Episode 19. Backstage with: Dame Clare Gerada

The Next GenCast

Our guest this week is Prof Dame Clare Gerada, probably known to many of you- in fact she’s been called the most well-known GP in Britain.

She’s currently Medical Director of NHS Practitioner Health (a service for doctors and dentists with mental health problems), Chair of a charity called Doctors in Distress, and Co-Chair of the NHS Assembly.

Clare has just passed her 31-year mile stone working in the same GP practice in South London. She began working there after first training in psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital (where incidentally she met her husband, Prof Sir Simon Wessely).

Clare has worked at the interface between mental health and primary care ever since, with a special interest in the care of substance misusers, the homeless, doctors with mental health problems, and now gamblers. For the last decade she has led the largest physician health service in Europe, and to date the service has had over 15,000 doctors and dentists with mental illness present to it.

Clare was Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners between 2011-2013, only the second women in its history to be at the helm, and during which time she famously spoke up against the implementation of the 2012 Health and Social Care Act.

She was awarded a Damehood in 2020 for services to general practice.

We talked about all of this and plenty more, including:

*Highlights:

• Her early influences (4 mins)
• Being a child of immigrant parents (6.5 mins)
• Early leadership experience with substance misusers (10 mins)
• The job of leadership (14 mins)
• Speaking up against the Health and Social Care Act in 2012 (18 mins)
• What she might have done differently at the time (20 mins)
• The role of the RCGP in politics (22 mins)
• How she has stayed so influential (23.5 mins)
• Speaking in the media (and her biggest gaffs) (25 mins)
• Being a "subtle self publicist" (27 mins)
• The perils of social media (29.5 mins)
• Looking after her own mental health (31.5 mins)
• Managing life at home, and her regrets (35 mins)
• Being married to Sir Simon Wessely (38 mins)
• Managing a portfolio of roles (41 mins)
• Her future ambitions (43.5 mins)
• Quickfire round: including her favourite Health Secretary, what she thinks of Simon Stevens, and her top tips for new leaders (45 mins)

*Resources

• Practitioner Health Programme (PHP) for doctors and dentists with mental health problems
• Clare's recent BMJ article: Tips on Survivng Leadership
• Book recommendation: NHS SOS
• Netflix recommendation: Arrested Development

*Social media:

• @claregerada
• @NextGGP/@nishmanek

*Subscribe to the Next Gen GP monthly bulletin to keep in the loop about future webinars, podcast episodes, and our virtual programmes:

• bit.ly/NGGPbulletin
• https://nextgenerationgp.co.uk/

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