PATRON

Prof Chris Drinkwater CBE, FRCGP, FFPH(Hon), FRSA is an Emeritus Professor of Primary Care Development at Northumbria University. Starting as an inner-city GP in Newcastle, he took a modest Benwell practice and developed it into the West End Health Resource Centre, establishing a charity to run the building and provide a range of additional services alongside the GP practice.  

In a varied and impactful career, Prof Drinkwater led the establishment of Healthworks Newcastle, was VCSE representative for the Child Health & Wellbeing Executive and a former Director of the West End Schools Trust. Other prominent roles have included a trusteeship with Blue Stone Collaborative (where he led the Well Newcastle Gateshead project), President and Public Health lead for the NHS Alliance, Deputy Chair and Chair of the Philanthropy Committee for Northumberland, Tyne & Wear Community Foundation, and the Sir Roy Griffiths/Age Concern/RCGP Prince of Wales, Educational Fellow for Older People.

Prof Drinkwater was one of the founders and former Chair of Ways to Wellness. He was part of the team that oversaw its successful merger with Blue Stone Collaborative in 2022. He is passionate about addressing health inequalities through a focus on the social determinants of health rather than on improved access to health services. This runs in parallel with a focus on the need to demonstrate the impact of these approaches in order to sustain new ways of working.

CHAIR

Guy Pilkington has been a GP and a partner at Cruddas Park Surgery for 35 years. Over the decades he combined clinical work with two main areas of interest - teaching at the medical school in Newcastle and health service development.

For many years he was a clinical commissioner, initially as Clinical Chair of Newcastle West Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), subsequently Newcastle Gateshead CCG. He was particularly passionate about developing approaches to address health inequalities and was heavily involved in the evolution of Ways to Wellness. Much of his time was spent on supporting collaborations across health, local authority and voluntary and community sectors (VCS), with particular emphasis on prevention, social prescribing and mental health care transformation. For many years he chaired the Prevention Board for the North East and North Cumbria, (initially for the region’s CCGs, then for the Integrated Care Board, NENC ICB). This led to closely working with many public health consultants and directors, from whom he learnt a great deal. He was really pleased when colleagues nominated him for Membership of the Faculty of Public Health.

His lifelong passion for working with communities, developing broader approaches to health care and working closely with VCS organisations, has meant that he jumped at the chance of joining the Board of Ways to Wellness when the opportunity arose.