Frankie qualified in 2003 with honours from the University of Manchester following which he attained both MFGDP (UK) and MJDF RCS Eng. diplomas. He has worked as a General Dental Practitioner ever since, still happily working at the coal-face within his own mixed Dental & Orthodontic practices.

He has previously worked as a Dentolegal adviser with the Dental Defence Union (DDU). In addition, he possesses the rounded experience of having worked at the GDC, NHS England, NCAS, HEE London deanery as a VT (DFT) adviser and as an Expert Witness in clinical negligence cases. Following the completion of his Master of Laws degree at De Montfort University, Frankie assisted the University by designing their Dental Law & Ethics LLM module as lead lecturer. He has also gained international recognition by being awarded Fellowship to the Pierre Fauchard Academy.

As a consequence of his eclectic experiences, he joined Taylor Defence Services in 2022 with a track record of defending colleagues against claims, complaints and GDC matters.

Frankie is an award-winning author, writing in the dental press and having authored the textbook ‘Dental Foundation Training’ (Radcliffe publishing). You will often find him speaking to colleagues on a range of risk management and dentolegal matters at events nationally.

Kandarp Thakkar is currently the Chief Pharmacist, Clinical Director for Medicines Optimisation and CDAO (Controlled Drug Accountable Officer) at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust. The Chief Pharmacist is the most senior pharmacy leader in an acute hospital trust and is accountable to the Board. They are accountable for the safe, effective, and efficient use of medicines across the organisation, ensuring compliance with law, regulation, and national NHS policy. Key roles include overseeing: system and external collaboration, strategic leadership, clinical leadership, governance and medicines safety, operational and workforce management, financial and resource management. He is also the Founder & Director of his own Consulting business, part of which is running ‘CDAO Mastery’.

Kandarp graduated from the London School of Pharmacy, trained at Guy’s & St. Thomas’ Hospital before taking up a range of clinical roles in London. His specialist areas of clinical interest include acute and elderly medicine and research interests include improving prescribing for the elderly, antibiotic stewardship and quality improvement. Kandarp has previously held Chief Pharmacist roles in Bedford Hospital and in King’s College London in Dubai. His wider roles also included being Divisional Clinical Director in Surgery & Women’s & Children and most recently he has held a Director of Transformation role.

His research interests include transformational change, workforce, developing prescribing Pharmacists, biosimilars, digital medicines, medication safety and improving organisational efficiency.

Wendy McAllister joined the Metropolitan Police in 1990. She specialised in public order policing, surveillance, partnership development & for the last 13 years of her service was a dedicated CDLO (Controlled Drugs Liaison Officer).

Mandated by the Health Act 2006 Wendy became extremely involved with all health care partners within the London area. She took on major investigations involving healthcare professionals with drug addiction & those diverting stock. Wendy has given evidence at FTP hearings for the regulators & provided detailed reports for HM Coroner following patient deaths.

Since retiring in 2022 Wendy remains vice chair of the APCDLO, instructs on the annual police CDLO course & works as a controlled drugs security consultant.

Professor Ketan Dhatariya graduated from the University of London in 1991 and did his diabetes and endocrinology training in London. For 2 years during his training he was also a part time General Practitioner in the evenings. He took some time out of his training to spend a year doing intensive care medicine and anaesthetics. After he finished his diabetes training in 2001 he went to do a 2 year research fellowship in endocrinology at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, USA. He was appointed as a consultant in diabetes, endocrinology and general medicine at the Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital in 2004, and Honorary Professor of Medicine at the University of East Anglia in 2019.

He is a full time NHS clinician. His predominant areas of interest are inpatient diabetes – in particular peri-operative diabetes care, the management of diabetes related emergencies, and the ‘diabetic foot’. He leads one of the largest foot clinics in the East of England.

He has several national roles in the UK. He is currently the Chair of the Association of British Clinical Diabetologists and is also the immediate past chair of the Joint British Diabetes Societies Inpatient Care Group where he led or co-authored several national guidelines on the management of various aspects of inpatient diabetes care. He is the Chair of the Examining Board for the UK Specialist Clinical Exam in Diabetes and Endocrinology. He is the Section Co-editor for diabetes for www.endotext.org. He is an Associate Editor of Diabetic Medicine and was also an Associate Editor of BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care.

Professor Dhatariya has over 235 peer reviewed publications, and has published over 20 book chapters on inpatient diabetes, peri-operative diabetes care or on the diabetic foot. He has been named as one of the world’s leading diabetes experts by www.expertscape.com.

Dr. Jawaad Saleem Malik (Bobby) is a British Consultant in Pain Medicine and Anaesthesia specialising in minimally invasive treatments for chronic pain, regenerative orthopaedics and advanced dental sedation.

He holds FRCA, FFPMRCA, EDRA, and the elite CIPS certification, placing him among a select group of global experts in ultrasound-guided pain interventions. Based in the UK, he works at Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr. Malik provides expert dental sedation through Sedation Solutions LLP, offering safe, tailored IV sedation for routine and complex dental procedures. His combined expertise in anaesthesia and pain medicine ensures comfortable, high-quality care for anxious patients and those requiring advanced sedation support.

He is also a Course Director for a Royal College of Anaesthetists-accredited regional anaesthesia programme, an active educator nationally and internationally, a published researcher, and Lead for Regional Anaesthesia at Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospital.