NHS Grampian and NHS Highland welcome Jane to lead Maternity Collaborative

The joint NHS Grampian and NHS Highland Maternity Collaborative is to be led by Jane Gill, who was recently appointed as Programme Director. Jane will oversee the ongoing recruitment of almost 100 additional staff as well as progressing joint arrangements between the two health boards which will make delivering the Moray Maternity Service Plan possible.

Jane has been project managing strategy and transformation projects within NHS Highland for the last few years. She has a professional background as a chartered accountant, having worked in the health care products industry for multinational blue-chip companies and enjoyed placements around the world.

With her husband serving in the military, Jane originally moved to Lossiemouth in 1994. Both of her children were born at Dr Gray’s Hospital and she feels passionately about supporting her local community.

Jane explained: “We were that military family. We would transition in and out of communities like many others and what I think is important is that women and families are treated the same, given the same excellent maternity and health care services, no matter where they go in Scotland.

“For my family, of course, once we’d experienced what the local area has to offer, we never left. I'd love to help others from across the country, across the globe even, get the same opportunity to experience the special community feel, great job prospects and wonderful landscape we have here.”

Jane’s role is a 50/50 split between Grampian and Highland. Asked what she thinks will make all the difference to being able to offer consultant-led births at Dr Gray’s Hospital as part of a sustainable new service she said: “A professional governance programme structure and evidence-based plans are going to be critical. The whole programme also has to be really transparent to be truly achievable.

“It's going to be really difficult – we can’t underestimate that – but we have a natural partnership between Grampian and Highland with strengths in both areas. The lifestyle we have to offer new recruits is amazing so if we can combine that with professional development opportunities then that’s the way we’ve got to do it. We’re offering more than just a job here.

“The people I’m working with are passionate, brilliant and knowledgable. I’m really optimistic about the opportunities work between the two health boards will deliver and I’m looking forward to the next steps.”

Executive lead for the Integrated Families Portfolio in NHS Grampian, Geraldine Fraser added: “We’ve done a lot of work to bring partnership arrangements together and it is fantastic to see the new Maternity Collaborative taking shape. We are so pleased to welcome Jane on board to lead this area of work and look forward to continuing our journey with NHS Highland to deliver sustainable maternity services across the North of Scotland.”

Isla Barton, Director of Midwifery for NHS Highland commented: “Jane is an asset to our joint team and we are building on a strong foundation. We are looking forward to a multi-disciplinary workshop in October and from there we hope to be able to develop key deliverables and detailed timelines for some of the key aspects of our maternity plans.”

To find out more about job opportunities across Grampian and Highland, visit https://apply.jobs.scot.nhs.uk and in the ‘filter jobs’ section, type the area you are looking for into the ‘where’ box (to increase the radius, use the drop-down menu in the ‘distance’ box). Then, click ‘apply filters’ at the bottom. You can also click ‘create alerts’ to be notified of any new posts added matching your criteria.