Medics Academy

Professor Ilora Baroness Finlay of Llandaff is an independent Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords, and a Deputy Speaker. She was a member of the House of Lords Special Inquiry Committee on the Integration of Primary and Community Care. She has pushed legislation on many health issues, securing the Chief Coroner, banning smoking in public places, ensuring that the Health and Care Act now includes palliative care as a core NHS service and that high-street cosmetic procedures become regulated. She was a Member of the House of Lords Select Committee on the Assisted Dying Bill and chaired the Select Committee of Science and Technology inquiry into Allergy. She has co-chaired several All-Party Parliamentary Groups and been actively involved in the On Line Safety Act, support to victims of crime and compensation for victims of contaminated blood. She chairs the Commission on Alcohol Harms; CO Research Trust; The Bevan Commission in Wales and was Vice-chair of NICE’s ME/CFS guideline. She established Living & Dying Well, a think-tank around end-of-life issues. She is a member of The Times Commission on Health and Social Care. At Cardiff University, where she holds an Honorary Professorship, she established the Palliative Care Diploma/MSc and led Palliative Care service development. At the Velindre Cancer Centre she integrated palliative care with cancer services, has taught and lectured widely and has over 230 papers in peer-reviewed journals. She is President of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, a past-President of the Royal Society of Medicine, BMA, Medical Women’s Federation and the Association for Palliative Medicine, and Vice-President of several charities, including City Hospice, Hospice UK and Marie Curie.