. I have a particular interest in education, especially technologically assisted, and run the FICMlearning podcast (yes, FICM has a podcast which is available on all major podcast services). I believe the single specialty pathway provides an opportunity to trainees to explore a more diverse career long term.

I live in North Wales with my wife and three daughters and spend as much of my free time outside enjoying the famous Welsh sunshine. 

Dr Fraser Waterson
Dual ICM and Emergency Medicine StR Representative
Fraser.Waterson@nhs.scot

Hi - my name's Fraser, a stage 3 ICM trainee in South-East Scotland. Originally from just outside Glasgow, I completed my foundation training in Forth Valley before undertaking a Clinical Development Fellowship in Emergency Medicine and Obstetrics, where I got a taste for QI and a chance to attend the Medical Leadership Academy. In 2016 I moved further east to Edinburgh to take up run-through training in EM and following my ACCS years applied for dual training with ICM…and haven’t looked back since!

I am passionate about systems improvement, enhancing team performance, trainee representation and workplace civility & wellbeing – and along with my FICM StRSC role, I am a member of our local EDs well-being team and also a Chief Registrar in my current health board.

I have an interest in guideline development and adding to the armoury of resources to help us master some of the challenges in delivering critical care in high acuity circumstances (and often in the small hours!) and have enjoyed developing guidance locally whilst also working with FICM on some of the ‘Midnight Law’ publications.

Dual training with EM has unique challenges - with tough rotas, front-door workload and portfolio to name a few, but we also bring a wide range of valuable expertise to the critical care environment and are no longer a minority in the incredible melting pot of intensivists. Shared understanding of the challenges different trainees face in delivering critical care across the hospital (and in some cases outside it) is essential to improve not only patient care, but also the training experience. This is one of the greatest advantages of the StR Subcommittee and I look forward to our continued work together; and continuing to advocate for EM trainees within FICM.

Dr Sekina Bakare
Co-optee: Chair of the ICS’s Trainee Advisory Group

TBA

Dr Helen French
Co-optee: Trainee Representative of SICS

Helen.french2@nhs.scot

I’m a dual trainee in ICM and Anaesthesia in the West of Scotland. I grew up and mostly trained in the North West of England and came to Edinburgh for Core Anaesthetics in 2015. I love living and working in Scotland and I am now settled living just outside Glasgow. As chair of the Trainee Committee of the Scottish Intensive Care Society I was delighted to join the FICM StR Subcommittee as a co-opted member. This is a fantastic initiative to engage with ICM trainees and I am keen to represent trainees in Scotland as best I can.

Dr Esther Godfrey
Co-optee: Trainee Representative of WICS

Credentials: MBBCh Hons, BSc Hons, MRCP, FRCA, FFICM

Training path: Dual accreditation FICM / Anaesthesia ST6

Roles: Trainee Representative for FICM training across the Deanery, Welsh Intensive Care Trainee Society (WITS) Chair 2022-2024, Welsh Intensive Care Society Audit and Research Trainees (WICSART) network lead / committee member.

https://www.welshics.org/

Dr Angela Lim
Co-optee: FICM PAS Committee StR Representative

TBA

Dr Andrew Steele
Co-optee: Trainee Representative for NI-ICS

ST7, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast

asteele04@qub.ac.uk

Regional ICM STC Trainee Representatives

TBA

Dr Erin Hopley, ST4 Intensive Care, Lister Hospital

Erin.hopley1@nhs.net

TBA

  1. Alastair White, ST5 ICM at King’s College Hospital, London: alastair.white@doctors.org.uk

 

Dr Will Bansema, ST6 Anaesthetics and ICM

willembansema@nhs.net

TBA

Sophie Kreppel, ST7 Dual ICM/Anaesthetics

Icmstcrep@gmail.com

Rachael Kellett, ST7 ICM/EM Royal Victoria Infirmary

TBA

TBA

TBA

Dr Sarah Paterson, ST6 ICM/Anaesthetics South East Scotland

sarah.c.paterson@nhs.scot

Samantha Gaw, ST7 Intensive Care Medicine StR at Royal Alexandra Hospital, Paisley

samantha.gaw@nhs.scot

Dr Hannah Crofton, ST6 ICM, North Bristol NHS Trust

hscrofton@gmail.com

TBA

Dr Bryony Hopkins, ST6 Intensive Care at Royal Free Hospital, London

bryony.hopkins@nhs.net

  1. Christopher Acott, ST7 Intensive Care and Anaesthetics, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford - Chris.Acott@ouh.nhs.uk

  2. Samuel Leafe, ST4 Intensive Care at Oxford University Hospitals - samuel.leafe@nhs.net

 

TBA

TBA

Dr Rosie Worrall, ST7 Dual Anaesthetic and ICM Trainee West Midlands

rosemary.worrall@nhs.net

TBA

Want to know more?
Meet the Faculty Board