Meet the Team

Doctors

Partners

Dr Giles Pratt (m)

Partner

MB BS 1995 London
‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎ㅤ
GP Partner since 2001

Enjoys all aspects of General Practice but especially interested in Diabetes and Cardiology.

Prescribing Lead.

Dr Nirshanthan Nagarajah (m)

Partner

2002 MBBS and BSc (London), 2008 MRCGP (London
Dr Nirshanthan Nagarajah GP Partner
BSc, MBBS, MRCGP, MRCP, AFHEA, PGCert

Dr Nagarajah’s passion for being a doctor started in his primary school days which continued onto secondary school. He obtained his medical degree from Guy’s, King’s and St Thomas’ Medical School in 2002.

During his years in hospital training, he has worked in cardiology, gastroenterology, intensive care, nephrology, geriatrics, oncology, haematology, neurology at hospitals including UCH, Addenbrookes, London Chest and Queens. During this time, he decided to become a GP following in the footsteps of his father.

Initially a Salaried GP for 10 months in Romford; he moved to Ware in 2010 where he has been a Partner since, and leads on multiple clinical and non-clinical areas.

In 2013 he became a Senior Clinical Tutor for the Clinical School at the University of Cambridge which involves teaching year 4 and 5 medical students both within the practice and at the university, and in 2023 he became Assistant Director of GP studies there where he manages both the course and year 5 students.

He lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and 2 children. He is passionate about all kinds of music and plays the violin, piano, Carnatic violin and Miruthangam including having performed multiple times on stage. He also has interests in electronics, computing, finance, movies and cars.

Dr Shakib Khamkar (m)

Partner

BscHons, MBBS, DRCOG, MRCGP

Dr Alex Sims (f)

Partner

BM, BSc, DRCOG, MRCGP (2015)
Dr Sims’s interested in medicine started from a young due to her father having a chronic neurodegenerative condition.

She qualified from Southampton University in 2010 with her medical degree and honours in BSc Biomedical sciences in 2009.

She undertook her Foundation training in Winchester doing rotations in Gastroenterology, Orthopaedics, General medicine and A and E. She moved to Leeds for GP training including rotations in ENT, Stroke medicine, Obstetrics and Gynaecology and further experience in A and E.

Once completing her GP training Dr Sims started as a salaried GP at Church Street Surgery in 2016 and stayed ever since, joining as a Partner in 2023.

Since then she has developed an interest in women’s health, including ring pessary fitting and HRT.

In 2025 she completed her training to become a GP educator and is excited to be training GP registrars at New River Health.

Personally, she is married and has 2 young children. She loves gardening, painting, playing tennis and being outside with the family, either exploring woods, trails or weekends away at the seaside.

Salaried GPs

Dr Komal Munir (f)

Salaried GP

MbChB, MRCGP
Particularly interested in paediatrics, cancer care and teaching.

Dr Nisha Patel (f)

Salaried GP

Dr Bhavina Khatani (f)

Salaried GP

Dr Mahsa Azar (f)

Salaried GP

MD, MRCGP
Enjoys all aspects of General Practice but
especially interested in dermatology and
women’s health.

Dr Fiona Martindale (f)

Salaried GP

Dr Marianne Hanna (f)

Salaried GP

MB BCh, MRCGP (2024)
Works at Church Street Surgery Mondays and Thursdays. Works at Castlegate Surgery on Tuesdays. Enjoys all aspects of General Practice but especially interested in women’s health, cardiology and teaching.

Dr Parul Srivastav (f)

Salaried GP

GP Registrar

David Miwanda (m)

GP Registrar

GP Training

Dr Nimisha Anil (f)

ST3

Dr Anil is in the last year of her GP training and will be at New River Health from August 2025 till July 2026. 

Nursing Team

Advanced Level Nurse Practitioner

Nurse Claire Murphy (f)

Lead Nurse, Nurse Independent Prescriber

BSc Hons (2011)
After finishing school, Claire took a gap year to travel and explore the world. When she returned home, she took a part-time admin job at a GP surgery—and it was there that Claire discovered her passion for nursing. Inspired by the work she saw around her, she went on to train as a nurse and began her career as a district nurse.

After a few years working in the community, Claire joined Church Street Surgery in 2013. Since then, she’s continued to develop her skills, completing additional training in diabetes care, minor illness, and qualifying as a Nurse Prescriber. Claire enjoys all aspects of primary care nursing and feels privileged to support patients through so many different stages of their lives.

Outside of work, Claire lives in Bishop’s Stortford with her husband and their two children. Claire loves being active—whether that’s walking, gardening, playing sports, or spending time outdoors in nature. She also enjoys cooking for her friends and family.

Andrea Ovenden (f)

Advanced Nurse Practitioner

Registered Nurse Adult (1999), Independent Prescriber, RCN ANLP, Diploma Minor Illness, Diploma Professional Nursing Studies, NMC Assessor of Student Nurse Practice.

Special interest in Asthma, Diabetes, Practice of Family Planning and Reproductive Sexual Health), FSRH Subdermal contraceptive implant technique

Practice Nurses

Practice nurses are qualified and registered nurses; they can help with health issues such as family planning, healthy living advice, blood pressure checks and dressings.

The practice nurses run clinics for long-term health conditions such as asthma or diabetes, minor ailment clinics and carry out cervical smears.

Nurse Emma Chandler (f)

Practice Nurse

BSc
Interests in General Practice Nursing, wound care, asthma, immunisations.

Beth Ellis (f)

Nursing Associate

Health Practitioner

Mr Paul Quarterman (m)

HCPC Registered Paramedic

BSc, MSc, MRSC (CChem)
Paul is an experienced paramedic employed within the practice. He is able to deal with most acute illnesses and will triage our on the day appointments.

Luke Eary (m)

Prescribing Specialist Mental Health Nurse

Kevin Mason (m)

Specialist Mental Health Nurse

Healthcare Assistants

Healthcare assistants support practice nurses with their daily work and carry out tasks such as blood pressure measurement and new patient checks.

They may act as a chaperone when a patient or doctor requests one.

Julie Murrell (f)

HCA

Jodie Davey (f)

HCA

Works at Church Street Surgery
Tuesdays and Thursdays
Works at Castlegate Surgery on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Joined the practice in January 2025.

Physiotherapists

Imran Arshad (m)

Physiotherapist

Clinical Pharmacists

Ahmina Hadawi

Clinical Pharmacist

Practice Team

Practice Management

Katie Neale

Practice Manager

Jayne Bradley

Finance Manager

Gillian Woodcock

Operations Manager

The practice management team are involved in managing all of the business aspects of the practice such as making sure that the right systems are in place to provide a high quality of patient care, human resources, finance, patient safety, premises and equipment and information technology.

The practice management team supports the GPs and other medical professionals with delivering patient services and also helps to develop extended services to enhance patient care.

Administrator/Receptionist/Care Navigators

Receptionists provide an important link for patients with the practice and are your initial contact point for general enquiries.

They can provide basic information on services and results and direct you to the right person depending on your health issue or query.

Receptionists make most of the patient appointments with the GPs and nurses.

They also perform other important tasks such as issuing repeat prescriptions and dealing with prescription enquiries, dealing with patient records and carrying out searches and practice audits.

Non-urgent advice: We are a training practice

We are proud to be an accredited training practice, helping to train the next generations of General Practitioners.

We host GP trainees on a year long placements as well as Medical Students on rotation from the University of Cambridge. Our trainees and students are always supervised by our senior GP trainers.