Alice Zimba - Hospital Manager

Alice has been qualified as a nurse since 2005 and has added to her knowledge and experience by doing a BSc in intensive forensic mental health in 2011. Working across the NHS and private sector, she has gained valuable experience across a wide range of roles including staff nurse, clinical team leader, ward manager, and interim hospital manager.

Alice particularly enjoys working with adults with learning disabilities and mental health issues, especially those with challenging behaviours, forensic needs, personality disorders, self-harm, autism, and enduring mental health problems. Since joining Cygnet in 2015, Alice has worked as Team Leader and Ward Manager on low and medium secure female services and she has completed the DBT intensive course. In 2019, Alice became Clinical Manager for Secure services, as well as the registered manager for the hospital. She is part of the Cygnet Women’s network and has now taken over as hospital manager.

Dr Maqsood Ahmad - Medical Director

Dr Ahmad completed his higher psychiatric training in London, and was appointed as a Consultant Psychiatrist at Charing Cross Hospital, London; one of the major teaching hospitals in the country.

He joined Cygnet Hospital Stevenage from Alpha Hospitals, an independent provider of medium/low secure and mental health rehabilitation services. He worked there for over seven years as a Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Director, and helped develop their medium secure mental illness and low secure PD services from scratch. Previously he has played a pivotal role in establishing a brand new psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU) in Goodmayes Hospital, North East London NHS Foundation Trust.

He has a special interest in the treatment of service users suffering from complex mental health problems, including those with substance misuse and personality disorders, for which he tends to use an eclectic approach.

Eve Kaklamanos - Clinical Manager

Eve qualified as an RMN in 2008 from Southampton University. She then began her career working in Southampton as an RMN gaining broad experience across Medium Secure and Low Secure services.

In 2014, Eve began her career with Cygnet; working across Low Secure and PICU services, before moving to Cygnet Hospital Stevenage in 2019. Here at Stevenage she has managed both our male medium secure ward (Peplau) and one of our male PICU wards (Chamberlain). Most recently, Eve is now our Clinical Manager for our Acute Services.

Caroline White - Clinical Manager for Secure Services

Caroline began working in mental health in 2007, in supported living care for ASD patients. She moved on to work in low secure services in 2009 as a HCA and qualified as a registered mental health nurse in 2013 at The University of Northampton. She then spent 5 years working in medium secure and low secure female services.

In 2018, she then moved up to manage a CAMHS ward for 18 months and later managed two acute wards for a year.

Caroline joined Cygnet Hospital Stevenage in 2020 and worked as Peplau Ward Manager, their male medium secure service, for 3 years. She has since become The Clinical Manager for Secure Services.

Caroline thoroughly enjoys her job at Cygnet Hospital Stevenage, and particularly the team spirit at Cygnet.

Jemma Lewer (Nee Lacey) - General Manager

Jemma started her employment with Cygnet Hospital Stevenage in 2010 as CPA Co-Ordinator. In 2011 Jemma was promoted to Administration Manager and then on to Office Manager in 2013. Jemma oversees the Administration Team and function within the hospital and all contractual requirements such as CQUIN and KPIs.

In 2019 Jemma started a second role within in Cygnet Hospital and is now also PA to Operations Director, East of England Region. Jemma is currently completing her Level 5 Operations and Departmental Management apprenticeship. In 2023 Jemma was appointed General Manager of Cygnet Hospital Stevenage.

D’Monte Watson - Pattison Ward Manager

D’Monte have been working in mental health since 2003. He began as a support worker and became more and more interested in mental health, which led him to pursue a career in nursing. D’Monte qualified in 2010 and has since gained experience as a staff nurse, Team Leader and Ward Manager. He joined Cygnet Hospital Stevenage in 2019 as their Low Secure service Ward Manager. Most recently; D’Monte has become the Ward Manager of the brand new PICU service – Pattison Ward.

He takes pride in trying to ensure that we deliver a high standard of care for our patients and ensure that the wellbeing of our staff is maintained.

Lindani Bhebhe - Saunders Ward Manager

Lindani qualified in 2003 and started his nursing career at St Andrew’s Claire House – a high dependency unit. He then joined Cygnet Hospital Wyke in 2004 and worked on their PICU units for 6 years. Here he gained diverse experience before moving to their low secure and rehabilitation units.

In 2012, Lindani moved to Cygnet Hospital Stevenage where he joined Pattison Ward as a clinical team leader. He then progressed to become the Ward Manger of Pattison Ward. Lindani is now the manager of our low secure male service, Saunders Ward.

Gemma White - Tiffany Ward Manager

Gemma has worked in health care since 2005 where she began her career as a health care assistant. She progressed to become a nurse, qualifying in 2009. Since qualification she has worked primarily in acute mental health settings, gaining a robust understanding of adult acute psychiatry.

Gemma began her career working for the NHS in central London for 4 years, 2 of which were spent as part of a team that successfully set up a pilot Triage ward. She then joined a service in Milton Keynes as a Clinical team leader where she made a considerable contribution towards bringing the service in alignment with CQC requirements. Gemma joined Cygnet Stevenage as Chamberlain Ward manager and is now the manager of our low secure female service, Tiffany Ward.

Jane Ngwenya - Chamberlain Ward Manager

Jane has been qualified as a registered mental health nurse since 2004. Prior to joining Cygnet Health Care she worked within the NHS where she gained a wealth of experience in acute and PICU settings. She joined Cygnet Hospital Stevenage in 2017, initially working as a contracted agency nurse covering all the six wards in the hospital. She subsequently became a Clinical Team Leader on Pattison Ward and was one of the nurses to pioneer the transition of the ward from being a medium secure unit (female service) to a Male PICU ward. Most recently, she took up the role of Ward Manager on Chamberlain Ward (male PICU). Jane is passionate about patient centred care and always aim to deliver a high standard of care for patients whilst ensuring that the wellbeing of staff is maintained.

Laura Baker – Head of Occupational Therapy

Laura qualified as an Occupational Therapist in 2011 and has since gained a wide range of experience in a variety of mental health settings, including acute adult psychiatry, older adult’s psychiatry, community outreach, the prison service, specialist ASD low security and forensic mental health.

The Occupational Therapy department provides specialist support to empower people to facilitate recovery and overcome barriers preventing them from doing the activities (or occupations) that matter to them. Laura is keen to promote the principles of the recovery approach within the provision of Occupational Therapy through holistic and person-centered care, empowering and strengths-based approaches that cultivate hope for the future.

Amit Jotangia - Head of Psychology

Amit is a Registered and Chartered Forensic Psychologist working as Head of Psychology at Cygnet Hospital Stevenage. He has been working in forensic services since 2004 and has experience of prison, secure hospital and probation settings including Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) services.

Amit has taught on several MSc and Doctorate courses and places importance on guiding the future psychology workforce. Amit is trained and experienced in both assessment and therapy work, and has completed advanced training in Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) and Mentalisation Based Therapy (MBT). He has a particular interest in the development of effective therapies for antisocial personality disorder.

Lesley Dolby - Quality and Compliance Manager

Lesley joined Cygnet Hospital Stevenage as Quality and Compliance Manager in July 2018. She has over 17 years experience of working within Secure, PICU and Acute Mental Health services, having spent 14 years at St Andrew's Healthcare prior to joining Cygnet.

She started her career in healthcare as PA to the Director of Training and Development at the NHS (SEPT), before moving on to the role of PA to the Hospital Manager/Administration Manager at St. Andrew’s Essex in March 2004. She later took on the role of Quality & Compliance Manager for the hospital in 2013, having built an extensive knowledge of regulatory compliance and the hospital’s operational and clinical functions.

Lesley is an experienced senior manager, who within her role assists the Hospital Manager and Clinical Teams to assess the quality of service provision, making recommendations as to what action should be taken and developing systems to improve regulatory compliance.

Nqobizitha Dube - Chamberlain Ward Manager

Nqobizitha qualified as a Mental Health nurse in 2009 after having worked as a General Nurse in Zimbabwe from 2003. As a General Nurse, she worked in the emergency and theatre departments which required timely response, calmness and good communication skills.

Nqobizitha joined Cygnet in 2020; initially working on Orchid ward, a female acute service, as a staff nurse and later working in a variety of Mental Health settings, including male PICU and low-and-medium secure wards. She became a Clinical Team Leader on Chamberlain ward (Male PICU) in January 2023 and later that year was appointed as Acting Ward Manager. Nqobizitha is now the ward manager for Chamberlain ward.

Nqobizitha is committed to upholding the highest standards of care by putting patients first and working collaboratively with families and carers in ensuring a holistic approach to patients’ care.