Our Medical Experts

As a doctor he has had the opportunity to see the huge difference play specialists have on the wellbeing of children who require medical care in and out of hospital.

In 2009 he was elected as one of the youngest ever board members of The Royal College of Anaesthetists. As a trustee on the board his main passion lay in developing and improving training and education for junior doctors, and over his 6 years on the board he lead on several instrumental improvement projects within this area.

Most recently Sanjiv has entered the Social Care Sector and is the CEO of Westgate Healthcare Group, delivering care services to the elderly across London and the home counties. He is passionate about healthcare and an advocate of engaging with and supporting specialist organisations such as Spread A Smile to help improve the delivery of care within the National Health Service and Social Care environments.

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Dr Ackwerh graduated from University College London Medical School in 2001. He then undertook his anaesthetic specialist training at the North Central School of Anaesthesia and was awarded the FRCA in 2007. In 2012, Dr Ackwerh completed his subspecialist training in Paediatric Anaesthesia following a Clinical Instructor post at CS Mott Children’s Hospital, Michigan, USA and a Clinical Fellowship at Great Ormond Street Hospital, UK.

Dr Ackwerh has a keen interest in medical education and is a member of the Academy of Medical Educators. He has tutor and mentor roles at UCL Medical School and is an Educational Supervisor at the North Central School of Anaesthesia.

Dr Ackwerh strongly believes in patient centred care and fully supports multidisciplinary team working. He has been the Anaesthetic Lead for Radiotherapy since 2015 and is a member of the Children’s Cancer & Leukaemia Group. His commitment to team-working, clinical excellence and high quality care was recognised when he was voted Anaesthetist of the Year at UCLH in 2017 & 2018. 

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“Every time we hear a child we are caring for giggle and laugh along with the Spread a Smile entertainers, it is huge. Knowing that for a brief period they can just be children brings a smile to our faces and it makes the tough times that bit easier.”

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She has a back ground in social work, the NSPCC and fostering and adoption, training in a busy London CAMHS team and working at University College London Hospital since 2003. She worked with babies, children, adolescents and their families in the large multi- disciplinary team – both inpatient and outpatient work comprising of both short and long term work.

Jane’s doctoral research was on the emotional impact of donating bone marrow in adolescence to a sibling and she gained her professional doctorate in 2017.

Jane worked as the Human Tissue Authority Assessor at UCLH from 2007 until 2021, has presented her work at numerous conferences and has several publications to her name, the most recent published by Routledge; Perspectives from a Psych-oncology Team Working with Teenagers and Young Adults with Cancer: Thrown Off Course 2023 of which she was the editor.

Jane retired from UCLH in 2021 and is currently working part time, one day a week in private practice working mainly with adolescents. She also offers individual supervision and regular Reflective Practice groups to Spread a Smile.

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