Event

Dr Donald Macaskill

CEO of Scottish Care

Dr Donald Macaskill has worked for many years in the health & social care sectors across the UK, specialising in learning disability and older people’s work. A particular professional focus has been bereavement, palliative care and individual rights. For 13 years he ran his own equality and human rights consultancy focusing on adult protection, risk and personalisation. He managed Scottish Care’s SDS project, People as Partners, then was the Joint National Workforce Lead. From 2016 he has been the CEO of Scottish Care.

Professor Lindsey Pope

GP and Professor of Medical Education 

Professor Lindsey Pope is a GP in Port Glasgow, Professor of Medical Education at the University of Glasgow and an Associate Postgraduate Dean for NHS Education for Scotland. She is the Director of the Scottish School of Primary Care and the Specialty Adviser for General Practice to the CMO for Scotland. At a UK level, she is an Education Associate for the General Medical Council, an examiner for the Royal College of GPs and sits on the BMA Medical Academic Staff Committee. Her research interests include Education in Primary Care and the relationship with Workforce, Equity in Medical Education and Doctors Wellbeing.

Dr Conor P.J. Maguire

Consultant Physician

Dr Conor Maguire has been a Consultant Physician in Medicine for the Elderly at the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh since 2001. He was Clinical Director for the Service from 2006 until 2017. He qualified from University College Dublin, and obtained his postgraduate thesis from Trinity College Dublin. After working as Lecturer in the University of Bristol, he took up his present post in Edinburgh.

He has a specialist interest in Parkinson’s Disease and developed the Lothian Service for Older People with Parkinson’s.

He was the Director of Education at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh from 2015 until 2019 before being elected as the International Vice President, a role he continues to hold.

In his spare time he does wild water swimming, normally in the murky sea on the firth of Forth.

Dr Hugh Pearson

Deputy Chair of the British Medical Association (BMA) Scottish Council

Dr Hugh Pearson, a graduate of University College London in 2021, moved to Edinburgh for his foundation training in NHS Scotland. Between 2022-2023, he led the organisation of the first-ever industrial action ballot for doctors working in Scotland, negotiating a £61.3 million investment in the junior doctor workforce alongside a three-year commitment to pay restoration and contract reform with the Scottish Government.

He currently serves as Deputy Chair of the British Medical Association (BMA) Scottish Council, Co-Deputy Chair of the BMA Scottish Junior Doctor Committee and National Representative to the BMA UK Junior Doctor Committee, addressing a range of national health policy issues.

Additionally, he works as a Clinical Education Fellow in Professionalism and Ethics at the University of Edinburgh, focusing on the intersection of politics and healthcare in his research, while fulfilling clinical duties in Emergency Medicine at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.

Hugh is committed to restoring the NHS as a global example of a taxpayer-funded public healthcare system with universal access to high-quality care, emphasising the shared responsibility of politicians, managers and healthcare professionals.