Just a GP Diaries from a Career in General Practice

?With General Practice currently facing existential challenges, it is truly inspirational to be reminded what determined individuals, with a clear set of intensely human values, can achieve ? This is the story of an extraordinary career during a profoundly important phase in the history of British medicine ? someone who was justifiably proud to be ?just a GP?.?

Sir David Haslam CBE FRCGP

Past President and Chairman of Council, Royal College of General Practitioners

Past President, British Medical Association

Past Chair, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)

This autobiography from Sir Denis Pereira Gray offers a unique insight into the life and career of a hugely distinguished and influential general practitioner, from what led him to study medicine, learning his craft in the 1960s, through years of clinical practice and research to senior leadership roles within and outside the Royal College of General Practitioners.

Through detailed diaries enlivened by wonderful anecdotes, both personal and professional, Sir Denis shares candidly with the reader a lifetime of experience gained and lessons learned, highly applicable today when general practice is facing many challenges and detractors.

Both informative and inspirational, Just a GP is an essential read for many who have journeyed through the profession with Sir Denis and those who are in the midst of or contemplating a career in general practice today.

Section 1

1. Early years

2. Chess

3. Medical Student

4. Junior doctor

Section 2

5. Practice 1962 -1975

6. Learning the craft

7. South West England Faculty

8. BMA/LMC

Section 3

9. Journal

10. Exeter RCGP Publishing

11. College cabinet

12. Lane Committee

Section 4

13. Department/Institute of General Practice

14. Regional Adviser

15. South West General Practice Trust

Section 5

16. Practice 1976-1986

17. The Medical Annual

18. Publications Committee

19. Communications Division

20. Experiences in the Executive

21. Consultant Adviser

22. Downs and Ups of Institutional Life

Section 6

23. Chairman of Council

24. Fellowship by Assessment

25. Conference of Academic Organizations

26. Prison Medicine

27. Postgraduate Medical School

Section 7

28. Research Division

29. JCPTGP

30. Dentistry

31. GMC and GDC

32. Fetzer Institute

33. Non-executor directorships

34. Practice 1987-2000

Section 8

35. PRCGP

36. Vice-Chairman Academy

37. Three national meetings

38. Chairman Academy

39. Distinction awards

Section 9

40. Patient Participation

41. PIAG/EEC

42. Heritage Committee

43. What About the Children?

44. Nuffield Trust

45. DH and BMA

Section 10

46. Unfinished campaign

47. Last Hurrah

48. The Practice as a Learning Environment

49. St Leonard’s Research Practice

50. Reflections

Appendices

1. Awards received

2. Eponymous or equivalent lectures

3. Publications by DPG’s personal trainees

4. Medical Annuals

5. RCGP Exeter publications

6. Books/booklets written in the Exeter Department/Institute of General Practice

7. Awards to staff in the St Leonard’s Practice

8. Syllabus for General Practice

9. Chairmanships in RCGP

10. Visitors to the Practice

11. People met

12. Glossary

References

Index

Sir Denis Pereira Gray worked as a general practitioner for 38 years in the St Leonard’s Medical Practice Exeter, following his father and grandfather. He was President of the Cambridge University Chess Club and has been awarded the gold medal of the Hunterian Society, London, the gold medal of the Royal Institute of Public Health, and honorary doctorates by three British universities. He established the first postgraduate university department of general practice in Europe at the University of Exeter and was later appointed Professor and Director of the Exeter University Postgraduate Medical School, serving for ten years. He was twice elected by the registered medical practitioners in England to the General Medical Council. He has written/edited nine books and has had over 200 articles published in scientific medical journals. Sir Denis has been a member of several Government Committees including the Review of the Abortion Act. He was elected Chairman of Council and later President of the Royal College of General Practitioners, Chairman of the JCPTGP, a medical regulatory body, and was Chairman of the Trustees of the Nuffield Trust, a national health policy charity. He was knighted for services to quality assurance in general practice. Sir Denis was Vice-Chairman and then Chairman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges of Britain and Ireland, the first GP ever elected. He is one of 35 British doctors who have been elected to the , of the National Academy of Medicine, Washington, USA. He is currently doing research at the St Leonard’s Research Practice, Exeter, is an Assessor for the Queen’s Award for Higher and Further Education and Patron of the National Association for Patient Participation.