Gail Allsopp has joined the East Midlands AHSN as our new Medical Director and will start in her new role from January 2021.

Gail’s medical career spans over 20 years across primary care, secondary care, research and education. She is currently a GP in Derbyshire, the Clinical Policy lead at the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and an Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham working in the Division of Primary Care. She also has previous experience in roles in an acute secondary care setting, initially training in surgery and radiology and later working as a GP in secondary care.

The new role of Medical Director was created to provide clinical insight to drive improvement and adoption of best practice. In her role, Gail will be the strategic lead for medicines optimisation, patient safety and health informatics and analytics, applying her clinical knowledge and experience to support the development, uptake and sustainability of innovation and improvement programmes within these areas.

Nicole McGlennon, EMAHSN Managing Director said “We’re extremely excited to welcome Gail to the team. Gail has a wealth of experience which embodies many of the areas of the health and care system that the AHSN work within including primary care, secondary care, research and academia.

She will support the strategic direction of our medicines optimisation and patient safety work and use her wealth and depth of clinical insight to drive improvement and adoption of best practice across EMAHSN’s wider work and programmes. Gail will also take part in the national AHSN Clinical Executive group which acts to look strategically at how innovation works and fits within the health and care system, which provides a great opportunity for us to learn from our AHSN counterparts across the country and spread our expertise far and wide as a network.”

Gail said “I initially saw the great work that the AHSNs were undertaking in my role with the RCGP, where I was involved in a series of collaborative webinars between the AHSNs and RCGP which looked to spread best practice approaches and share knowledge in priority areas specific to the coronavirus pandemic. I started to look more closely at the work of the AHSN Network and my local AHSN in the East Midlands and realised that the aim of these organisations aligns perfectly with my goals and passion to spread best practice and encourage innovation. I can’t wait to get started and use my experience to support and strengthen health and care innovation across the region.”

To find out more about Gail, read her introductory blog.

Find out more about Gail in her video sharing her experience and why she is looking forward to joining EMAHSN