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Executive Committee


The Urolink Committee meets twice a year, usually in Spring and Autumn. The committee is responsible for the organisation, financial administration and running of Urolink and accomplishes this by:

  • discussing Urolink strategy and progress with BAUS (through the Committee Chair);
  • taking reponsibility for the evolution of Urolink strategy (as it has since its inception in 1990); and
  • including at least one of the BAUS Trustees in its Executive Committee meetings.

The committee members represent a broad range of interests in LMICs, principally in Africa. Other faculty members, representatives of other groups / associations and representatives from industry may be asked to attend meetings to help achieve the aims of Urolink.

Individual email addresses have been listed (where available) but you can make a general contact the Urolink Committee via the Administrator, by clicking here to go to the "Contact" page.


Members of the Executive Committee

Mrs Suzie Venn (Chair of Urolink)

Suzie is a Consultant Urological Surgeon on the South Coast, specialising in reconstruction and functional Urology. She first visited KCMC, Tanzania, in 2005, joining the bi-annual workshop, and her interest and passion in helping develop Urology in LMICs grew from there. Suzie has been chair of Urolink since 2015, and has focused its efforts on developing 3 project sites in East Africa, with support from TUF, BJUI and BAUS. Future plans include widening support to other centres in East Africa, and beyond, by involving more BAUS members and trainees in the work, and increasing funding ... click here for email contact or here to follow her on X (formerly Twitter)


Mr Steve Payne (Honorary Secretary & Web Editor) 

Steve was Chair of Urolink between 2001 and 2006 and is now a retired having been a Consultant Urologist and Andrologist in Manchester UK. He was responsible for the development of the original Urolink website and intimately involved with the funding of, and working with, Alfred Mteta on the 2005 KCMC rebuilding project. More recently, he has been significantly occupied with the urethral reconstructive workshops in Hawassa, Ethiopia, and KCMC, Tanzania as well as reconstruction and paediatric urology in Lilongwe, Malawi. As a previous exam Board chair in the JCIE and JSCFE in urology Steve has also become involved with the COSECSA Membership & Fellowship examinations, advising on aspects of their structure and quality control ... click here for email contact.


Mr Mike Ng (BAUS Section of Trainees (BSoT) Rep)

Mike is a urology registrar in the South-West deanery. He first developed an interest in global surgery as a medical student, leading to an elective placement in the University Teaching Hospital (UTH), Lusaka Zambia in 2013. During the COVID-19 pandemic he helped develop and run the ongoing Urolink webinar programme, providing the opportunity to work alongside the team in UTH once more. This has produced a successful archive of educational content and has been presented at a national level. As BSoT representative he hopes to encourage further trainee discussion and involvement in Urolink projects as well as promote opportunities for education and training workshops in LMICs.  ... click here for email contact or here to follow him on X (formerly Twitter)


Mr Shekhar Biyani (Equipment Lead)

Shekhar is a Consultant Urological Surgeon at St. James’s University Hospital, Leeds with expertise in stone disease and laparoscopy. He trained in general surgery in India,  undertook urology training in the UK and completed an MSc in Medical and Healthcare simulation. He is a keen surgical trainer, and has delivered courses in the UK, Africa and Europe. He was instrumental in developing National Urology Simulation Boot Camp for urology trainees and is co-Lead for the Cadaveric Simulation Centre (CADSIM) at the University of Leeds. Shekhar has delivered seven skills training sessions on the Management of Surgical Emergencies in sub-Saharan Africa under the umbrella of ASGBI and Urolink. He was instrumental in developing the 2nd Urology Unit with endourology skills in Hawassa, Ethiopia and has trained local urologists in basic endourological skills. He has gained valuable experience in course delivery, assessment and expanded a new perspective on the teaching-and-learning process. He was awarded the John Anderson Medal for his educational activities by the British Association of Urological Surgeoens in 2022. He is a regular visitor to the University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka and to Hawassa ... click here for email contact or here to follow him on X (formerly Twitter)


Mr Zeeshan Aslam (Member) 

Zeeshan is Consultant Urological Surgeon at Victoria Hospital, NHS Fife Scotland, who specializes in Renal Cancer management. He contributed to Urolink as the trainee Rep  between 2015-17 when he volunteered at 3 different LUT endoscopy workshops in Ethiopia. He has regularly guided local trainees remotely from the UK about audit work, data collection and analysis, and contributed COSECSA FCS MCQ questions. He currently leads on laparoscopic training and simulation courses at Hospital General Idrissa Pouye, Senegal and University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Nigeria. He is in the early stages of facilitating a Urology fellowship eventually leading to a training programme in Liberia, with collaborations involving Urolink, RCS Edinburgh, WHO Liberia and the Liberian Health Ministry. Zeeshan is facilitating widespread uptake of urological laparoscopy in Pakistan In collaboration with several local institutes and the Pakistan Association of Urological Surgeons. Zeeshan supports the overhaul of the healthcare systems in LMICs at a grass-roots level, and is currently completing a Master’s in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to achieve his long-term goals ... click here for email contact or here to follow him on X (formerly Twitter)


Mr Jaimin Bhatt (Member)

Jaimin is a Consultant Urological Surgeon at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow. Born and brought up in Kenya, he trained in Urology in Oxford, followed by fellowship training in urologic oncology in Toronto. Actively involved in Urolink for many years, he has been hugely inspired by Christine Evans and Ru MacDonagh. He developed the Urolink Basic Urology Skills workshop especially relevant to Africa and successfully delivered this in Tanzania, Zambia, and Cameroon. Jaimin joined the urology faculty on the ASGBI Management of Surgical Emergencies workshops in Ethiopia and Zambia and was Urolink lead for Zambia between 2010 and 2016; during this time he facilitated bilateral visits for Zambian and UK trainees. He was also instrumental in introducing simulation training for TURPs in Lusaka and Hawassa together with Shekhar Biyani. Currently, together with his colleagues, he is keen on forging sustainable inter-departmental links between Glasgow and Kamuzu Central Hospital in Malawi. He has been a regular visitor to the  University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia, Monze Mission Hospital, Zambia and Hawassa Ethiopia. ... click here for email contact or here to follow him on X (formerly Twitter)


Mr Nick Campain (Member)

Nick is a Consultant Urological Surgeon at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital, specialising in robotic, laparoscopic and open upper tract surgery. He trained in the South-West deanery before completing a post CCT fellowship at the Specialist Centre for Kidney Cancer, Royal Free Hospital in London. He first visited Zambia in 2005 as a medical student to undertake research and also spent a year working abroad for Health Improvement Project Zanzibar (HIPZ) in 2010. In 2013 he undertook a BJUI/BAUS Urolink fellowship and was Urolink's Honorary Secretary between 2015 and 2020. He has undertaken several visits to University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka and Hawassa Referral Hospital, Ethiopia during his registrar training and is now leading on a new link with Ndola Teaching Hosptial, Zambia. He developed and led the Urolink educational webinar programme since 2020. click here for email contact or here to follow him on X (formerly Twitter)


Mr Aasem Chaudry (Member)

Aasem undertook basic surgical training in Pakistan & the UK, and specialist training in urology in Yorkshire and London. This was completed at the Institute of Urology London in 1994. From 1996 to 2006, he worked as a Consultant Urologist in tertiary care settings in Pakistan. His speciality interests are stone disease, prostate cancer, minimally-invasiver therapy for BPH & andrology ... click here for email contact.


Professor Ramnath Subramaniam (Member)

Ram has been Consultant, and Professor of Paediatric Urology, at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust since 2002. Ram has demonstrated his enthusiasm for education and training in paediatric urology, across Europe, for many years. Since 2018 he has spent time in training camps, and workshops, in Sub Saharan Africa, with a particular emphasis on teaching complex reconstructive procedures. He has visited Hawassa (Ethiopia), Moshi (Tanzania) and Lilongwe (Malawi) in 2018, 2019 and 2023 with a brief interruption due to Covid! He is committed to supporting centres in low and low-middle Income Countries, and hopes to empower local surgeons in their home environment. In this way he aims to help them provide much-needed basic paediatric urological care, enhanced by reconstructive skills, for the multitude of children requiring assistance in those countries....click here for email contact.


Mr Matthew Trail (Member)

Matt is Consultant Urological Surgeon in Edinburgh having previously been the BSoT Urolink liaison member. During his registrar training, he assisted in developing and delivering a successful laparoscopic urology workshop in Dakar, Senegal which has since been awarded accreditation from RCSEd. He has continued to pursue his passion for enhancing access to urological training for fellow trainees in sub-Saharan Africa by providing remote webinar teaching sessions. This was developed during the COVID-19 pandemic for local trainees in Senegal and further afield. Matt used his role as BSoT rep to raise awareness of Urolink projects and to encourage UK-based trainees to take advantage of the opportunities from exposure to healthcare and urological training in LMICs. He was a 2022 TUF Fellowhip award winner and spent time at KCMC in Tanzania in the final months of his training helping to establish a teaching programme for local trainees. ... click here for email contact or here to follow him on X (formerly Twitter)


Professor Maxine Tran (Member)

Maxine is Professor of Urology at University College London and honorary Consultant Urological Surgeon at the Specialist Centre for Kidney Cancer at the Royal Free Hospital, London.

She is extending Urolink's reach into the Far East by developing links with Hanoi Medical University and it's partner hospitals (National Cancer Hospital and Viet Duc Hospital), and is supported by UCL's Global Engagement Office & Fund.... click here for email contact.


Mr Graham Watson (Member & Medi Tech Trust)

Graham is a Consultant Urological Surgeon at Eastbourne District General Hospital. He is a founder, trustee and Co-chair of MediTech Trustwhich provides medical equipment to hospitals both at home and abroad ... click here for email contact.


Ms Patricia Hagan (Urolink Administrator)

Tricia is the Deputy Chief Executive of BAUS. She is responsible for all the BAUS Sections (including Urolink), finance, membership, information technology and CEA awards ... click here for email contact.


Ms Hannah Doyle (Urolink Administrator)

Hannah is the Project and Programme Co-ordinator at BAUS, and works alongside Patricia Hagan on Urolink matters. Please contact Hannah for any queries about Urolink. ... click here for email contact.