DENTAL DEFENCE SOCIETY - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Head of Legal Executive Committee
Andrea is a noted expert in professional discipline and healthcare regulatory law.
The main focus of her work is defending professionals at fitness to practise proceedings before their regulatory bodies, where her experience includes successfully defending doctors before the General Medical Council, dentists before the General Dental Council and paramedics and other allied health professionals before the Health & Care Professions Council.
Andrea has also represented many student professionals in university fitness to practise investigations and qualified professionals in local-level processes including MHPS (Maintaining High Professional Standards in the Modern NHS) and ICB/performers list proceedings.
In terms of her healthcare regulatory work, Andrea represents healthcare professionals and providers who work in both the NHS and private sectors in connection with a wide range of non-disciplinary matters including Inquests, Public Inquiries, Care Quality Commission registration and enforcement action, patient complaints and claims, NHS England market entry processes, CESR applications and appeals, MHRA compliance and investigations, ARCP appeals, Judicial Review proceedings and LADO and Disclosure and Barring Service referrals.
Andrea's experience includes over 18 years acting for clients including medical and dental defence organisations, insurers, the NHS Litigation Authority (now NHS Resolution), the UK's largest independent pharmacy chain and many individual professionals. She also spent three years as in-house legal adviser to the General Medical Council itself, giving her a unique insight into the workings and priorities of regulatory bodies.
Andrea is qualified to practise in both the jurisdictions of England & Wales and the Republic of Ireland.
James has over a decade of experience acting for medical and dental defence organisations. He has represented members with both regulatory and negligence matters, as well as issues arising from claimed items of service and dental activity, including allegations of fraud. James has represented dentists at all stages of GDC investigations from initial complaints through to final hearings.
He also assists dentists with responding to patient complaints and defending dental negligence claims. James has particular experience of dealing with complex disputes arising from the NHS seeking repayment of funds from dental practitioners.
Maha qualified from one of the top dental schools in the UK (Guy's, King's and St. Thomas' School of Dentistry part of King's College London) with honours in 2007. Her determination and passion for dentistry has led her to drive for excellence in her studies and beyond. During her undergraduate years she was awarded the David Frank Sturdee Prize for Prosthodontics and, in her final year, was awarded the Newland Pedley Medal for her clinical thesis and case presentation.
In 2010, Maha gained membership of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and also began to fulfil her interest and journey into the medico and dento-legal world with a Masters in Medical Law (LLM) from Cardiff University, which she acquired in 2012. Since then she has always been interested and determined in making a change in the dento-legal world.
In 2014, Maha spent time teaching as an honorary clinical instructor at Tufts University in Boston, USA. She returned to the UK later that year and has since continued working in general dental practice while also continuing her professional development with various courses in implants, restorative dentistry and aesthetic dentistry.
The opportunity to co-chair the Dental Defence Society is the beginning of Maha's determination to make a positive change in the dento-legal world and for DDS to be the defence organisation that puts dentists' interests first. Maha's ability to help deal with stressful complaints by analysing the situation, thinking clearly and strategically to arrive at an amicable solution is known by her colleagues and her advice is sought and respected by her peers.
Since qualifying as a solicitor over a decade ago, Nicola has acted, almost exclusively, for practice-owning dentists.
Her clients range from large practice groups to sole practitioners. Nicola is happy to advise on:
Buying or selling a practice
Incorporating a practice
Expense sharing or partnership agreements or disputes
Problems with employees, associates or other staff
Associate agreements
Care Quality Commission registration
Property purchases, sales and leases
Nilesh R. Parmar has a special interest in implant dentistry and dental sedation for nervous patients, successfully splitting his time between his seven-surgery practice in Southend-On-Sea and a multi-disciplinary practice in Blackheath.
In 2014, Nilesh was voted ‘Young Dentist of the Year' at The Dental Awards and ‘Best Young Dentist' in the East of England in 2009 at the Dentistry Awards. Additionally, his practice Parmar Dental was voted ‘Best Hi-tech Practice' at the 2015 Private Dentistry Awards. Nilesh has been on the judging panel for the Dentistry Awards for the last three years. Nilesh was also voted the 5th most influential individual in UK dentistry in a Top 50 poll by Dentistry Magazine.
One of a few dentists in the UK to have a degree from all three London Dental Schools, education is important to Nilesh. In his quest for constant self-development, Nilesh recently completed his Executive MBA at Imperial College Business School, helping him develop his skills within the business aspects of running a dental practice.
A natural-born speaker, Nilesh regularly speaks at key conferences, webinars and business meetings nationally and internationally, on the topics of dental implants, CAD/CAM and digital technology. Outside of running his own practice and lecturing, Nilesh dedicates his time to supporting charity events. In 2012, Nilesh established the Ice White Charity Xmas Party, an annual event that attracts hundreds of dentists to raise money for worthwhile causes.
Nilesh is the co-founder of the UK's fastest growing dental implant education platform, named the Implant Academy. Since its inception in 2015, the academy has become the standard for dental implant training in the UK and is now setting up offices in Dubai and Mumbai. He was also one of the winners of the CEO Today, World Healthcare Awards being one of the few UK dentists short-listed.
In 2019 Nilesh founded his healthcare consultancy service, NP Consulting and has worked with key players in the UK dental and healthcare markets. He is available to advise on marketing strategy, product development and is an angel investor in products he believes will revolutionise the marketplace.
Nilesh is a keen racing car driver in his spare time. He was trained by Ferrari at its own test facility in Maranello as well as other tracks around the world. Currently, Nilesh is taking part in the Caterham Racing Championship and is the owner of his own race team, NP Racing.
Nilesh has a never-ending passion for his work, offering training and mentoring to dentists starting out in implant dentistry and readily accepts referrals for this procedure.
Saida is a solicitor and part of Brabners' Professional Discipline and Healthcare Regulatory Team. She acts for professionals including dentists, doctors, paramedics and others appearing before their regulatory bodies. Her experience of fitness to practise cases ranges from allegations of misconduct to adverse health, deficient professional performance, criminal convictions, cautions and determinations by other regulators (in particular the Care Quality Commission).
Saida also has experience in clinical negligence claims arising from dental and medical treatment. Some examples of this include allegations of misdiagnosis, negligent treatment, delay in treatment and delay in referral.
Saida qualified as a solicitor in 2018. She speaks fluent Farsi.
Sajni qualified from the University of Birmingham and has spent her career working in general dental practices, seeing patients of all ages, backgrounds and needs. She gained the MJDF diploma from the Royal College of Surgeons and has enjoyed teaching dental undergraduates at King's College Hospital.
Furthermore, she was awarded a Fellowship Diploma in Aesthetic Medicine, broadening her skills to include facial aesthetics and has obtained a certificate in advanced aesthetic restorative dentistry. Her passion for dental law began when she aided a colleague through a stressful event related to a patient complaint.
The critical importance of the quality of legal support required became apparent during this time. Sajni's varied dental experience gives her clear insight into the broad range of problems that may be faced within dentistry and best places her to be able to empathise with colleagues.
Her position as co-chair is underpinned by her utmost determination to provide the highest quality service including the protection, advice and education required for defending and empowering dentists across the country.
Job Titles:
- Brabners' Healthcare Solicitors
Samantha joined Brabners as a Legal Apprentice in 2014. She has since completed her LLB(Hons) law degree and qualified as an Associate Chartered Legal Executive.
Samantha assists Brabners' healthcare solicitors in relation to both commercial and professional discipline work. Her experience includes fitness to practise cases before the General Dental Council and Health & Care Professions Council, public inquiries, commercial contracts and intellectual property matters.
Job Titles:
- Clinical Director of a Dental Body Corporate
Stephen qualified in 1976 from University College London and later returned as Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer, having gained his PhD and FDS qualifications. Subsequently, he was appointed Professor of Primary Dental Care and Honorary Consultant in Restorative Dentistry at King's College London.
He has more than 40 years of clinical experience in both NHS and private practice. He has lectured extensively throughout the UK and overseas and is proud to have contributed to the training of many hundreds of undergraduate and postgraduate dentists and dental care professionals. He has written extensively in scientific literature and has published four textbooks.
Stephen semi-retired from King's in 2015, when he was honoured with the Distinguished Services Award. He was appointed Emeritus Maurice Wohl Foundation Professor of General Dental Practice, King's College London, in 2015 and continues to contribute to MClin Dent and MSc programmes at King's.
From 2015 to 2019, Stephen was appointed Clinical Director of a Dental Body Corporate, having previously acted as its Clinical Advisor for many years. Throughout his career, Stephen has endeavoured to support all members of the dental team, particularly those in difficulty.
For more than 25 years, he provided the only remedial training programme for dentists in the UK, allowing them an opportunity to return to safe practice after prolonged absence, due to family commitments, illness or disciplinary procedures. Over a similar period, Stephen has been fully engaged as a ‘Clinical Expert' in medico-legal and ‘Fitness to Practise' cases, always striving to ensure fair play for dental professionals. Stephen is currently External Examiner to several universities in the UK and overseas. He is also Past President of the European Federation of Conservative Dentistry and serves on its Executive Committee.
Warren qualified as a dentist in 1971. He then undertook four years of hospital-based training in Oral and Maxillo-Facial surgery in the UK and USA before spending eight years as a partner in general dental practice. He then returned to hospital practice for 28 years as head of the largest Acute Dental Care (emergency care) department in the UK.
A consultant, senior lecturer and specialist in Restorative Dentistry he provided care to medically compromised patients as well as teaching for undergraduates and training for junior staff. In association with the London Deanery, he established a joint hospital and general practice foundation programme. He was active in research, co-authored a clinical text book and was an examiner for both the Royal College of Surgeons and General Dental Council.
For the past eleven years he has also worked as a Local Dental Adviser for a large mutual defence organisation, providing advice and support to dental colleagues and their legal advisers in a broad range of cases including claims, complaints, regulatory and employment issues.
He is totally committed to supporting colleagues during an extremely stressful time in their professional lives and understands the strain this places on their family and professional lives.