Conservative Party

Conference 2017

Relieving the pressure: pharmacy’s role in saving the NHS

Conservative Party Conference 2017
Monday 2 October
15.45 – 17.15
Victoria Suite, Midlands Hotel

Bim Afolami MP

MP for Hitchen and Harpenden

Bim Afolami  was elected MP for Hitchen and Harpenden at the 2017 General Election. The son of a pharmacist (his mother) and an NHS doctor (his father) he is passionate about Health and Social Care.

Prior to election, he spent ten years in the City advising some of the biggest companies in the world, first as a corporate lawyer at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, then as a Senior Executive at HSBC. He attended Eton College and Oxford University, where he was Vice President of the Oxford Union.

Bim is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a member of the Ditchley Foundation and supports Northampton Saints Rugby Union Club and Arsenal FC.

Andrew McCracken

Head of Communications, National Voices

Andrew McCracken is Head of Communications at National Voices and leads on external communications and membership for the organisation.

Prior to joining National Voices, Andrew was Head of PR and Communications at London South Bank University. He previously led the Public Affairs function at the Royal College of Physicians and has held a number of communications positions within the NHS.

Dr James Noyes

Head of Policy and Strategy at ResPublica

Dr. James Noyes is Head of Policy and Strategy at ResPublica. Prior to joining their team, he was a lecturer at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po).

James has a PhD from the University of Cambridge, and is a graduate of Christ’s College. His first book, The Politics of Iconoclasm, was acclaimed by reviewers as an important study of culture, conflict and the nation state. He holds honorary fellowships at both the Centre for Religion, Conflict and the Public Domain at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and UCL Culture at University College London.

Ian Strachan

Chairman of the National Pharmacy Association

Ian Strachan has been Chair of the NPA since 2014. His career includes five years as a forensic scientist at the Home Office Forensic Science Laboratories in Aldermaston, Reading, before undertaking his pharmacy degree and graduating from Brighton University in 1985. Qualifying in 1986, Ian has held pharmacy manager positions in both the independent and multiple sectors. He gained a PGCE in Education in 1996  and taught on the GCSE syllabus in mainstream education.

Over the past ten years he has held a number of consultancy roles within the consumer healthcare industry and has also been a contributing editor for a number of pharmacy  publications. He owns and runs four pharmacies in North West England – Strachans Chemist.

James Cusick

Journalist

James Cusick is former political correspondent of The Independent and The Independent on Sunday. As an experienced member of the lobby, he has previously worked at The Sunday Times and the BBC. His career as a journalist has been split between print and television, including senior positions as producer with Sir David Frost and at BBC Newsnight.

He is also an award-winning golf and travel writer, working for over a decade as the UK contributing editor for one of the USA’s leading golf magazines. He broadcasts regularly for the BBC and CNN. He lives in London.

Check Your Blood Pressure!

Location: Main Conference Hall

Had a long night? Feeling under the weather? Conference stressing you out? Get advice from our pharmacists and have your blood pressure checked using our state-of-the-art machines. As you take a load off, learn more about how pharmacy can relieve pressure on our hard pressed GPs and A&E departments.