SANITAS
CONSULTING
ABOUT US
Sanitas Consulting is a specialist health psychology consultancy working to support clinicians in their practice. We are also dedicated to reducing health inequalities and improving access to care for marginalised groups.
We provide evidence-based research, service evaluation and behavioural science consultancy to NHS organisations, local authorities, charities, universities and private healthcare providers seeking to develop more equitable, effective and culturally responsive services.
Our work sits at the intersection of health psychology, public health and behavioural science, supporting organisations to improve their patient experiences and identify barriers to care. At Sanitas Consulting, we also aim to implement practical, data-driven solutions to enhance engagement, uptake and health outcomes.
Research Evaluation
We specialise in the design and the delivery of robust, ethically sound and culturally informed evaluations that provide clear, actionable insights to support service development, commissioning decisions, funding applications and quality improvement initiatives.
Our research and evaluation services include:
-
Service audits and pathway evaluations
-
Patient satisfaction and experience surveys
-
Health inequalities and access to care research
-
Systematic reviews (Design, literature searching, appraisal, evaluation and report writing)
-
Qualitative research (interviews, focus groups, analysis and report writing)
-
Quantitative analysis (survey design, evaluations, statistical analysis and report writing)
-
Mixed-methods evaluations frameworks
-
Participant recruitment from hard-to-reach communities
All of our projects are underpinned by health psychology theory, ensuring that the findings go beyond the description to explain why behaviours occur and how change can be achieved. We work closely with clinicians, community partners and service users to ensure that our work is meaningful, practical and directly translatable into service improvement.
Our evaluations do not solely report data. They provide clear recommendations, implementation plans and measurable indicators of change, helping organisations to demonstrate impact, improve equity and strengthen future service delivery.
Clinical Training Support
We provide tailored training, workshops and consultancy to support clinical and non-clinical staff to become more psychologically minded in their day-to-day practice.
Our clinical training support services include:
-
Interactive workshops for clinical and non-clinical staff on psychologically informed practice
-
Improving communication, motivation and engagement solutions
-
Reducing missed appointments, DNAs and improving attendance
-
Applied use of health psychology frameworks such as the COM-B and behaviour change wheel
-
Reflective practice and skills development sessions
-
Culturally responsive communication training and support
-
Bespoke plans for NHS, ICB and community services
Our tailored training equips healthcare professionals with practical health psychology and behavioural science tools to improve patient communication, engagement, adherence and outcomes. Our workshops and sessions are designed to support staff to understand the psychological, cultural and behaviour factors that influence health behaviours, and to apply evidence-based techniques confidently with routine care.
Our training can be delivered as workshops, team sessions, or ongoing support programmes. Training is delivered through engaging workshops, reflective practice sessions, and applied case-based learning, ensuring that concepts are grounded in real service contexts. Our aim is to strengthen workforce capability, enhance patient-centred care, and support services to deliver more equitable and effective healthcare.
Recruitment and Community Engagement Support
Drawing on our extensive experience working with the British Caribbean community and other under-represented groups in the UK, we provide culturally informed recruitment and engagement strategies that improve trust, participation and long-term community relationships.
Our recruitment and community engagement services include:
-
Participant recruitment for research, service evaluations and pilots
-
Community consultation and co-production workshops
-
Culturally responsive engagement strategies
-
Improving ethnic minority representation in health research and service design
-
Building partnerships with community organisations and leaders
-
Reducing mistrust, stigma and barriers that underserved groups experience accessing healthcare
We work closely with local organisations and community networks to ensure that engagement approaches are culturally sensitive, respectful, inclusive and ethically robust. Our methods are grounded in health psychology theory, enabling us to understand how to engage with communities, understanding why engagement may be low in some communities and what changes may be required to improve engagement. By strengthening community relationships and improving representation, we aim to help organisations to design services and research that are more equitable, culturally sensitive and effective.
Strategic Consulting for Public Health Bodies
We support organisations to develop data driven and culturally responsive strategies that address behavioural, social and structural determinants of health. We aim to ensure that policies, services and programmes are both effective and equitable.
Our strategic consulting services include:
-
Public health strategy development and review
-
Health inequality needs assessment and planning
-
Advice to Integrated care boards (ICBs) and local authorities
-
Service re-design to improve healthcare access, engagement and equity
-
Evaluation of service frameworks for commissioned services
-
Behavioural insights evaluation to inform policy
-
Design and delivery of behaviour change interventions
-
Development of public health campaigns and engagement strategies
-
Supporting testing and screening uptake amongst marginalised groups
-
Supporting treatment adherence amongst marginalised groups
-
Culturally sensitive intervention design and service design support to reduce barriers to healthcare access
-
Stakeholder and community engagement strategy development
We combine rigorous research methods with health psychology theory to translate population health data into clear, actionable recommendations that support policy, funding decisions and service transformation.
Our approach is collaborative and solution focused. We work closely with public health services, clinicians and community partners to ensure that our strategies are grounded in lived experience and aligned with public health policies. We aim to deliver measurable improvements in healthcare equity, access and healthcare outcomes.
Our aim is to help public health bodies move beyond current policy, to deliver real-world, sustainable change to the communities they serve.
TESTIMONIALS
Stevie analysed data collected from our acupuncture service and developed a clear, informative report, alongside a presentation that we could use to share and discuss our findings within the wider cancer centre. His expertise was invaluable in helping us better understand the impact and value of our acupuncture service, as well as identifying areas for improvement. The presentation he created alongside this was great as it helped us promote and report our findings to the wider team and easily see how we could better improve the service.
The Fountain Centre, Royal Surrey County Hospital
MEET THE TEAM
Dr. Stephen J McIntosh
Founder | Health Psychologist
BSc, MSc, PhD, CPsychol
Dr McIntosh, CPsychol is a Health Psychologist with chartered BPS registration (556174). Dr McIntosh has extensive experience delivering research, evaluation and behavioural science projects across the NHS, academic and community settings.
Dr McIntosh has lead and worked on projects which examined the health inequalities that black men in the UK experience when attending primary care and receiving treatment for prostate cancer. Dr McIntosh also has experience working on NIHR funded clinical trials such as the Health Eating Active Lifestyles for Diabetes (HEAL-D trial). He has experience with designing and producing systematic reviews, qualitative and quantitative research.
He has experience working in clinical environments in the NHS with a particular focus on working with patients who are experiencing chronic pan. Dr McIntosh also has expertise in delivering therapeutic interventions using ACT and CBT. Whilst working in the NHS, Dr McIntosh delivered training programmes to both clinical and non-clinical staff.
Dr McIntosh works in line with the BPS code of ethics and the HCPC standards of proficiency for practitioner psychologists