Directors

Toni Cooper - Director of Quality and Governance

My name is Toni Cooper. I am a Director for Wigan Borough Federated Healthcare. I look forward to the continued success of the fed and working with the PCN’s in future developments whilst creating good working relationships. My background is General Practice which I am a Partner.

Dr Ian Owen - Medical Director and Chair

I have been a GP in Wigan for over 30 years, working at Pemberton Surgery since 2001. I became the senior partner at Pemberton in 2017.

Since 2014, I have served as a director at WBFH, being part of the original "band of 5" and continuously involved ever since. I have been the chair since 2017 and oversee non-PCN clinical work.

I have also been the Medical Director of Wigan GP Alliance since 2018, having originally chaired the organization.

In 2023, I became the chair of Greater Manchester Primary Care CIC, also known as GM Feds.

Currently, I am a happily part-time GP. I was elected to the board during the first intake and led our joint bid, along with the other two Wigan federations, for the Prime Minister’s Challenge Fund. This initiative aimed to increase GP access in the borough. To our surprise, we won the bid, and much to my amazement, I was nominated to lead the effort. This eventually led to the formation of the GP Alliance, where I was made chair. Recognizing Shikha Pitalia's superior ability to liaise with the local hospital trust, I stepped down in favour of her and became the medical director.

My goal is to support our practices and their patients, regardless of their size. I believe practices are the best way to care for patients, though I acknowledge that some tasks are better handled on a larger scale.

I live in Standish and, as I age, it's crucial that we have a strong system in place.

Dr Alistair Thompson - Director of Finance and People

Hi I am Al Thompson, director looking at organisational development and keeping an eye on finance, with the help of our Chief Officer Helen. 

I am retired having completed 50 years GP in Wigan, most of this done in Atherton. 

My interests now include acting as a trustee of a community leisure centre and spending money on my boat in Scotland. I now realise that boat stands for ‘bang on another thousand’. 

Life long I have believed in the importance of small practices and that now includes GP Federations and PCNs as a protecting factor, umbrella, for practices. Change always happens but that does not mean we need to loose the best bits. 

Helen Kerins
 - Director

Helen’s employment has mostly been in both in Local Government and NHS. She started off as a YTS office administrator and then went on to have various administration roles throughout her career before ending up as Business Manager of this Federation. Helen was appointed in April 2020 with a remit to develop the Federation to become a provider of support services to Primary Care. Helen has a business development background and has managed many projects in the past. Helen says she couldn’t do her job without the teams she has created and looks forward to developing the Federation further.