Practice Plus Group Ophthalmology Rochdale

Service Director

Caroline McHugh

Caroline has significant experience in working within Healthcare, including over a decade leading clinical and operational teams in both ophthalmology and fertility. Caroline is passionate about putting the patient at the heart of decisions, and in working within communities wherever possible to provide accessible care and the highest quality outcomes.

Deputy Service Director

Suzi Illston

Suzi has worked in healthcare for over 10 years, mainly within Ophthalmology services and is responsible for all financial and operational matters for our sites and mobile services, as well as company-wide ophthalmology projects. Suzi previously worked in highly commercial industries and brings with her a wealth of business experience and knowledge. Suzi feels that working in healthcare represents her true vocation. She says, "Making a real, tangible and positive difference to our patients' lives is the most important thing I have undertaken in my professional career and being able to develop and grow strong, patient focused values within a sustainable business framework is the cornerstone to ensuring that we can continue to provide our excellent service to as many patients as possible, as our service grows”.

Medical Lead for Macular Services

Barmak Zadeh

Barmak A. Zadeh, Consultant Ophthalmologist Barmak is a consultant ophthalmologist at PPG clinics. He has vast experience in the field and is routinely involved in the diagnosis and treatment of retinal and macular diseases, cataracts, corneal diseases, keratoconus, and glaucoma at Rochdale CATS NHS clinic. He is also part of our retinal team at North West mobile macular service. He has over 20 years of experience in Ophthalmology during which he has published a number of peer reviewed scientific publications in the medical literature.

Clinical Lead, Croft Shifa

Barbara Haydock

Barbara has worked in Ophthalmology services since 2009. She is experienced in overseeing clinics including assessments, post-operative checks and scrub nurse for a range of Ophthalmic procedures. Barbara is an experienced specialist nurse and injector, and has completed a seconded year of Ophthalmic research. Barbara has been in a managerial role since 2018, and in 2021 became the Clinical Lead for the Croft Shifa Ophthalmology team.

Lead Optometrist

Jayne Owen

Jayne graduated from the University of Manchester in 2006 with a BSc (hons) in Optometry. She has worked in a variety of optometry settings before commencing work with an independent eye hospital in 2016. Jayne has completed her Diploma in Therapeutics and Independent Prescribing as well as a Professional Certificate in Medical Retina. Jayne specialises in cataract management and post cataract care, including YAG capsulotomy. Jayne is currently working towards a Masters in Clinical Optometry with Cardiff University. In addition to her work at Practice Plus Group, Jayne also works at the University of Huddersfield supervising final year optometry students and is an examiner for the College of Optometrists final OSCE assessments.

Clinical Lead for Macular Services

Charlotte Evans

Charlotte qualified as a Staff Nurse in 2006 and was offered a job in Ophthalmology at Doncaster Royal Infirmary. She gained her qualification in Ophthalmic Nursing and went on to develop many more skills within Ophthalmology, including slit lamp skills, running independent Post-operative clinics, assisting in Emergency clinics and being involved in many more of daily duties within Ophthalmology. Within this time frame, Charlotte secured a position as an Ophthalmic Nurse Practitioner/Sister. She went on to specialise in medical retina and completed her training to become an Intravitreal Injector for conditions such as Wet AMD/DMO/VO’s. She joined Practice Plus Group in 2021 and quickly became the regional lead for our AMD service in Yorkshire. In September 2023 Charlotte became clinical lead for macular services.

Consultant Ophthalmologist

Rubina Rahman

Having trained as a specialist registrar at the Oxford Eye Hospital, Rubina completed a two-year fellowship in vitreo-retinal surgery. She has been working as a Consultant Ophthalmologist at Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS foundation Trust since September 2002, providing vitreo-retinal service to the whole of Huddersfield, Halifax and surrounding areas. She has recently retired from her NHS post after 20 years of service as a consultant. Rubina offers bespoke small incision cataract surgery for simple and complex cataracts. She has a special interest in combined cataract and vitreo-retinal surgery and has published widely on this subject. She has pioneered non-posturing macular hole surgery and rigorously performs outcome audits on her surgeries to maintain an above average success rate. She was one of the first surgeons in the UK to offer small incision (23G, 0.6mm) vitrectomy to her patients to allow quicker visual rehabilitation. Currently she has adapted an even smaller incision (27G, 0.4mm) vitrectomy to allow quicker visual rehabilitation. She offers vitrectomy surgery for a variety of retinal conditions including floaters, macular hole, epiretinal membrane, retinal detachment etc. She is a keen researcher having published over 35 publications in peer reviewed journals. She regularly presents her work in ophthalmology meetings such as British Association of Vitreo-retinal Surgeon, American Society of Retinal Surgeons and European Society of retinal Specialists. She reviews manuscripts for prestigious journals such as Eye, JCRS and Retina.

Consultant Ophthalmologist

Dan Nolan

Dan Nolan is a Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon, specialising in oculoplastic and adnexal surgery. He is responsible for the treatment of patients referred to The Croft Shifa Health Centre, for specialist oculoplastic care. He is a tutor and examiner at the Royal College of Ophthalmologists and provides advanced sub-specialty training in oculoplastic surgery. Dan completed his specialist training within the North-West deanery at the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital. Having been a consultant at the Royal Oldham Hospital since 2005, Dan was appointed as a Consultant at MREH in 2012, he then moved to Macclesfield District General Hospital in 2014.