The Healthwatch Barnet Advisory Board

Board Members

Debra Gordon 

Jenny Blyth

Jenny has been a self-employed online gift shop owner for the past 10 years. She has a real passion for advocating for better mental health care and services within the borough of Barnet, and wants to be part of the change. In addition to her work on the Healthwatch Barnet Advisory Board, Jenny is involved in speaking openly about the issues facing people with mental illness in the small business community as well as locally. 

Martin Quilter 

Martin is now retired - he was a manager of an electrical wholesale and retail company in Notting Hill. He had previously worked in the west end for a firm of chartered accountants then in the city for a large insurance company, before he had a career change and joined a large electrical wholesale company where he continued his career. He loved playing football and cricket, and played for over 50 years. Martin's wife unfortunately has MS that has now unfortunately progressed, so he is a carer for his wife. He sits on Barnet Council's Involvement Board as a Carer representative, and on the Young Carers and Carers Board. 

Martin is a trustee for the Old Camdenians Club, an alumni group for his old school - the club has provided school uniforms, sports equipment and over 100 iPads to pupils with limited access to these resources. Martin joined the Healthwatch Advisory Board to help improve healthcare in Barnet for everyone.

Richard Strong 

Richard has recently retired from running a global clinical software business, following a long-term career in Healthcare and Healthcare IT. Richard started his career working in NHS pathology laboratories and then moved to specialise in healthcare IT and consulting, with experience of healthcare in many countries around the world. Richard holds an MSc in Intelligent Systems and is a Fellow of the Institute of Biomedical Science.

Following recent experience with the challenges navigating local healthcare services, Richard is passionate about ensuring the right services are available, are well coordinated and can be easily accessed by everyone.

Stewart Block

Stewart was introduced to Healthwatch through his GP’s Patient Participation Group. He was semi-retired from business and it provided an opportunity to experience a different type of organisation. His first projects were with our Enter and View programme, and he has also been involved with Healthwatch Barnet's work on Long Covid and remote GP Consultations. He says his reward for this voluntary work is seeing the improvements that we can bring.