About Us
At Curaleaf Clinic, formerly Sapphire Clinics, we set the standard for high quality patient care and are proud to employ some of the top healthcare professionals and experts working in the field.
Curaleaf Clinic Multidisciplinary Team
Dr Michael Platt
MA MBBS FRCA FFPMRCA
Specialising in conditions causing Chronic Pain
Dr Platt has been a consultant and honorary senior lecturer in pain medicine and anaesthetics at Imperial College since 1991.Following medical training in Australia, he undertook specialist training in anaesthetics and pain medicine in London. He is a professional and highly effective senior consultant in pain medicine and anaesthetics with over 23 years in senior clinical leadership and specialist roles. In his NHS practice he is a senior consultant at the Imperial Pain Clinic and is frequently referred complex patients from other specialists in the UK and abroad.
Dr James Rucker
MBBS, BSc, MRCPsych, PhD
Specialising in Anxiety, PTSD, Depression, ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder
Dr Rucker is an honorary consultant psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital, specialising in mood disorders, psychopharmacology and novel drug treatments combined with psychotherapy. He is also a Clinician Scientist (senior clinical lecturer level) at The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London.
Dr Shaheen Khan
BSc, MSc, MBBS, FRCP
Specialising in Palliative Care
Dr Shaheen Khan is a consultant in palliative medicine and lead clinician for the Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust community palliative care team, the training programme director for the King’s palliative medicine training scheme and the co-chair of the London Opioid Safety and Improvement Group. Dr Khan graduated from Guy’s, Kings’ and St Thomas’ Medical School, having also been awarded a first class honours degree in BSc Neuroscience and an MSc in palliative care from Kings’ College London. His clinical expertise is in complex symptom control and advance care planning.
Dr Mark Weatherall
MBBC, FRCP, PhD, MA
Specialising in Migraine, Multiple Sclerosis, Insomnia, Epilepsy, and Parkinson’s
Dr Mark Weatherall is a Consultant Neurologist at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in the Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.Vice-Chair of the British Association for the Study of Headache and a former Trustee of the Migraine Trust. He was a highly regarded historian of medicine before studying clinical medicine at Selwyn College, Cambridge University. His clinical practice includes the treatment of headache, migraine, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and numerous other neurological disorders.
Dr Jonathan Hoare
MA, FRCP, PhD
Gastroenterology / General Medicine
Dr Hoare is a consultant gastroenterologist and head of endoscopy for the Imperial College hospitals. He trained at Cambridge University and St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1993. He undertook a PhD as an MRC research fellow in viral hepatitis and gene therapy from 1998 until 2001. His clinical practice encompasses all aspects of gastroenterology including inflammatory bowel disease and functional problems such as irritable bowel.
Dr Sushil Beri
MBBS, MD, DNB, MRCPCH
Paediatric Neurology
Dr Beri is a consultant paediatric neurologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. He has trained at various university and teaching hospitals across the UK and he undertook his general paediatric training at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool, and Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. Dr Beri sees young children and adolescents with all kinds of acute and chronic neurological disorders including childhood epilepsy, faints and funny turns, migraines and other headaches, cerebral palsy, neuromuscular and neurogenetic disorders.
Pharmacy Team
Katy McLachlan
MPharm, PgCert, PgDip, IPresc, MFCI
Chief Pharmacist
Katy is an Clinical Pharmacist who specialises in mental health. She gained her Independent Prescribing qualification focusing on the treatment of depression, and has since gained a wealth of experience managing patients with a wide range of diagnoses from mood and anxiety disorders to psychosis and schizophrenia.
Evonne Clarke
BSc(Hons), MSc, IPresc
Patient Care Director
Evonne has worked in the hospital pharmacy sector since qualifying in 1996 and has developed an interest in Pain Management whilst working in and leading the Medicines management service in the Surgical directorate where she also completed her prescribing qualifications in Acute pain.
Operations Team
Judith Kelly
Customer Services Manager
I really enjoy getting to know our patients by speaking to them daily. Helping guide patients through our process and then seeing them reach their end goal of treatment is so rewarding.
Ben Lee
Software Engineer
I choose to work for Sapphire because of the dedication to the patient experience and our exceptional level of diligence in providing the appropriate medication to patients.
Amy Abbott
Assistant Clinic Manager
Every day at Curaleaf we learn new things, and I love to be part of the ground-breaking research we do. It is very rewarding to support the patients through their journey and see them benefit from our help.
Emma Keillor
Compliance and Training Team Leader
My favourite part of the job is bringing the experience I have in customer service and implementing that in to what I do for the patients at Curaleaf. When I hear a patient say thank you for the service they are receiving and what a difference it is making to their lives, it’s really rewarding.
Suzy Petty
Business Development and Operations Manager
From being a full time international hockey player, to now being part of a fast paced, innovative company. The world of medicinal cannabis is just getting started, and I can’t wait to see how many more people we can help at Curaleaf, as this new area of medicine develops!
Leadership Team
Dr Ross Coomber
BSc (hons), MBBS, FRCS, PGCERT
Operations Director
Ross is a Consultant Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon with research interests in innovative solutions to improve patient care.Having completed a 12 month trauma fellowship in Canada, he has experience of working with medical cannabis. Ross has worked with start-ups to digitalise medical locum work, medical navigation and platforms for orthopaedic surgeons education. Responsible for all aspects of operations including doctor training programmes, franchisee set-up, contracting, background checks and establishing all communications across the Sapphire brand.
Aran Samra
MChem (Oxon) ACA
Clinic Director
Aran is a Chartered Accountant and Wealth Manager having studied at Oxford University. Prior to running the finance function at a tech start-up, Aran gained experience in Audit, Investment Advisory and M&A for 9 years at PwC.By managing all aspects of financial and management accounting, Aran controls Sapphire and franchisee companies. This includes budget and business planning for our proposed franchisee expansion.
Dr Avani Bhanushali
MSc, BDS
Head of Clinical Operations
With a bachelor’s in dental surgery, and MSc in Healthcare management and strategic leadership, Avani has worked both in clinical and managerial roles. Avani has over 7 years of experience in driving strategic initiatives in improvement of patient care at leading tertiary healthcare organisations.At Sapphire Clinics, Avani oversees Clinic Operations across the UK to ensure top quality care is provided to patients, and acts as a direct liaison between clinicians and other stakeholders to maintain the highest healthcare standards and care.
Katy McLachlan
MPharm, PgCert, PgDip, IPresc, MFCI
Chief Pharmacist
Katy is an Clinical Pharmacist who specialises in mental health. She gained her Independent Prescribing qualification focusing on the treatment of depression, and has since gained a wealth of experience managing patients with a wide range of diagnoses from mood and anxiety disorders to psychosis and schizophrenia.
Dr Simon Erridge
MBBS, BSc
Research Director
With a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery and BSc in Surgery and Anaesthesia, Simon has also worked on a number of innovative biotech opportunities.Research interests include cannabis-based medicinal products, and patient- reported outcome measures. Simon will be driving growth through professional, corporate and academic partnerships.
How it works
Step 1
Check your eligibility for a consultation by answering a short set of questions and sharing your medical records. It’s easy to share your health and social records when you create an account using your NHS login
Step 2
Our clinicians will review your application and, if suitable, you can book a virtual appointment via Zoom.
Join the Curaleaf Access Scheme and your first follow up appointment is free.
Step 3
After your consultation, our doctors and pharmacists will meet to discuss whether medical cannabis is appropriate for you.
If approved, your prescription will be sent to your pharmacy, who will contact you to arrange payment and delivery, straight to your door.
Step 4
Patient coordinators are on-hand to answer your questions and admin is made simple with your online Curaleaf Clinic Account, where you can book appointments, request repeat prescriptions and track your health over time.
What legal changes have been made?
On 1st November 2018 the law in the UK was changed regarding medical cannabis. The change was to the Misuse of Drugs regulations 2001. Medical cannabis was re-scheduled from a schedule 1 drug (this means of no medical benefit) to a schedule 2 drug (this allows doctors to prescribe medical cannabis in certain situations).
In practice this means that some patients who have exhausted conventional therapies are able to receive a prescription for medical cannabis. Only doctors on the specialist register of the GMC are authorised to prescribe cannabis medications, and satisfy the the guidelines issued by GMC, NHS England and MHRA.
