Croydon

Service Manager

Tony qualified from the University of Hertfordshire in 2011. He worked in Community rehabilitation until 2013 and completed rotations as part of Sutton and Merton community services. He began work in a musculoskeletal outpatient setting in 2015 and became a Senior Physiotherapist that year, before being TUPE’d to Connect Health in 2016. Tony has an interest in operational leadership and became a Team Lead for Merton in August 2018. In October 2019 he was seconded into a Service Manager post in the Croydon MSK Service.

Service Manager

Alison has been working for Connect Health since May 2016. She was first appointed as Team Lead of the Hammersmith & Fulham service, taking on responsibilities for the day to day running of the service with support from her Service Manager. Alongside this, she had a clinical caseload with her time being split between both roles. Alison thoroughly enjoyed her role as a Team Lead and completed leadership training whilst in the position. This helped her to decide that she wanted to develop operationally within Connect.

In Dec 2018 she moved to the Croydon contract and took on the role of Service Manager. As a new service within Connect, her focus has been on setting up the service to ensure that it runs well, supporting the team, making sure that KPI’s are met and ensuring Connect are offering a high quality service to patients.

Advanced Physiotherapy Practitioner

Andrea currently works as an Advanced Physiotherapy Practitioner having previously worked in a leadership role for Connect Health. She completed postgraduate studies in Advanced Neuromusculoskeletal Physiotherapy at King’s College London in 2018.  She is a member of the Musculoskeletal Association of Chartered Physiotherapists and remains involved in research projects external to Connect.

Senior MSK Physiotherapist

Ben currently works for Connect Health in Croydon as a Senior MSK Physiotherapist and Team Lead. In this role he is currently responsible for; in-service training and development, stock acquisition and supervising other staff members. He completed undergraduate training at Cardiff University where he completed a number of diverse placements in a range of settings throughout Wales. Since graduating, Ben has worked in a variety of in-patient and out-patient settings for the NHS in Central London and Croydon. This led him to specialise into the MSK setting, under which he has completed multiple additional training courses and seminars. He has a keen interest in Sports and Exercise Medicine with previous experience working for Charlton Athletic Women’s FC and Chelsea FC Academy. Ben is a keen runner and has previously completed multiple half-marathons and a marathon.

Team Lead

Michael was TUPE’d across to Connect as a Senior Physiotherapist when the Merton contract was mobilised. He worked in Merton for 3 years as a Senior Physio and Deputy Team Lead and helped to establish the student programme utilised across Connect in London, linking in with universities and overseeing provision across contracts. Michael helped set up the patient engagement meetings piloted in Merton and he also worked in occupational health during his last 2 years in the Merton service; working in GTR (Govia Thameslink Railway) and Unilever.
He became a Team Lead within the new Croydon service when Connect won the contract, supporting and working with the transition team. Michael’s main role is supervising staff members clinically and non-clinically within the contract. His main interests in physiotherapy are rheumatology, specifically hypermobility, and strength and conditioning training

Senior Physiotherapist

Sophie studied MSc (pre-reg) Physiotherapy at St George’s University of London and graduated in June 2015. She has worked within Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy since graduating and joined Connect in December 2018 after being TUPE’d from Croydon Health Services. She joined Connect in the position of Senior Physiotherapist and has since progressed to also undertake a Team Lead role within the service. She is responsible for running clinics, supervising junior members of staff and assisting in the running and development of the Croydon service.

Clinical Lead

Elly qualified as a Physiotherapist 17 years ago and initially specialised in Paediatrics and Respiratory, before finding her home in Musculoskeletal therapy. She has since completed her Masters at Kings College London in Advanced Neuromusculoskeletal Physiotherapy and has been an Advanced Practitioner in Physiotherapy for the last 6 years.

Elly was delighted to join Connect Health in February 2020 and work within the CATS service and as Clinical Lead for the Croydon service.

Senior Physiotherapist and Team Lead

Hardik is currently working as a Team Lead and Senior MSK Physiotherapist for Connect Health. He graduated with a BSc in Physiotherapy in 2012 and completed his MSc in Sports and Exercise Medicine in 2014. He has been working in MSK private and NHS settings since 2014. He was TUPE’d across to Connect Health as a Senior MSK Physiotherapist from Croydon Health Service NHS and became Team Lead in 2020.

Hardik has a keen interest in sports related injuries and its rehabilitation. He previously worked for Aston Villa FC academy and is currently working for Chelsea FC academy on a part time basis. He is multilingual with Gujarati, Hindi and limited Urdu languages. He is also a keen cricketer and currently plays for a local Sutton cricket club.