Paul Gowens Senior Healthcare Quality Manager

About me

Paul is a GenerationQ Fellow and Senior Healthcare and Quality Manager in the Scottish Government’s Quality Unit.

He took up this post in November 2013 as a two-year secondment from his role as Head of Clinical Governance, Quality and Patient Safety in the Scottish Ambulance Service.

After qualifying in 1993, Paul spent 10 years working as a paramedic before moving into management roles at the Scottish Ambulance Service. From 2002-04 he was Clinical Development Manager for Special Operations and from 2004-10 he held the position of Head of Risk. He continues to work regular clinical shifts as an air ambulance paramedic.

Paul has a diploma in immediate medical care from the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh, an SVQ level five diploma in management from the Chartered Management Institute and a postgraduate certificate in implementing clinical governance from Glasgow Caledonian University.

He has previously completed the Scottish Government’s Delivering the Future programme for senior clinical leaders and the Scottish Patient Safety Programme.

One of the things that attracted Paul to GenerationQ is the balance it strikes between academic study and practical application of leadership and quality improvement. 'I didn’t want to focus solely on the academic side of things and be left wondering how to put it all into practice at the end of my studies, but neither did I want to be exposed only to the practical side of things. For me, GenerationQ provides the right mixture of applied research and academic rigour.'

Paul is looking forward to building relationships with his peers on the fellowship. 'I already have a strong network of peers within the Scottish health care community and across the emergency care sector, but being a part of GenerationQ will enable me to widen my horizons and develop a broader network across the UK health and social care system.'

In his role at the Scottish Ambulance Service, Paul was very interested in exploring issues around how health care professionals in different settings recognise and respond to critically ill and deteriorating patients, as well as the role of paramedics in major trauma care.

Now he’s working within the Scottish government, he is embracing the opportunity to consider quality improvement on a national level. 'I’m keen to continue examining issues like the treatment of critically ill patients and pre-hospital major trauma care on a national scale, but also to examine some of the questions arising from the Francis report, such as wilful neglect and duty of candour.'