Dr Barbara Gale
An experienced clinical leader, Barbara has worked in end-of-life care for 40 years and is an expert content reviewer for our support pages. Her background is in nursing, palliative care and systemic family therapy.
Dr Barbara Gale MBE is a Visiting Senior Fellow in Integrated Care for the Integrated Care Academy with the University of Suffolk. Barbara was Chief Executive of St Nicholas Hospice Care from 2007 to 2021, developing innovative models of care, built on public health and asset-based community development approaches to palliative care.
Awarded a PhD in Palliative Care from Lancaster University in 2018, her thesis explored the experiences of community hospice volunteers and how visiting dying people was transformational for the volunteers, but working within a rigid bureaucratic system was detrimental to their experiences.
In 2018, Barbara was awarded an MBE for services to hospice care and the Suffolk community.
Barbara is currently supporting a project to implement an electronic advance care plan, where patients have access to their record via an app. Barbara also continues to work in the field of compassionate communities where everyone is equipped to face dying, death and grief.