NHS Forth Valley appoints new interim director of nursing

Professor Angela Wallace had the role until last week when she left NHS Forth Valley to become director of nursing with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

While the process to recruit a permanent successor for Professor Wallace is now underway, NHS Forth Valley has appointed Gillian Morton, currently the area’s chief midwife, as interim director of nursing.

Gillian, who received an MBE in 2019, is also director of women and children’s services and the corporate programme management office.She has held a number of senior nursing and midwifery posts and also has a significant leadership role, nationally and locally, in taking forward Best Start – the Scottish Government’s national plan for maternity and neonatal care.

She has worked within Forth Valley since she completed her general nurse training in 1981 and secured a post as a staff nurse in a medical ward at the former Falkirk and District Royal Infirmary.

She then undertook her midwifery training in the maternity units of both the former Falkirk and Stirling Royal Infirmaries before qualifying as a midwife in 1986.

In 2003, Gillian completed further studies, including a BSc in Health Studies (midwifery) and a Masters of Business Administration, before she was appointed as general manager and head of midwifery for the former maternity units in Stirling and Falkirk.

She has also supported local midwives to establish an Alongside Midwifery Unit within Forth Valley Royal Hospital which offers a greater choice for women on where to give birth and provides more comfortable, attractive and less clinical birthing rooms.