Assessors are the face of the accreditation programme, acting as ambassadors and upholding its reputation. Assessors support QPIDS by promoting and championing good practice and continuous improvement. They have a critical role in assessing services for accreditation, providing a fair, comprehensive and transparent assessment and providing clear instruction for service improvement. Our assessors are consultants and nurses in the service, and we also have lay assessors, who represent the patient voice. If you are interested in applying for the role of assessor, please email the team to express an interest: askqpids@rcp.ac.uk.

Medical assessors:

Dr Claire Bethune 
Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust
Dr Bethune is clinical lead for the Immunology and Allergy services in Plymouth and has developed regional home therapy programmes for both immunoglobulin replacement in antibody deficiency and for acute treatment of attacks of hereditary angioedema.  Dr Bethune is also lead clinician for the diagnostic immunology laboratory service in Plymouth. 

Dr Aarnoud Huissoon
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
Dr Aarn Huissoon is a Consultant Immunologist at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital. He is clinical and laboratory lead for Allergy and Immunology West Midlands, the first centre to be accredited for both Immunology and Allergy services. He was previously an immunology centre accreditation inspector for UKPIN, forerunner of the current QPIDS scheme. Aarn trained in Immunology in Nottingham before returning to Birmingham, where he had previously undertaken his PhD studies.

Dr Ravishankar Sargur
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Ravi is a clinical lead for the laboratory Immunology services and Protein Reference unit in Sheffield Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Ravi is currently the chair of the JRCPTB Speciality Advisory committee ( Immunology). He also represents Immunology on the UKAS Professional Advisory committee.  He has a keen interest in quality control and quality assurance. He developed the  Sheffield Laboratory Atlas of Variation with Sheffield CCG to help optimise laboratory test utilisation in primary care. 

Professor Sophie Hambleton
Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Sophie is professor of paediatrics and immunology at Newcastle University and a practising consultant paediatric immunologist at the Great North Children's Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne.  Her research and clinical activities are geared towards improving outcomes for children with inborn errors of immunity, from diagnosis (including genomics) to therapy (taking in precision medicine and stem cell transplantation).

Dr Scott Hackett
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
Dr Scott Hackett is a Consultant in Paediatric Immunology, Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He leads the nationally accredited paediatric immunology service, based at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, covering the West Midlands. With 2 paediatric allergy/immunology nurse specialists he aims to see review all children with HAE within the West Midlands. They also run regular Immune deficiencies clinics, provide weekly ward reviews if needed and train patients on how to administer home therapies including C1 esterase. He runs monthly clinics with his adult immunology colleagues where they transition adolescents starting slowly from age 12-13 years.

Scott also leads the largest paediatric allergy service in the West Midlands receiving regional referral for complex cases of chronic urticarial, angioedema and complex gastrointestinal allergies including FPIES. He has recently become the chair for the RCPCH Immunology, Allergy and Infectious Diseases training CSAC and aims to improve paediatric immunology/allergy training and services within the UK.

Dr Sarah Goddard
University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust

Dr Sarah Goddard established the North Midlands Immunology Service in 2010, creating a regional centre that delivers specialist allergy and clinical immunology care across the North West Midlands. She is Lead for Laboratory Immunology and a Lecturer at Keele Medical School. Her clinical and academic interests include quality improvement in immunodeficiency services, complex common variable immunodeficiency (CVID), and the optimisation and governance of immunoglobulin use.

Dr Goddard founded the West Midlands Immunology Network in 2011 and established the North Midlands Subregional Immunoglobulin Assessment Panel. She has contributed to the NHS England Immunoglobulin Working Group and represented the West Midlands on the NHS England Clinical Reference Group for Immunology. Nationally, she is a regular invited speaker on complex CVID and hereditary angioedema (HAE). She also chairs the UK National Multi Specialty Meeting for complex CVID, fostering cross disciplinary collaboration to improve outcomes for this rare and challenging patient group.

Dr Jolanta Bernatoniene
University Hospitals Bristol NHS Trust

Dr Jolanta Bernatoniene , MD, PhD, is a Consultant in Paediatric Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, providing tertiary PID services for the South-West Region. As the service lead for 13 years, she ensured that the department operated in line with national Immunology standards, and in 2021 achieved a national accreditation award for the paediatric immunology service in Bristol and the South-West Region. 

Dr Bernatoniene is also a Senior Lecturer at the University of Bristol, served as an External Examiner for the Postgraduate Paediatric Infectious Disease and Immunology Diploma at the University of Oxford, and the Chair for UK College Specialty Advisory Committee for Paediatric Infectious Disease and Immunology Training. 

She is an active investigator within the National Institute for Health and Care Research Network and has participated in over 50 national and international paediatric clinical trials focused on childhood infections & immunity.

Nurse assessors:

Christine Symons
Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust
Christine is a consultant nurse for immunology and allergy at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth where she was among the wave of new Immunology and Allergy Specialist nurses in the UK 20 or so years ago. She set up the home therapy service for Devon and Cornwall and now oversees the expanded nurses’ team. In 2009, after previously achieving a PGCE in adult education,  she completed her MSc in Allergy and is a non-medical prescriber, routinely prescribing for an increasing cohort of immune deficiency and allergy patients. She sits on the Medical Advisory Boards of HAEUK and UKPIPS and has acted as Chair for HAE-INO, (the international nurses’ organisation for HAE), and for SWWING, (the regional Immunology nurses’ group). Christine is an honorary university fellow with University of Plymouth Peninsula school of medicine and dentistry and has been involved in a number of published research projects, clinical trials and audits.

Dorothea Grosse-Kreul
Takeda
Dorothea has been a senior specialist nurse for allergy and clinical immunology at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London since 2002. She completed her general nurse training at St. Marien Hospital, Botrrop, Germany in 1989. She studied for her post-graduate qualifications in London, where she completed a Good Clinical Practice Course, BSc and a Post Graduate Diploma. She is currently the Treasurer of the International Nursing Group for Immunodeficiencies. She has co-authored a number of peer-reviewed articles on the role of immunoglobulins in allergies, including replacement therapy.

Hayley Clifford
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust

Hayley is the lead immunology nurse specialist for University Hospitals Birmingham. She worked in infectious diseases before moving to the allergy and immunology services in 2006. She was treasurer of the immunology and allergy nurses board from 2016-2020. 

Benite Tshilenga 
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Benite is a dedicated and compassionate Allergy and Immunology Nurse with a diverse educational background and a passion for providing quality care to patients. With a foundation in Social Anthropology, she brings a unique perspective to the healthcare field. Building upon her foundational knowledge, she has pursued a Master's degree in Adult Nursing, further honing her clinical expertise and expanding her understanding of healthcare delivery. With a focus on allergy and immunology, she is committed to staying abreast of the latest developments and best practices in the field, ensuring that patients receive the best and effective treatments and care.

Florence Manyika
University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust

Debbie Hughes 
University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust

Debbie is an ANP (MSc Advanced Practice) for immunology and allergy at Royal Stoke Hospital. She works in services that are accredited with both IQAS and QPIDS.  She has collaborated with her nursing team to implement nurse led services in chronic spontaneous urticaria, including omalizumab clinic and immunotherapy clinics. She oversees delivery of homecare within immunology including HAE patients . As part of her dual role she participates in clinical trials and audits.  She has been on the nursing board for BSACI. She is working towards a local nursing group in the Midlands the nursing colleagues.

Karen Henderson
Cambridge University Hospitals  NHS Foundation Trust

Karen is an Immunoglobulin Clinical Nurse Specialist at Cambridge University Hospital and a member of the East of England Immunoglobulin Assessment Panel. She holds a unique regional role as a specialist nurse, working across the East of England to enhance the quality of care for patients with both primary and secondary immunodeficiencies. Her position supports not only direct patient care, but also the delivery of immunoglobulin home therapy training and the development of patient pathways across multiple specialties, including haematology- oncology services. In addition to her clinical and regional responsibilities, Karen is the current Chair of the Immunology and Allergy Nurses Group (IANG), where she contributes to advancing nursing practice and collaboration within the field.