“Just a GP: Diaries from a Career in General Practice”.

 
Talk by Sir Denis Pereira Gray on Thursday, 13 November 2025
at 7pm at Leonardo Hotel Exeter [Jurys Inn Exeter Hotel]

Our speaker, (courtesy of Wikipedia) was introduced to a packed room of members and non-members, as “Sir Denis John Pereira Gray is a retired British General Practitioner. He worked for 38 years in the St Leonard's Medical Practice, Exeter and continued as a research consultant until 2018, following his father and grandfather.”

Born and bred in Exeter his education was at Exeter School, then St John's College, Cambridge, and Bart's Medical School, from where he graduated with a medical degree. His distinguished career saw him in various roles in the Royal College of General Practitioners and chairman of the Trustees of the Nuffield Trust. He was the first general practitioner to be elected chairman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. He was knighted in 1999 for services to Quality and Standards in General Practice and awarded a Doctor of Science degree by the University of Exeter in 2009. Sir Denis is the author of several books and articles.

Sir Denis began his talk by saying what a pleasure it was to see members of his family and also former patients and colleagues in the audience. He believes that history is important and it was his wife, Jill, who had encouraged him to write a book about his life and experiences to leave behind a history for his four children.

The family practice in Exeter began in 1895 and he gave an account of following his father and grandfather detailing his early days as a GP, starting on a low salary equating to £17,000 in today's money. He joined the British Medical Association (BMA) and was elected to the National Council of the BMA at age 31 as a militant. This was a crucial time in the development of general practice, and he found himself involved in taking difficult decisions about proposals for change. Eventually he decided that he would be better suited to putting his efforts into the College of General Practitioners rather than remaining on the council of the BMA. In 1972 he became editor of the Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, a post he held for nine years, focusing in particular on the publication of research. He was receiving articles that were too long for the Journal, so they were turned into Occasional Papers and seventy-eight were produced. However, there was the question of who would pay! His wife had previously worked in publishing, and she was appointed to do the Journal and Occasional Papers. Books were published including important ones that had gone out of print.

Much of Sir Denis's life consisted of involvement in chairing or speaking at conferences and meetings and pushing for greater training of doctors. This meant lobbying the government of the day and very often being thwarted in his efforts due to medical politics. In the 1980s he was invited to Chequers and met Margaret Thatcher who initially was charming towards him when given some Devonshire cream. A meeting was held in the Oval Office where there was no agenda and no papers. He was the last person round the table to be invited to contribute to the meeting and spoke about the need for better education for doctors. This was not received well. Mrs. Thatcher shouted at him, so he was able to claim he had been 'hand-bagged' and the experience ranked as the worst moment of his professional life. The meeting was followed by a nice lunch where he sat next to John Major who was charming to him and assured him he had done nothing wrong and said, “We've all been there”. John Major went up several points in his estimation.

Sir Denis met other Prime Ministers including Tony Blair, who made a very strange comment before being joined by others for the meeting. To quote from Sir Denis's book:

“The Academy received an invitation to meet the Prime Minister, and the meeting was arranged in the cabinet room at 10 Downing Street. As Chair, I led the Academy team into the cabinet room and was received by Tony Blair with whom I was alone for a few minutes. He immediately said: “Denis, I want you to know that my government is not trying to control doctors.” I am fortunate in being able to think on my feet in most situations, but, in that special setting and alone with the Prime Minister, I was speechless. Did he know what his government was actually doing (controlling doctors more than any government had done before)? Did he take me for a fool? Was he trying to ingratiate himself? I was spared replying, as the Presidents started entering the room. I never knew what that extraordinary opening remark was about.”

Sir Denis had the opportunity to meet Prime Minister Gordon Brown at an unusual seminar at 10 Downing Street which was exclusively focused on general practice. Shortly after he had started to speak about the key findings of research into general practice Gordon Brown's young son ran into the room, interrupting the meeting, and though his father removed him, the flow of thought had been interrupted. Gordon Brown seemed to be aware of this and at the end of the meeting said, 'Sir Denis, I think you have more to say.' A few weeks later the Northern Rock financial crisis happened, and Gordon Brown's time and attention was taken up with the fallout. Questions of General Practice consequently disappeared from any further discussion.

In Exeter, Sir Denis said he was treated very well and never regarded as “Just a GP” although he attended a big meeting elsewhere and was spoken to by a woman whose daughter had just qualified and she told her not to become a GP. Another person rudely asked him how it was that he had achieved a knighthood, referring, in an aside, to his status as a knight and as a Professor of General Practice as being an oxymoron [putting together words which seem to contradict one another, e.g., bitter-sweet].

Sir Denis's description of his life as a GP, his many appointments to prestigious medical associations, his attempts to get important issues on their agendas, and his encounters with prime ministers and their governments of the day, were very often thwarted by medical politics. This gave the lie to his labelling his career as “Just a GP”.

The Foreword to Sir Denis's book by Sir David Haslam, has the following as the first paragraph:

“Just a GP - It is impossible to think of another book whose title is quite so misleading. “Just” is the word that is entirely misplaced — not merely in recounting the remarkable life and times of Professor Sir Denis Pereira Gray, but in describing the work of general practitioners as a whole. That awful “just” word has been said to me on countless occasions throughout my life, typically by people who had learned that I was a doctor, and asked, “Are you a specialist or just a GP?” It is so extraordinarily illogical.”

This was an extremely interesting talk by a truly remarkable man with a long and distinguished career, and was greatly enjoyed by the audience.

Sue Jackson
(with help from Julia Neville)

All images in this article are credited to The Royal College of General Practitioners heritage collection.