People and Project Legacy

Primary Care Services North Cumbria is your front door into our world of primary care here in the west, east and north areas of Cumbria. It covers your local general practice, pharmacy, dentistry and optometry.

Below are some of the key groups and people involved in Primary Care Services North Cumbria, a collaboration of North Cumbria Primary Care Networks (PCNs)

The project has developed over the last few years so this page will give an overview of the journey so far and the key people involved in its legacy.

The project of 'Primary Care Services North Cumbria' began in June 2023 across the NHS area of 'North Cumbria' with a collaboration of Primary Care Networks and Partner Organisations working together to build resilience and improve patient outcomes.

It was supported by the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board at Place.

For more information on Primary Care Services North Cumbria please get in touch via our enquiry form here.

Please note: For clinical requests please contact your appropriate health provider accordingly.

North Cumbria General Practice Leadership Team:

Primary Care Network Clinical Directors, Primary Care Network Operational Leads, Local Medical Committee (LMC) and North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB)

Chair: Currently Vacant

North Cumbria Operational Leads:

Each primary Care Network (PCN) is represented by their respective operational lead and makes up the Operational Lead Group who meet monthly. The operational Lead group have oversight of project work that falls under the remit of Primary Care Services North Cumbria.

Chair: Catherine Penrice, Keswick & Solway Operational Lead

Primary Care Services North Cumbria - Operational Delivery Team:

HR & Finance on behalf of Primary Care Networks: Carlisle Healthcare / Tracey Darrington

Management Lead on behalf of operational Leadership: Tracie Webb

Operational Project Manager
(Primary Care Services North Cumbria Project / Primary Care Collaborative North Cumbria): Kirsty Jay

Communications & Media Project Manager: Paul Day

PCN Cancer Engagement Lead North Cumbria: Joel Vilchez

Community Cancer Awareness Worker: Julie Crellin

The Project Legacy - Team Members 2023 - 2025

Sam Gargett became the Project Manager in June 2023 leading on multiple projects and stakeholder relationships across North Cumbria including scoping at scale working for multiple Primary Care Networks (PCNs) and practices. Sam also provided day to day management oversight of the other areas of the project including: Communications and Media, Widening Participation, Cancer Projects and the People Promise.

Sam ended her time with the initial two year project in April 2025 to become the Practice Manager at Brampton Medical Practice.

Paul Day also joined in June 2023 as Project Manager for Communications & Media. Specialising in digital communications, multi-media / content creation, websites, social media and design he created and maintains all the various project channels. Paul previously worked as part of the Communications Team for NHS North Cumbria CCG and then the North East and North Cumbria ICB.

Paul continues his role in the project helping to promote the wide range of opportunities and recruitment across primary care in North Cumbria, as well as supporting patient information/access, training, and wider health & wellbeing content.

Kirsty Jay joined the project team in April 2024 to become the People Promise Manager. Kirsty led the People Promise project, working with Practice Managers and beyond to implement a broad range of targeted actions to help embed this national NHS People Promise initiative across all North Cumbrian GP Practices. Kirsty previously worked as Business Manager at Cumbria Health and has over 13 years of experience in the NHS, working in various administrative and managerial roles within public and private sectors.

In April 2025 Kirsty finished her one year role as the People Promise Manager but started work in a new role as the Operational Project Manager across both the 'Primary Care Services North Cumbria' project and the developing collaborative 'Primary Care Collaborative North Cumbria'.

Joel Vilchez joined the Primary Care Services North Cumbria project team in January 2024 as PCN Cancer Engagement Lead North Cumbria. Leading the work on Cancer Engagement, Joel collaborated with GP practices, Primary Care Networks (PCNs) and worked closely with the Northern Cancer Alliance.

Joel also previously worked as an Operational Lead for Health Records and Physical Health Psychology at North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust. Joel will leave the project in June 2025 to go and work at Brampton Medical Practice as their Digital and Transformation Lead.

Julie Crellin joined the project team in October 2024 as a Community Cancer Awareness Worker leading the work on cancer awareness in the local community, primarily in West Cumbria.

Working closely with the Northern Cancer Alliance her role aims to increase early diagnosis by sharing key information with community members. Julie previously worked as a Cancer Champion Project Coordinator and Communications Worker at Carer Support West Cumbria.

Natalie Thomson is a Learning Facilitator who was part of the first year of the project supporting the team with the recruitment aspects, in particular supporting with various career events and connections. Natalie worked for both the primary care project and North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust. Natalie completed her role within the project and continues her role in the Foundation Trust.

Clinical Oversight

Dr Robert Westgate provides strategic support and oversight for the project. Robert has held a number of wider roles across the North Cumbria Health and Care System.

Originally from Redcar, Robert is also a GP, having trained in North Cumbria in the 1990s and is Clinical Director of Carlisle Healthcare Primary Care Network. He also works freelance out of hours for Cumbria Health and is a trustee of “ICan Wellbeing Group”, a third sector charitable organisation.

Dr Amit Paik is Clinical Lead of North Cumbria Primary Care Training Hub, which was previously part of Health Education England and now sits within NHS England. Within this role he provides strategic leadership around all things connected to primary care clinical workforce. He has helped to developed various Fellowship programmes within North Cumbria.

Amit is also a GP Partner with Carlisle Healthcare as well as working with Cumbria Health out of hours and supporting “BASICS” – emergency medical responders in North Cumbria. He is also developing a new North Cumbria Clinical Podcast as part of the Primary Care Services North Cumbria Project.