It explores the choices the doctor made in her young life, and the difficulties, decisions, risk assessments, ethical questions and occasional spells of anguish that make up a GP’s normal day, as well as the jokes, tea and levity. There is a current shortfall of at least 4,200 GPs across England, with notable gaps in the south-west. The way the story is put together with tales of patients, the doctors own childhood and road to landing where she is C and the general social commentary about the importance of relationships and the loss of that with your GP is simply so well done. I would use the term crisis: so many parts of the NHS are under such enormous pressure that they are unable to provide the personal care that patients need, unable to provide effective care, and increasingly unable to even provide safe care.

A Fortunate Woman by Polly Morland review — doing the rounds A Fortunate Woman by Polly Morland review — doing the rounds

Polly Morland was clearing her late mother’s house when she found a battered paperback fallen behind the family bookshelf. The week that I was in Gloucester marked the 70th anniversary of the Royal College of General Practitioners, founded in 1952 to “raise the quality and status of GPs”.

An immersive study… Morland’s book contains a profound message for the future at a critical moment for general practice and us all. Prioritisation, telephone consultations, four-week non-urgent bookings are a necessity rather than a choice. Meanwhile, since the pandemic, doctors and nurses and reception staff have been leaving jobs and partnerships in unprecedented numbers.

A Fortunate Woman | NB Medical A Fortunate Woman | NB Medical

For me, this story is so much better than John Bergers’s book about a single handed doctor working in the same practice forty years ago. Watching Hodges with his patients, several of whom he has known for many years, is to be reminded of the original glue of the NHS – that comforting mythology of a family doctor. The book chronicles the difficult days we went through practising during the pandemic, including vivid pictures.A team of clinical pharmacists at Aspen – “red hot on patient safety” – work on thousands of prescriptions a day. However, the book ends with a question that has possibly become more relevant as time has passed: an enquiry into how we value a human life.