Introduction
In the Summer of 2011 a collection of accounts of the early development of the Departments of General Practice in the UK was published. This was the first collective record of the evolution of general medical practice as an academic discipline over half a century.
The authors
The authors were John Howie, Michael Whitfield, Frank Sullivan, Lewis Ritchie, James Knox, Frank Sullivan, David Weller, David Hannay, Graham Watt, Nigel Stott, Chris Butler, George Irwin, Philip Reilly, Andrew Murphy, Bill Shannon, Tom Fahey, Tom O’Dowd, Colin Bradley, Gerard Bury, Walter Cullen, Michael Drury, Richard Hobbs, Debbie Sharp, Bob Berrington, John Perry, Nigel Oswald, Martin Roland, John Benson, Ann Louise Kinmonth, Denis Pereira Gray, John Wright, Conrad Harris, Robin Fraser, Brian McGuinness, Ian Stanley, Christopher Dowrick, David Metcalf, Carl Whitehouse, John Walker, John Spencer, Idris Williams, Godfrey Fowler, Nigel Mathers, George Freeman, John Bain, Tony Kendrick, Colin Leonard, James Scobie, Marshall Marinker, Andy Haines, Brian Jarman, Roger Higgs, David Morrell, Roger Jones, Paul Julian, Sally Hull, Sean Hilton, Margaret Lloyd, Chris Donovan, Michael Modell, Cathy Jackson, John Campbell, Helen Smith, Peter Campion, Amanda Howe, Robert McKinley, Mary Hoptroff, Jeremy Dale and Helen Lester.
Chapter Nine
Our contribution makes up Chapter 9 and brought together key founders of the Primary Care Unit; Bob Berrington, John Perry, Nigel Oswald, Martin Roland, John Benson. We have reproduced the Chapter here.
The Fenland Research Group
As we developed the Chapter, one group was referred to repeatedly: The Fenland Research Group. It became plain how important this grouping was, not only to the individual development and support of its members, but as a strong base from which the subsequent academic unit developed. An account of the Fenland Group and its members can be read here.
Order the book
This book Academic General Practice in the UK Medical Schools, 1948-2000 A Short History – ISBN 978 0 7486 4356 1 can be ordered here from Amazon.
Ann Louise Kinmonth
Founder Chair of General Practice
University of Cambridge
September 2011