Day to day decision making is the main responsibility of our executive team.
Chief Executive
Robbie Pearson
Robbie Pearson is the Chief Executive for Healthcare Improvement Scotland and was appointed on 1st December 2016.
Before joining Healthcare Improvement Scotland, Robbie was Director of Planning with NHS Borders and Deputy Director/Head of Healthcare Planning with Scottish Government. Robbie had previously been Deputy Chief Executive, Director of Scrutiny and Assurance, and Acting Chief Executive with Healthcare Improvement Scotland.
Deputy Chief Executive | Interim Director of Quality Assurance and Regulation directorate (QARD)
Ann Gow
Ann Gow is our Director of Nursing and System Improvement. She has responsibility for quality improvement in priority areas. This includes primary care, and our work in supporting improvement in the integration of health and social care.
Ann joined Healthcare Improvement Scotland in May 2017. She was our first Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professions (NMAHP) Director. She is also Deputy Chief Executive. Prior to this Ann held various senior nurse leadership posts n NHS Ayrshire and Arran:
- Interim Associate Nurse Director
- Associate Nurse Director for Primary Care
- IJB Lead Nurse
She then moved to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde as Chief Nurse for Regional Services. Ann has worked at Scottish Government. While there, she contributed to the development of policy on early years and on public health nursing. She secured the post as Scotland’s first Nurse Consultant in Public Health in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde in 2000. She was alternate member for public health for Scotland at the inception of the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
Director of Workforce
Sybil Canavan
Sybil Canavan is our Director of Workforce. Sybil graduated with an Honours degree in HR and an MSc in HR Management. She is also a Chartered Member of the CIPD. She has spent most of her working life in a variety of HR roles within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (GG&C). She predominantly worked within Primary Care and Community Health. More recently she has worked as Head of People and Change for Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership, and Acting Deputy Director of HR for NHS GG&C.
Interim Director of Nursing and Systems Improvement
Mhairi Hastings
Mhairi joined Healthcare Improvement Scotland in September 2023. She was our Associate Director of Nursing and Midwifery. Mhairi was previously a Professional Nurse Advisor in the Chief Nursing Officers Directorate (CNOD) at Scottish Government. During the pandemic her work focussed on vaccinations. This was as part of the national Flu and Covid Vaccination Team. She then worked across policy areas of health and social care.
Mhairi has a long and varied career in health and social care across the UK. She has worked in local authority, NHS and the independent sector. Her nursing career began in 1989 in a local authority care home as a Youth Training Scheme support worker. She then proceeded to complete her nurse training in Durham in 1994, gaining entry to the NMC register. Since then, her career has seen her working in various cities across England in many fields of practice. These include:
- education
- nuclear medicine
- general practice
- high dependency
- surgical nursing
- leadership
- management and improvement.
After returning home to Dumfries and Galloway, she held various leadership roles. She joined the Scottish Government in 2020.
Director of Finance, Planning and Governance, and Communication
Angela Moodie
Angela Moodie is our Director of Finance, Planning and Governance.
Angela is a chartered accountant with varied experience in:
- operations
- finance
- change environments
She has a strong track record of implementing innovative cost-saving solutions and delivering successful transformation programmes. She was the Finance Director at House of Gods, an expanding chain on private equity backed hotels. She has previously held senior roles at Scottish Water Business Stream. She helped to transform it from a public sector monopoly into a commercial, dynamic, award-winning retail business.
Director of Community Engagement and Transformational Change
Clare Morrison
Clare Morrison is our Director of Community Engagement and Transformational Change. Her role will build on the ihub’s work in strategic planning and people led care. Clare will integrate this with the work of the Community Engagement Directorate.
Clare began her career 25 years ago working as a pharmacist in NHS Highland. She completed the Scottish Quality & Safety Fellowship and studied quality improvement in the US. She joined the Scottish Government’s Technology Enabled Care Team in 2020. She supported the national response to the pandemic as National Lead for Near Me. This was a service providing health and social care appointments from home.
Later in 2020, Clare was appointed Director for Scotland at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. This is the pharmacists’ professional leadership body. She was awarded an MBE for services to health care in 2018. She has also received an honorary doctorate from the University of the Highlands and Islands in November 2022. This was for her contribution to enhancing access to health services.
Director of Evidence and Digital
Safia Qureshi
Safia Qureshi is our Director of Evidence and Digital. She also has leadership responsibility for innovation. This includes our contribution to the Accelerated National Innovation Adoption (ANIA) pathway.
As Director of Evidence, Safia leads Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s work on:
- the development of national evidence-based advice, guidance and standards
- the assessment of new technologies and newly-licensed medicines
Safia is also the Digital Lead for Healthcare Improvement Scotland. She is committed to increasing the use of technology across the organisation. This is to make it easier to do what we do and to make what we do more accessible to all. Before joining us, Safia held a number of senior roles in NHS Scotland. This included:
- Programme Director at NSS
- Director of Quality, Innovation and People at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital
She also worked at the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS). While there she was responsible for delivering the Jack Copland Centre. The centre is a state of the art manufacturing facility and headquarters for SNBTS.
Medical Director | Director of Safety
Simon Watson
Simon Watson, Medical Director is also our Director of Safety. He is the professional lead for our Quality Improvement Advisers.
Simon joined us in April 2020. Prior to this, he was part of NHS Lothian’s Executive Leadership Team for four years as Chief Quality Officer and Executive Lead for Analytical Services. He is our professional lead for medical doctors, pharmacists and dentists and co-leads clinical and care governance with the Nurse Director in Healthcare Improvement Scotland. Simon qualified as a medical doctor in 1996 and became a Consultant in 2007. He previously held various local and national leadership roles in clinical quality. Simon continues to practice clinically.
Employee Director
Duncan Service
Duncan was Employee Director with NHS Quality Improvement Scotland from April 2009 and has subsequently been appointed as Employee Director of Healthcare Improvement Scotland from April 2011.
In his role as Employee Director and lead UNISON steward, Duncan represents UNISON on the Partnership Forum. He has been a steward since 1998 and has represented staff in both the public and private sector. He represents staff throughout the organisation on many issues and presents their views at the Partnership Forum and other working groups such as the Board subgroups, policy development, and health and safety.
Duncan became involved in the work of NHS Quality Improvement Scotland after representing staff during the negotiations around the transfer of the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) from the Royal College of Physicians to NHS Quality Improvement Scotland in January 2005.
He is the Evidence Manager at SIGN and is responsible for carrying out literature searches for clinical guidelines and helping guideline development group members with evaluation of the literature. He is responsible for the SIGN website and databases.