Welcome to our Bariatric Team here at Ashford and St Peters Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. We are a dedicated team of Health Professions specialising in Bariatric Management.
Samer Humadi
Bariatric and Upper G.I. Consultant
Mr Samer Humadi was appointed as Consultant Surgeon in the Department of Upper Gastrointestinal and Bariatric Surgery at Ashford & St Peter’s Hospital NHS Trust in May 2010. He also works as a Consultant Bariatric Surgeon at St. George’s Healthcare NHS Trust. Mr Samer Humadi was trained as Clinical Research Fellow at Hammersmith Hospitals from 2000 to 2002 after, which he was trained as a Specialist Registrar in General Surgery at the Southwest Higher Surgical Training Programme.
His training rotation involved working at Cheltenham Hospital, Frenchay Hospital, Weston Hospital, Yeovil Hospital, Musgrove Park Hospital, Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, Bristol Royal Infirmary and the Royal United Hospital in Bath. After completing his general surgery training, he has chosen upper gastrointestinal surgery as a speciality of interest. He has also sub-specialised in Bariatric (obesity) surgery having worked for a year at the Bariatric Unit at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton.
At his current post as a Consultant Upper Gastrointestinal & Bariatric Surgeon at Ashford & St Peter’s Hospitals he is particularly interested in performing weight loss surgery. He is also interested in the diagnosis and treatment of general and upper gastrointestinal surgical diseases including gallbladder surgery, open and laparoscoic hernia repair, hiatus hernia, anti-reflux surgical procedures, upper gastrointestinal endoscopy.
Shashi Irukulla
Bariatric and Upper G.I. Consultant
Mr. Shashi Irukulla is a General, Laparoscopic and Bariatric Surgeon. He is currently a Consultant Upper GI and Bariatric Surgeon at Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospital NHS Trust in Chertsey, Surrey.
The most frequent procedures he undertakes are gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy, gastric banding, gastric balloon insertion, gall bladder surgery, anti-reflux surgery, hernia surgery (open & laparoscopic),endoscopy and colonoscopy.
Academic background following his graduation in South India, Mr Irukulla migrated to the U.K for further training in surgery. He has also trained in Australia and Scotland. He completed a Bariatric Fellowship Programme at St.George’s Hospital, London and visited various European centres including Hamburg and Bruges to further his knowledge in Bariatric Surgery.
Mr Irukulla developed Bariatric MDT services at Ashford & St.Peter’s Hospital and helped the hospital to achieve the status of an Independent Bariatric Centre. He has a special interest in teaching and regularly teaches A.T.LS., CcRISP and Laparoscopic training courses. He is also an examiner in undergraduate medical examinations.
Kumaran Ratnasingham
Bariatric and Upper G.I. Consultant
GMC: 6079278
MBBS, BSc,MSc, eMBA, CertEd, FRCS
- Laparoscopic Upper Gastrointestinal/ Bariatric (obesity) Surgery
- Laparoscopic Anti reflux surgery
- Hiatus hernia surgery
- Complex Abdominal Wall Reconstruction Surgery
- Laparoscopic Adrenal Surgery
- Laparoscopic Inguinal Hernia Surgery
- Upper GI endoscopy
David Cartwright
Consultant Chemical Pathologist and Metabolic Medicine
Our Metabolic Physician graduated from Glasgow University Medical school and after completing the MRCP specialised in Chemical Pathology with the sub-specialisation of Metabolic Medicine. His Clinical Metabolic Medicine training was focused on Obesity and Total Parenteral Nutrition, and after appointment as a Consultant at ASPH in 2008 became a member of the Bariatric Team. He specialises in the medical causes, complications and the post-surgical follow up of obese patients.
Filomena Iacurti
Dr Cartwright’s Secretary
Filomena career as a Secretary/PA spans for almost 40 years. She started her career working for the General Manager of a TV/Video company, she then moved onto Research Laboratories. She took time out to have three children and for 6 years worked as an Auxilliary Nurse (Health Care Assistant) on the wards at St Peter’s Hospital on night duty. She went onto qualified as a Legal Secretary and worked for a Law firm supporting various Legal Executives and then PA to the Senior Partner. Filomena now supports Dr Cartwright and Blood Sciences in Pathology.
Her main duties are to ensure the smooth day-to-day running of the Blood Sciences Admin Office, supporting Dr Cartwright’s clinics in preparing/sending correspondence and other documents. She also assists the Laboratory staff as and when required, assisting patients with any queries, appointments or pointing them in the right direction.
Lorraine Nanke
Clinical Psychologist
BA Hons (Exeter) MSc (Surrey) PhD (Surrey) Chartered Clinical and Health Psychologist
Lorraine works mainly with people suffering from long term health conditions, including chronic pain and obesity. She specialises in Contextual CBT, a principles based trans-diagnostic approach to promoting well-being and resilience. She is also a guidelines compliant teacher of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. She provides training and supervision for health care professionals, is a regular lecturer at the University of Surrey, and has given a number of papers at international Mindfulness and Contextual Science conferences.
Lorraine is currently program developer and teacher of OsteoMap, a Department of Health funded innovation to develop mindfulness and acceptance informed osteopathic practice.
Naomi Biddle
Clinical Psychologist
DClinPsy (Oxford), BSc Hons (Reading)
Naomi specialises in working with people with long-term health conditions and has worked across a range of settings including weight loss and pain management. She is interested in mind-body, integrative medicine and using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and mindfulness to help people to manage their health and well-being.
Deborah Moyse
Specialist Bariatric Dietitian
BSc Nutrition and Dietetics Hon (Surrey – 2003), BSc Psychology Hons (Swansea – 1993)
Debbie joined the trust in February 2004 and since then has always had an interest in patients with obesity and eating disorders. During her time at the trust, she initially worked as a dietitian in both outpatients and inpatients with a wide range of dietetic requirements. In 2006, Debbie had the opportunity to work within the eating disorders team, which she did for 3 years before joining the bariatric team.
During her time in the bariatric service, Debbie has been involved in improving and developing patient experiences and pathways. She has also been instrumental in setting up the Tier 3 weight management service, writing most of the materials for the group sessions, initially delivering clinics and all the education sessions.
Kate Colban
Specialist Bariatric Dietitian
BSc Nutrition and Dietetics Hons (Surrey, 2011)
Kate has been specialising in Adult Weight Management since January 2012. She joined the bariatric team at Ashford and St. Peter’s NHS Trust in 2015. Prior to this, Kate was the Senior Dietitian at Barts Health NHS Trust for their Specialist Weight Management service, and continues to work in Tier 3 services across Sussex and Kent. Kate is experienced in multidisciplinary team working, facilitating group sessions and delivering one to one clinics.
Elaine Kerridge
Bariatric Dietitian
CNAA HND in Dietetics (Robert Gordons University Aberdeen 1981) with State Registration in Dietetics
Elaine has worked for ASPH NHS Foundation Trust for 11 years and has experience in a wide range of different clinical areas, supporting patients on the hospital wards and in out -patient clinics. Elaine has considerable experience in seeing patients for weight management advice. She has recently joined the Bariatric Team to provide support for the Specialist Weight Management Scheme.
Laura Plesnarowicz
Bariatric Dietitian
BSc Nutrition and Dietetics Hons (Leeds Met, 2012)
Laura recently joined Ashford and St Peter’s NHS Trust in 2015 as part of the Tier 3 service having previously worked in a Tier 3 service across Kent for almost two years. Laura realised quite early on in her studies that she wanted to work in the area of weight management and enjoys working with this patient group. Laura works with patients on a one to one basis as well as delivering group education sessions.
Hayley Cargill
Bariatric Dietitian
Msc Sport and Exercise Nutrition (Loughborough, 2009), Bsc Nutrition and Dietetics (Chester, 2007)
Hayley qualified as a Dietitian in 2007 and joined the Bariatric team in March 2014. Prior to joining the team Hayley worked as a Dietitian covering a wide variety of clinical areas and also worked for the Trust as a Senior Dietitian for the Eating Disorder Service. Hayley welcomes patients into the Service by delivering an Introduction talk providing an overview of the Weight Management Programme and runs a Dietetic Weight Management Clinic for patient’s referred to the Service.
Hayley also develops and delivers structured group education sessions on diet and weight management in which she is developing an online programme for.
Natasha Smith
Specialist Bariatric Nurse
Natasha qualified as a Registered Nurse in 2000 and currently works at Ashford and St Peter’s NHS Foundation Trust as the Bariatric Specialist Nurse.
She also supports Mr Shashi Irukulla (General, Laparoscopic and Bariatric Consultant Surgeon ) and Mr Samer Humadi (Consultant Upper Gastrointestinal & Bariatric Surgeon ) in the private sector working out of Ashtead Hospital, Spire Thames Valley Hospital and The Runnymede Hospital. With a BSC in Clinical Practice and a background in acute surgical nursing Natasha was a ward sister of the Surgical High Dependency Unit at St Peter’s Hospital for 6 years before moving into the field of Bariatric Surgery. As well as assessing both pre and post-surgery patients Natasha runs nurse-led Gastric band adjustment clinics.
Natasha is a member of the Metabolic and Obesity Surgery Specialist Nurses UK (MOSS nurses UK) and the British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society (BOMSS). She runs monthly support groups from Ashford Hospital for pre and post-surgery patients as well as managing the facebook support page Bariatric Buddies.
Jessica Vaughan
Specialist Bariatric Nurse
Jessica qualified as a Registered Nurse in 2003 and currently works at Ashford and St Peter’s NHS Foundation Trust as a Bariatric Specialist Nurse.
Jessica has a BSC in Clinical Practice and a background in acute surgical nursing. Jessica was a ward sister of the Surgical Dependency Unit and Wren ward, our bariatric surgical unit, at St Peter’s Hospital for 7 years before becoming a Bariatric Specialist Nurse. As well as assessing both pre and post-surgery patients Jessica runs nurse-led clinics seeing patients in the weight management programme and pre and post-operative patients.
Jessica helps runs the monthly support groups from Ashford Hospital for pre and post-surgery patients.
Natalie Mandeville
Bariatric Co-ordinator
Natalie has been working for the NHS for the Pass 24 Years,I started working on the Bank for St Helier Hospital working in A&E, Paediatrics and then working permantley in the Outpatients Department at Nelson Hospital In Wimbledon for 5 Years as Outpatients Supervisor and then Manager before transferring to St Peters Hospital and changing to work in the Clinical Coding office which is where I stayed for 15 Years.
I saw the job advertised in the Bariatrics Department for a Coordinator and here I am, I have been working in the department for nearly two years now. I started with just part time hours working on just the Tier 4 Service and now I do full time hours on both Tier 3 and Tier 4.
Claire Holland
Bariatric Team Lead
Claire achieved a certificate In Science with the Open University and became a Dietetic Assistant in 2010 at St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey. She successfully applied to join the Bariatric Team in 2013 and became the Bariatric Tier 3 coordinator. Claire supports the Psychologists, Dietitians and Physiotherapists to run the Education Sessions which takes place at Ashford Hospital.
Claire manages the facebook page ‘Eating Sense’ where patients can share their successes, difficulties and seek support when needed. Link to facebook page on the Weight Management tab, Support.
Heather Pursey
Specialist Physiotherapist