APM Board

Sarah is the President of the Association for Palliative Medicine. She was appointed to this role in March 2023 after serving as a member of the Board since 2019.

Sarah trained in medicine in London then specialised in Palliative Medicine being appointed to a new consultant post at Royal Trinity Hospice and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in 1998. Since March 2020 she has worked in the acute sector at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital as a Palliative Medicine Consultant and as Lead Medical Examiner. She is also an honorary Senior Lecturer at Imperial College London and an honorary consultant at Royal Hospital Chelsea (for the Chelsea Pensioners).

Achievements in leadership roles include having the RCP recognise Palliative Medicine as one of the 12 largest medical specialties with a seat on RCP Council. In her role as chair of the RMP Palliative Care Group across West London she led on standards for coordination of EOL in the community and seven-day Specialist Palliative Care services. Sarah led the work of the APM Professional Standards Committee (2013-2019) including the annual FAMCARE audit.

Sarah’s current priorities are;

• developing and valuing our workforce including SAS doctors
• increasing recruitment to the specialty in traditional and novel ways
• valuing the diversity of our members and seeking to improve inclusion and engagement
• improving communication from and to members.

Dr Matthew Doré. Who is he? This is a question long been asked by many, not least of all by himself. He is an actual doctor who was a little lost during his training, doing renal and immunology initially, before settling on palliative care training in the West Midlands. He is pretty much bald, he attributes to stress due to his 10 year old twins, and 6 year old feral child. He has an ever patient wife called Sharon who brought him by hook or by crook to Northern Ireland, and I love it here. He likes reading and writing and namely being alone, in the quiet, because no-one seems to want to let him be in the quiet. Why can’t he just be left alone to sit? Even writing this now the pasta is boiling over whilst piano practice and Mario Kart is blaring either side of him. He also enjoys whisky, it relaxes him. He has done a few things he is pleased with; he can make a really good chicken pie, he chaired the PCC for a few years, co-leads the clinical ECHO, can’t get enough of ethics committee and writes occasionally semi-useful stuff. However, mainly the chicken pie. I really look forward to being Honorary Secretary for you all. What can go wrong?

Introducing our new APM Treasurer Natasha Wiggins 

Natasha took up her post at the beginning of October 2022. Natasha is a Palliative Medicine consultant at Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

She has a very impressive leadership portfolio including chairing the EOL guidelines and medicines group for the Integrated Care Board covering 1 million population and leading on their Digital EOL group; chairing the regional Palliative Partnership Working group, and leading an education programme for paramedics across the South West of England.

In her Trust she has built a palliative care team from scratch, established and chairs the trust clinical ethics committee and created and maintained a healthy departmental budget and charitable funds.

Natasha replaces Derek Willis who has been a star in the role, supporting membership to grow by measures such as including access to the Palliative Care Formulary for many members. We have every expectation that Natasha will shine as our APM Treasurer. Thankfully the APM finances are in a better place than the governments and the handover should be less bumpy than for Kwasi to Jeremy.

Natasha lives in the UK’s first eco village in Oxfordshire with her husband and children aged 5 and 2.

Natasha says “I am really looking forward to taking this role on – yes there are big shoes to fill but also an opportunity for fresh eyes and new ideas. Thank you to Derek for such a stellar job and your patience with my many questions”