Mrs Natasha Chesler

Natasha Chesler qualified in 2001 with a BSc (Hons) in Physiotherapy at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She started her professional career in the UK in 2002, working in various hospital settings before gaining a job in 2005 at Barnet Hospital in North London, where she currently still works.

Natasha developed an interest and passion in pelvic health physiotherapy (obstetrics, bladder, bowel, pelvic pain) and undertook various postgraduate training courses in this field, including completing an MSc in Women’s Health Physiotherapy from the University of Bradford in 2013. Natasha has a passion for improving both women’s and men’s pelvic health and has been instrumental in developing the physiotherapy service at her hospital. On the back of her Masters dissertation on percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation (PTNS) for the treatment of overactive bladder and urge faecal incontinence, she helped to implement the use of acupuncture for tibial nerve stimulation and published the findings in the peer reviewed POGP journal. She regularly reviews journal submissions for POGP and has spent some time volunteering on the editorial board of the POGP journal. She has spearheaded and led on a Quality Improvement (QI) project to develop a clinical pathway for bowel management within the hospital. Her work has also included development of the male urology and bowel physiotherapy pelvic health service. She has completed the non-medical prescribing course and continues to work clinically as a specialist pelvic health physiotherapist, providing expert treatment and management of complex pelvic health conditions.

Reason for applying for the scheme

Natasha has always had a keen interest in service development and refining clinical pathways to ensure access to the best possible care for patients. She believes that access to specialist bladder and bowel services is limited and varies across hospitals, community services and regions.

She wants to improve her understanding of system leadership and develop further skills to lead improvement projects across clinical pathways and increase her leadership capabilities.

Natasha wants to gain experience of system leadership, transformation and service improvement, which will equip her with the skills to improve services within her sector in which she is extremely passionate about, pelvic health, as well as in other areas of NHS regional and national priority. She is particularly excited about being able to work with and learn from senior leaders from a variety of settings.