Our Team
All sedationists in the Sedation Solutions team are medically qualified, appropriately trained and highly experienced in the administration of advanced sedation techniques.
A high level of competence based on a solid foundation of theoretical and practical supervised training, progressive updating of skills and continuing experience is the key to our safe and effective track record of sedation practice.
Our reputation for professionalism is well established, and has resulted in us becoming a leading provider of conscious sedation services to over 2000 clinics in the UK.
Daniel St John-Hore
Chief Operating Officer
Having graduated with a BA Hons degree in Business, Marketing and Economics and a HNC in Finance and Accountancy in 2002, Daniel started his career a year later when he joined a private sedation practice owned by two of our founding partners.
Daniel has gained wider experience as a consultant to a sports supplement company and a personal training and holistic health centre, and joined Sedation Solutions upon its formation in 2011 as the group manager.
As of April 2022, Daniel is our Chief Operating Officer and is responsible for all Sedation Solutions business operations including planning and implementing its long-term strategy for growth and development. As part of his role, he is our CQC Registered Manager along with Dr Botha as Head of Compliance.
Katie Heffer
Business Development and Marketing Manager
Katie started her career in the City at the Bank of England, working for 6 years as an Assistant Bank Officer and then worked at MGM/ABC for 3 years in the technical department. Her degree was in French Studies, which also enabled her to work as a French tutor.
Katie has worked for Sedation Solutions for nearly 16 years, starting as a medical administrator and now working in Business Development. She's seen many changes and significant expansion over the years.
Katie play tennis regularly and represents the 1st teams of 2 clubs. She also enjoys quality time with friends and family (including her 2 little dogs!), reading, theatre, cinema and she endures stressful times watching Chelsea FC!
Dr Andre von Backstrom
Founding Partner
Dr Andre von Backstrom is a medical doctor who qualified in 1988 at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. He has a diploma in sedation and pain control and was clinical assistant anaesthetist at the Royal Berkshire Hospital. Andre has been involved in medical and dental anaesthesia and sedation since 1991 and has carried out in excess of 60 000 general anaesthetics and sedations. He has been at the forefront of the development of sedation in private dental and medical settings. He prides himself in his bedside manner to make patients at ease before administering sedation.
He is married to an NHS Cardiac Rehabilitation Physiotherapist and has three grown up children.
In his off time he is a keen golfer and tennis player and enjoys skiing and Game watching whenever holiday opportunities arise.
Dr Andre du Plessis
Founding Partner
After gaining his B.Med.Sci degree from the University of Pretoria, André went on to complete his M.BCh.B at the same institution. Following a year as a doctor in the gold mines in SA, he travelled extensively over the following 7 years, practicing medicine in Canada and Greece. This included sailing the seas as a cruise ship’s surgeon, resident ski resort physician in the Rockies, general practitioner in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, and as a flying doctor treating Inuit communities in the remote Northern Territories of Canada.
On his return to South Africa he spent 5 years rotating through departments of Opthalmology, Psychiatry, Orthopaedic surgery, A&E, Obstetrics, Radiology and eventually Anaesthetics. Since his arrival in the UK in 1995, he has involved himself on a full-time basis with the administration of conscious sedation since 1997. He was a founder member of the Society of Conscious Sedation in 1999, and gained his Postgraduate Diploma in Conscious Sedation from the University of Stellenbosch in 2002. André was coordinator of the UCL Eastman CPD Postgraduate Certificate in Sedation and Pain Management from 2005 - 2015.
His other passion is photography, for which he was awarded a Fellowship by the Royal Photographic Society in 2015.
Dr Gideon Bosch
Founding Partner
Dr Bosch completed his medical studies in South Africa, obtaining a B.Sc. from the University of Stellenbosch in 1975 and then completing his medical degree at the University of Free State in 1981. A diploma in Family General Practice followed in 1988. He practiced as a GP Partner in South Africa, gaining extensive experience in anaesthetics at the district Hospital.
In August 1990 Dr Bosch moved to the UK with his wife and three daughters, where he performed anaesthesia for dental procedures at dental practices across Southeast England. In 1995, he founded Bosch Medical, an association of twelve associate anaesthetists providing dental sedation services. Thereafter, Dr Bosch was a co-founder of Sedation Solutions LLP, which consists of six partners and three associates in an expense sharing practice.
Dr Bosch is immensely proud of his four daughters and three grandchildren, all of whom reside in Central London.
Dr Will Botha
Founding Partner
Dr. Will Botha qualified as a medical doctor from the University of Pretoria, South Africa in 2001 and moved to the U.K in 2003. He became involved in dental sedation soon after arriving in the U.K, practicing in NHS and private dental surgeries treating both adult and paediatric patients. This allowed him to accumulate considerable experience in the field. In 2008 he completed a post-graduate diploma in sedation and pain control under the tutorship of Prof. James Roelofse, architect of the sedation training program at the University of the Western Cape and the Eastman Dental Hospital at University College London.
In 2011 he was one of the founding partners of Sedation Solutions LLP, providing sedation services to leading private clinics in London and the South East of England. He also works closely with the award winning Toothbeary Dental Practice Richmond (London), where he is the lead sedationist, providing advanced IV sedation for children.
Dr. Botha, along with some of his colleagues at Sedation Solutions, also works closely with a leading facial cosmetic surgeon at The Centre for Facial Cosmetic Surgery in Harley Street, where they perform advanced surgery under intravenous sedation.
Outside his professional life, Will is married and with 3 young boys, is kept quite active when not at work, especially during the summer cricket season. Will also enjoys long distance running and being in the outdoors as much as possible.
Dr Azher Ashraf
Partner
Dr. Azher Ashraf graduated from Cambridge University and University College London in 2008. He spent his initial medical years in Oxford and then Australia, before embarking on Anaesthetic training in the UK, in 2011. In doing so, he gained experience working at many prestigious UK hospitals including the John Radcliffe, UCLH, The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, St. Bartholomew’s and Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospital.
Azher joined the team at Sedation Solutions back in 2016. Subsequently, he developed a passion for the safe and effective delivery of advanced conscious sedation, in the dental setting. In 2022, he was welcomed and honoured to become a Partner at Sedation Solutions.
Azher also enjoys teaching. He returned to UCL in 2019, affiliated with the Dental Sedation Programme and was initially appointed as Honorary Clinical Associate Professor. In 2021, he became the Director of the Post Graduate Certificate in Dental Sedation and Pain management at UCL Eastman Dental Hospital. Here, with his team, he teaches and examines Dentists on delivering conscious sedation safely. The rest of his working time is spent as an Anaesthetist in the NHS. He is a Council member at the Association of Dental Anaesthetists and takes an active interest in sedation related research.
Outside his professional life, Azher is married and has a growing family with the recent addition of a second boy. He enjoys family time, travelling and seeing different parts of the world as well as anything related to Liverpool FC.
Dr Ingrid Bosch
Associate
Dr Ingrid Bosch completed her primary medical degree at the University of Free State, South Africa, in 1982. Following her internship year, she worked as a General Practitioner in the Department of Family Practice at the University of Free State. Dr Bosch took a career break to raise the family’s four daughters, during a time encompassing the family’s move to the UK.
In 1997, she returned to practice, joining her husband, Dr G Bosch, in their Anaesthetic and Sedation Practice. She also held the position of partner at a private General Practice based in Putney, London, from 2000 to 2003.
Dr Bosch practices part-time to enable her to spend valuable time with her grandchildren in London. She is a keen cook and enjoys participating in regular exercise classes with friends.
Dr Sali Urovi
Associate
Sali is a full time NHS Consultant Anaesthetist, working at CTC-Basildon where he performs anaesthetic procedures for patients undergoing cardiac or thoracic surgical operations.
Sali has a European Certificate of TOE (Trans-Oesophageal Echocardiography) and training for ultrasound examination. He has been working for Sedation Solutions since 2015.
Sali performs conscious sedation procedures mainly for dental surgery and deeply enjoys the professional relationship with a team where the care for the patient is at highest level.
Dr Nisha Bhudia
Associate
Dr Nisha Bhudia qualified from University of Leicester Medical School in 2006 and has been an anaesthetist since 2011 having trained at many of the major teaching hospitals in London.
She has a specialist interest in airway anaesthesia and sedation and has been an associate at Sedation Solutions since 2019.
She is enthusiastic about teaching and nurtures this interest by lecturing at the UCL Eastman dental institute on the postgraduate diploma for dental sedation and teaching on European Paediatric Life Support courses.
Outside of her clinical work Nisha enjoys cycling and yoga.
Dr Mike Denning
Associate
Dr Mike Denning studied medicine at St. George’s Hospital in Tooting, London. Qualifying as a doctor in 2010, he has worked as a full time anaesthetist at Redhill Hospital in Surrey since 2017.
Mike very much enjoys working for Sedation Solutions on his days away from the NHS. He qualified late in medicine having joined the Royal Marines after school where he spent 7 years as a Marine Officer and finished flying helicopters for the final 6 years.
Away from medicine, Mike’s passions include motorcycles, photography and playing golf very badly!
Dr Mohammed Jawad
Associate
Dr Mohammed Jawad is a Consultant Anaesthetist at Imperial NHS trust. He is the lead for sedation at the Charing Cross site and has played a key role in setting up the Imperial Sedation Study Day as well as providing training for end tidal CO2 monitoring throughout the Trust during sedation.
He is a lecturer at UCL Eastman Dental Institute, teaching the post graduate diploma in dental sedation and is also part of the faculty at the Royal Brompton Sedation course.
Along with Dr Azher Ashraf, Mohammed has designed a new pioneering scale to monitor the depth of sedation. He has had ethical approval granted from Imperial Research and Ethics department to validate this and hopes to publish this in 2023.
Dr Kai Rabenstein
Associate
As an Associate Specialist in Anaesthesia at East Sussex Healthcare Trust in Hastings Dr Rabenstein mostly works on the Labour Ward. His special interest in dental sedation stretches back 15 years and he has been a Council Member of the Association of Dental Anaesthetists.
He considers it a unique privilege to be able to shepherd his patients in comfort through the healthcare interventions they require using a combination of empathy, clinical experience and pharmacology.
Outside medicine he is currently focused on leisure marine pursuits commissioning the build of a cutting-edge solar electric cabin cruiser paired with an expedition style dinghy tender.