Dr Sohail Bhatti, B Sc (Hons), M B ChB, FFPH, FRSH, FFPH

Dr Bhatti has lived in East Lancashire since 1990 and is the former Director of Public Health and Medical Director of the two Huddersfield Primary Care Trusts. In that position he had a budgetary responsibility for £20m and a department of 160+ staff. Dr Bhatti is also an Honorary Research Fellow of St Martin's College, Lancaster. His great ambition is to make the world a more fairer place for all its citizens.

He qualified in Medicine from Glasgow where he grew up, and took up training posts in Yorkshire, West Midlands as well as the North West where he obtained his NHS consultant accreditation in Public Health nearly 10 years ago.

He has been a national advisor to the Commission for Health Improvement on PCT appraisal, and he also was part of an EU-funded project (TEMPUS III) to modernise the public health infrastructure of the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan.

As well as being a Board member of statutory bodies he has also held board positions in voluntary &commercial companies, including the Chair of EMDA, an umbrella group of 74 BME VCS organisations [www.emda-uk.com].

His Masters Dissertation was on the use of Focus Groups in healthcare consultation. He was appointed as Associate Director of Public Health for the Northern Housing Consortium [www.northern-consortium.org.uk] in July 2007 which covers the north of England and encompasses organisations that provide the social housing needs of over 1.1 million tenants.

His wife is a dual qualified Health Visitor and School Nurse.

E-mail: s-bhatti@btconnect.com