Nurses
Claire Townend – Lead Nurse
RGNClaire Townend joined the practice in October 2018. She has a broad range of skills in general practice, having worked in this role for several years. Claire sees patients in respect of their long-term condition reviews such as diabetes and asthma care as well as undertaking dressings, ECGs, vaccinations (including travel and childhood) and cervical screening. In April 2020 Claire was appointed as the practice’s nurse lead.
Mairead Flavin
RGNMairead Flavin has been at GP Direct since its inception. She has been a pillar at the practice with well over 30 years nursing experience under her belt. In addition to her general nursing duties she undertakes cryotherapy to remove warts/verrucas/skin tags at the practice.
Zorah Lee
RGN and independent prescribing nurse practitionerZorah Lee joined the Practice in early 2018 having previously worked at the practice a few years ago. Zorah is an independent prescriber and primarily sees patients in respect of the acute (same day) minor illnesses and also long-term management of diseases (e.g. diabetes and asthma). However, she is also able to support the nursing team with dressings, cervical screening, childhood immunisations, travel vaccinations, ear syringing and ECGs among other tasks when required.
Abigail Matsika
RGNAbigail Matsika joined the practice in September 2015 as part of an innovative role (Enhanced Practice Nurse) which has been piloted across Harrow. Abigail undertakes intensive management of patients with a range of specific needs, usually in their own homes. Abigail is also involved in delivering regular health checks for patients with dementia and learning disabilities.
Supporting Healthcare Staff
Natasha Mistry
Clinical Pharmacist PrescriberNatasha Mistry is our full-time Independent Prescribing Clinical Pharmacist. She undertakes a wide range of tasks including diabetic reviews, pill checks, assessing and treating some minor illness conditions, medication queries (you can book a telephone consultation with her), processing query repeat prescriptions and working with the local health authority to ensure best practice with prescribing guidelines. She joined the practice in July 2018.
Najla Salmasi
Clinical Pharmacist PrescriberNajla Salmasi is one of our Primary Care Network’s (PCN) clinical pharmacists. Najla joined the practice in April 2020 and is an Independent Prescribing Clinical Pharmacist with over 15 years of experience as a pharmacist in hospital, community and primary care. She is able to support patients with long term conditions and has a special interest in hypertension management and cardiovascular medicine. She also conducts asthma reviews, pill checks and medication reviews and is available to respond to medication related queries.
Insiya Kassam
CLINICAL PHARMACIST PRESCRIBERInsiya is one of our Primary Care Network’s (PCN) Clinical Pharmacists. She is an Independent Prescribing pharmacist with over 10 years’ experience in the community setting. She has a specialist interest in care for the elderly and spends half of her time working alongside our Enhanced Practice Nurse Abigail Matsika managing patients with long term conditions mainly in their homes. She joined the practice in October 2021.
Ian Roberts
First Contact Physiotherapist - FCPQualified at King’s College London and before joining GP direct, he worked as a senior physiotherapist at Nuffield Health (Moorgate / Shoreditch) and before that, a specialist musculoskeletal physiotherapist at London North West NHS Trust (Northwick Park & Central Middlesex Hospitals). On average, more than 1 in 5 GP appointments are for musculoskeletal complaints. A first contact physiotherapist (or first contact practitioner or FCP) is an evolving role in the UK which brings advanced level physiotherapists into the primary care setting as the first point of care for these appointments. If you are a patient, seeing an FCP means reduced waiting times; longer, in-depth appointments; receiving expert advice faster; and fewer onward referrals. For the practice, it leads to less strain on GPs by offering a greater choice of appointments with highly qualified clinicians.
Lauren Richman
Mental Health PractitionerPrior to obtaining an MA in Social Work, Lauren completed a BSc in Applied Psychology with Clinical Psychology and an MSc in Early Intervention in Psychosis. Her work experience has included working with psychotic disorders, perinatal mental health, learning disabilities and domestic abuse. Lauren is based within Harrow Collaborative Sphere Community Mental Health Hub, where she previously worked as a care-coordinator, and the Sphere Primary Care Network of GP Surgeries. Lauren is passionate about early intervention for mental health and hopes to support GP Direct patients with their wellbeing.
Mano Ravindran
Healthcare Assistant (HCA)Mano Ravindran has been at the practice since 2007 as a HCA undertaking a varied role which includes chronic disease management, taking ECGs, blood pressure checks and new patient health checks. She also has a key role as a medical note summariser which entails summarising the key medical information from paper records into our clinical system of new patients.
Shama Visram
Healthcare Assistant (HCA)Shama started as a Receptionist at GP Direct in 2006 and had the opportunity to train as a HCA last year (2021). It was challenging as we were in the middle of a pandemic. She now run her own clinics twice a week and looking at extending it to four times a week from April 2022. Her current duties are performing NHS health checks, New Patient’s Health Checks, ECG recording, Blood Pressure checks, B12 injections and vaccinations for Pneumonia, Flu and Covid. She is also undergoing training as a phlebotomist (April 2022).