Rita Patel

WORK HISTORY

ABOUT RITA PATEL

I have 30 years’ NHS experience including managing the whole of London’s community pharmacy contract, managing NHS England’s dental commissioning across London as well as managing primary care commissioning. I also have direct clinical experience in pharmacy.My current role forms a key part of London’s Dental, Optometry and Pharmacy (DOP) team and I’m responsible for ensuring compliance to the NHS community pharmacy contract. I am responsible for a budget of about £180 million for commissioning London’s Community Pharmacy Services. I have in-depth knowledge, expertise and experience of specialist areas of Primary Care contracting, commissioning and performance management of independent contractors (dentists, GPs, pharmacists and optometrists). My previous role was being the North London Lead for all those services. I was responsible for all the DOP contracts across 21 Boroughs in North London with a budget of about £500m and responsible for a team that brought together commissioning, contract and performance management actions.