Gill Allen is the Community Matron at Portsmouth Hospitals University Trust. Gill started her career as a community midwife, working the team midwifery model which enabled her to give the women centred care that she is so passionate about. Gill is really committed to ensuring the wellbeing of the community midwives and became a Supervisor of Midwives and later a Professional Midwifery Advocate to support this. Becoming the Clinical Lead at Portsmouth Maternity Centre, a standalone maternity unit, meant she led a large team of midwives and strived to ensure the unit was a place of excellence for both the women and staff.
Now the community matron, Gill has been instrumental in setting up the Continuity of Carer model and has four teams set up reaching women from areas of high deprivation and those with the highest population of black and Asian families to help reduce health inequalities. Ensuring the women receive safe, personalised care to suit their needs have given the midwives a renewed passion for their midwifery career at a time when many are leaving. Gill will continue to promote the CoC model for the women and for the positive impact it has on community midwives’ autonomy and job satisfaction.
