A highly respected and long-serving consultant at local NHS Trust, Southern Health, is retiring after more than four decades’ service within the NHS – and NHS colleagues were determined to mark the milestone occasion!
Dr Gill Turner, a consultant physician in community geriatric medicine, is based at Lymington New Forest Hospital and was recently presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the British Geriatrics Society, as well as being nominated for an NHS Parliamentary Award. She qualified in 1981, spending much of her early career specialising in Parkinson’s Disease and became the Chair for The Parkinson’s Society locally and a contributor to their work nationally.
Gill has also been a significant contributor to the British Geriatrics Society from 2012-2021. She influenced national policy as lead author for the Fit for Frailty documents which provides as a blueprint for managing frailty for clinicians. She was a catalyst in developing the older people’s multi-professional consultant programme - training and mentoring staff over many years. Gill has trained generations of junior doctors inspiring many to become geriatricians or to work within the field of Parkinson’s Disease. Through her work with the British Geriatrics Society, she has influenced the specialist training program for geriatrics. She contributed to the development of the International Consortium for Health Outcome Measures.
Professor Adam Gordon, President of the British Geriatrics Society, commented: “Gill Turner has been a passionate advocate for the care of older people throughout her career. She believes that older people deserve the best that modern healthcare can deliver. Gill has worked passionately to deliver this through her role in developing and leading training for doctors and other healthcare professionals. Her recent work in measuring the impact of the care we deliver is pivotal. It will help us to identify when and where good care is delivered, and work to improve things where it is not. Gill’s impact in Wessex and across the UK cannot be overstated. She leaves our NHS in much better shape to serve the patient group that use it the most, older people. We are in her debt and will remain so for many years to come.”
Dr Steve Tomkins, Southern Health’s Chief Medical Officer, commented: “Gill’s engagement with, and training of, students and junior staff has had a really positive knock-on effect with a wide number of patient groups, and she will be sorely missed by all those who have had the benefit of working and learning from her.”