Join us

 COHPA is able to offer two membership options

Full Membership

Open to all commercial providers of occupational health

Associate Membership

Open to industry stake holders providing services to the occupational health industry

The Board

COHPA is currently governed by a board of directors consisting of a Chair, Deputy Chair, and representatives of each type or size of commercial provider, (being small, medium or large). On a day to day basis COHPA is run by its own administrative team.

The current board is made of of the following members : 

  

  

Geny Foster - Chair

Geny was appointed as Managing Director of Medigold Consultancy in July 2005. Geny has developed and maintained excellent relationships with many of our clients and has been a keen innovator of many of the administrative policies and procedures for which Medigold excels. Geny joined Sedgwick Noble Lowndes Health Consultancy in January 1998 shortly before the management buyout of Medigold was completed from the Healthcare Division of Sedgwick Noble Lowndes. Geny's previous positions were as both HR and Administration Director and Manager, where she was responsible for the administration of all contracts within Medigold and for the smooth running of the Head Office, together with responsibility of all HR Services. She is also responsible for most of the computer software development, and design and development of the various clinical databases in use within the company.

  

Andrew Noble - Deputy Chair

Andrew Noble is Managing Director of Health Management Ltd, a leading independent Occupational Health provider, which provides occupational health services to large corporates / FTSE 100 companies and public sector clients such as Central Government Departments, Police Forces and NHS Trusts. Andrew has been Managing Director of Health Management Ltd for 10 years since founding the business in 2001 with Dr. Alasdair Emslie, Richard Emslie and Dr. Rupert Hall-Smith, all of whom work in the business. Health Management operates from a number of regional centres and now employs over 300 staff, including one of the largest groups of Consultant Occupational Health Physicians in the UK. It is actively involved in the training and supervision of OHPs and OHAs and has a number of StR training posts.  Andrew is a graduate of Bristol (B.Sc Joint Hons) and Cambridge (M.Phil) Universities.

  

Carole Miller - Director

Carole is a Specialist Practitioner in Occupational Health and Health and Safety. Her Company Priority Occupational Health Ltd, of which she is a Director, was formed on 4 November 2004. Carole has extensive experience in designing, implementing and providing occupational health services at a strategic level. With a focus on strategic solutions, Carole’s experience encompasses service delivery primarily for the manufacturing, pharmaceutical, power industry, construction, banking and health care sectors. Carole’s career has been directed to the provision of the full range of integrated occupational health services, which have included audit, safety, ergonomics and organisational stress management. All of which have most recently been provided through occupational health and safety consultancy. This experience has enabled Carole to demonstrate proven interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to combine business strategy and vision with customer orientated delivery. .

  

Prof. Michael O’Donnell - Director

Michael has an extensive background in occupational medicine. After qualification, he worked in hospital medicine and for six years in general practice before moving to occupational medicine at Sellafield where he underwent a four-year training programme. Since then he has worked in the Middle East providing occupational medicine services in oil, refining, distribution and petrochemicals before returning to the UK where he has given OH advice to a broad range of employers. He has written and spoken on a number of issues including attendance management and health and wellbeing at work. He is a Fellow of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine and honorary visiting professor in the School of Life & Environmental Sciences at the University of Salford He provides input and lectures to the Nottingham University MSc Course in Workplace Health. He also lectures to the DDAM training course run by ATOS Healthcare. Mike is a past president of the Royal Society of Medicine Occupational Medicine Section. He is a regular reviewer for the Journal of Occupational Medicine. Qualifications and Training: MB ChB FFOM DDAM

  

Chris Pugh - Director

Chris is the Managing Director and founder of Duradiamond Healthcare. In addition to being Managing Director, Chris is still a practicing Occupational Physician with over 25 years experience in the specialty. During this time he has acquired extensive knowledge of Occupational Health provision across a wide range of organisations both in the public and private sectors. Before forming Duradiamond Healthcare, Chris worked as a Consultant in Occupational Health within the NHS and prior to this he served in the Royal Navy for a number of years.

  

Karen Talbot - Director

Karen Talbot is currently Sole owner/Director of Diverse Health Solutions Limited, she has worked within Occupational Health field since 1995, gaining her occupational health degree in 1999. Karen’s main areas of expertise in the OH field are customer care, business acumen and quality provision. She strives to increase the OH profile in all her clients and professional contacts throughout the UK. She held directorship previously for 4 years for the Association of Occupational Health Nurse Practitioners (UK). Karen joined the COHPA Board in 2009 and was the elected Chair for 2010. She maintains that Occupational Health practitioners at all skills and educational levels require the business acumen to work effectively with organisations, to have the correct level of training and to increase the occupational health profile nationally.

Members agreed at the first Extraordinary General Meeting of the association that COHPA will have no conpuslary number of directors written into the constitution ; the minimum number being one and no maximum. However an inspiration was recorded in the minutes that 2/3 of the Board should always be representatives of small or medium sized providers, unless not enough members stand for these positions and in which case open invitations would be issued for the remaining positions.