NWDA – Meet the team

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board 

Becca Hollinshead – Project Manager

Becca joined BCUHB in November 2020 as the project manager for the North Wales Dental Academy. She has a wealth of experience in the Marketing & Communications space delivering a diverse range of live experience projects for both the public and private sector, working across the UK and Europe. Becca has delivered numerous large scale complex projects including corporate conferences , training programmes, experiential product campaigns, full scale exhibitions, building launch events and many other multi-faceted marketing projects which bring messaging and strategy to life.  Becca’s focus and drive, combined with project management and creative communications experience will ensure that the project is delivered on time and to requirements.

email: Rebecca.Hollinshead@wales.nhs.uk

Sandra Sandham – Clinical Director, North Wales Dental Service

Sandra gained her BDS from Liverpool Dental School followed by an MPhil from University of Wales, Bangor. She is entered on two General Dental Council Specialist Lists – Special Care Dentistry and Dental Public Health and is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health. She is employed by BCUHB as Director of North Wales Community Dental Service/ Director of Dental Public Health and also works for Public Health Wales. Having always been interested in Dental Nurse Education, she established a range of basic and post certification courses in North Wales and has, for many years, been a NEBDN examiner for the National Certificate/ Diploma and the post qualification examination in Conscious Sedation.  She sits on a variety of local and National Committees including Welsh Dental Committee and is Chair of the Welsh CDS Clinical Directors Group and of the WG Strategic Advisory Forum in Orthodontics.

Adrian Thorp – Dental Foundation Training Programme Director (North Wales Scheme)

Adrian qualified from Liverpool University in 1999 and then continued within the hospital setting initially full time but then part time as an Associate Specialist in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery after deciding to purchase a seven-surgery practice within North Wales.  He completed his M Surg Dent which admitted him onto the Oral Surgery Specialist List in 2009. He completed his FDS RCS Ed in 2016, leading into my FDTFEd in 2018. He has an avid interest of the Law within Dentistry and Oral Surgery and completed a Law Degree in 2017, which he now involved heavily with medico-legal reporting. He undertook a Post Graduate Certificate in Medical Education in 2018. He has sat on the steering groups that developed Oral Surgery services within North Wales and the application of e-referrals pan-Wales. He is the Training Programme Director for North Wales and examine for the RCS Eng in the Diploma in Oral Surgery and is Deputy Lead for the MFDS Examination Part 1 examination.

Paul Brocklehurst – Deputy Chief Dental Officer

Professor of Health Services Research at Bangor University and Director of the North Wales Organisation for Randomised Trials in Health Clinical Trials Unit. He is also the Deputy Chief Dental Officer and an Honorary Consultant in Dental Public Health. His interests include care for older people, work-force planning and implementation research. Until 2020, he sat on three funding Panels for the National Institute for Health Research (Health Services & Delivery Research Funding Panel, Health Technology Assessment Prioritisation Panel and the National Institute for Health Research Academy Doctoral Fellowship Panel).

Fiona Sandom – Project Specialist

Fiona is a Project Specialist within the AWFDCP at Bangor University. As a qualified dental hygienist and therapist, Fiona delivered NHS treatment with the North Wales Community Dental Service until 2018 – she now works in an NHS practice part-time. Since 2004, Fiona has been arranging and delivering postgraduate continual professional development for Wales Deanery. She is also the current North Wales regional lead for the Dental Professional Support Unit within Health Education and Improvement Wales. Fiona’s work earned her the presidency of the British Association of Dental Therapists. Having lived and worked in North Wales, Fiona is particularly aware of the dental manpower shortage and lack of dentistry opportunities in less populated areas. She believes the AWFDCP is an opportunity to deliver education to develop the Welsh workforce and improve patient care.

Chris Woods –  Project Manager

Chris Woods is Project Manager within the AWFDCP at Bangor University. He originally trained in bioengineering at Southampton University. As a result, Chris engaged with projects relating to medical devices and public health before becoming increasingly involved with dentistry, working on dental implants. Chris has project managed and won research grants for large publicly funded healthcare projects and has exclusively been a part of dental public health research since moving to Bangor. Suitably, he has been acknowledged with an Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Chris believes the AWFDCP is a fantastic opportunity for Wales to provide a genuinely positive movement that can impact the wellbeing of local and broader communities.