Dr Saira Ghafur

Dr Saira Ghafur graduated from the University of Dundee and is currently a final year Respiratory and General Internal Medicine trainee based in the Yorkshire Deanery. She is currently in her second year of an MSc in Health Policy at Imperial College, London.

Saira has developed a keen interest in Quality Improvement and Patient safety and in 2013/14 she undertook a fellowship at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in Quality Improvement. She worked on several QI projects throughout the Trust after gaining certification as a Microsystems coach by the Sheffield MCA and the Dartmouth Institute.

During this time Dr Ghafur co-authored a grant application which secured £650,000 of funding from the Health Foundation to test and implement a patient safety initiative for frail, elderly patients in acute care (FRAILsafe).  In addition, Saira was awarded a HOPE Fellowship to address the theme of patient safety, quality and health policy in Europe. This allowed her to spend a month in Switzerland addressing these topics and subsequently presented at a conference in The Hague. Saira was also selected to participate in the Value Based Healthcare Delivery Course at Harvard Business School, studying the principles of the outcome based approach to health systems.

Saira is a founding member of the Sheffield Women in Medicine Network which aims to provide a positive forum through which a change in culture can occur.

During her SpR training, Saira has published a book for candidates taking the PACES exam, titled ‘The MRCP PACES Handbook’.

Dr Ghafur will be based at NHS England as Clinical Fellow to Professor Sir Bruce Keogh and will be working with the Innovation and Primary Care teams. Saira is looking forward to developing her knowledge and experience of health policy at a national level.