A new clinical leadership team has been appointed to drive forward GIRFT’s work to maximise productivity in the ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgery specialty.
Two clinical leads and two clinical advisors are now in place as the workstream further focuses on reducing the number of long waiting patients in England and developing new models of care, building on the work of former ENT clinical lead Francis (Frank) Stafford.
Going forwards, the workstream will have an additional focus on paediatric patients.
The two new clinical leads are:
Jeremy Davis, GIRFT ENT clinical lead: Jeremy is a consultant ENT surgeon at Medway NHS Foundation Trust, specialising in thyroid and parathyroid surgery. He is a past president of the British Association of Endocrine and Thyroid Surgeons (BAETS) and chair of the Specialty Advisory Committee (SAC) in otolaryngology. With experience across the specialty, he collaborates with colleagues representing the main areas of special interest in otolaryngology.
Sujata (Su) De, GIRFT paediatric ENT clinical lead: Su is a paediatric ENT surgeon at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool. She is the national specialty adviser for specialised surgery in children for NHS England and was a co-clinical lead of the northwest surgery in children Operational Delivery Network, producing service specifications and guidelines for specialised and non-specialised surgery in children. Su is an active member of ENT UK and will be president of the British Association of Paediatric Otolaryngology in 2025-26.
Su said: ‘I’m very excited by the pace that GIRFT works at. I’m really hoping that with the help of lots of colleagues we can implement real improvement in the care of children with ENT conditions and close the gap between provision of children’s and adult ENT services.”
The two clinical advisors for ENT are:
Puveendran Arullendran (Arul), a consultant in otolaryngology at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, with a specialist interest in otology. Arul has been programme director and surgical training committee chairman in the northeast as well as principal investigator in multiple National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) trials.
Annakan Navaratnam, an ENT consultant surgeon at the Royal National ENT Hospital, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and an honorary consultant at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, with a subspeciality interest in rhinology and facial plastic surgery. Annakan is the England representative on the British Rhinology Society council.
The GIRFT national report for ENT was published in 2019 following face to face visits with 126 units across the country. It made a series of 23 key recommendations aimed at increasing the use of day surgery and reducing waiting times.
“I am delighted to welcome these highly experienced clinicians to the GIRFT programme, as we focus our efforts in the ENT specialty on making sure patients are seen more quickly, and in particular on our younger patients. Frank [Stafford] has done a sterling job in supporting a reduction in the variation we know exists in ENT services and I look forward to celebrating the ongoing successes of this strengthened ENT clinical leadership team as they work to maximise productivity nationally.”
