Doctors raise money for Hove hospice with book

Two retired doctors have raised thousands of pounds for the Martlets, the Brighton and Hove hospice charity, with a book about their lives and careers.

Duncan Stewart and Rod Brooks had 500 copies printed of their humorous memoirs, entitled Sex, Drugs and General Practice.

So far, the pair have given away about 300 copies with a bookmark encouraging recipients to make a donation to the Martlets.

Dr Stewart, 79, who leaves on Brighton seafront, is a long-serving trustee at the Hove hospice charity.

And already the book has raised more than £3,000 for the Martlets even though it was written as just “a bit of fun”, according to Dr Stewart.

He said that it was a good way to stay occupied during the coronavirus pandemic restrictions when the two former GPs (general practitioners) found that they shared “the same rather mischievous sense of humour”.

Dr Stewart added that, on reflection, their stories had a serious side too, highlighting “the emasculation of general practice”, with family doctors having faced many more restrictions since the Harold Shipman scandal.

Shipman was convicted of murdering 15 of his patients but it has been estimated that he may have killed as many as 250.

As a result, far fewer family doctors practise by themselves – as Dr Stewart did for many years at his surgery in Wilbury Road, Hove.

In the book, he wrote: “Shipman’s case triggered the most draconian changes in general practice during my career. Single-handed practitioners were now pressured into joining larger group practices.

“Certainly, many large practices provide very good patient care but there was an increasing retreat from the old doctor-patient relationship.

“It has become harder for patients to access medical attention which then tends to be provided by a doctor unknown to them.

“I admit to an inclination to see the 70s and 80s as a golden age of medical practice. There were, of course, many inadequacies.

“But something very valuable was lost as a consequence of the action of one mad member of our own profession which had up to then regulated itself with reasonable success.”

Dr Brooks, 76, who lives on Hove seafront, recounts having to be taken by ambulance to the accident and emergency (A&E) department at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, in Brighton, where he worked at the time.

He slipped on the stairs at a GP (general practice) surgery where he was filling in as a locum, having had a Christmas tipple.

He wrote: “I was a valued colleague working in the same department so I was seen four hours’ later having been put bottom of the waiting list.”

Dr Brooks was a talented footballer in his youth, playing in goal for Brighton and Sussex Schoolboys before going to medical school in London.

He wrote: “Much to my surprise, my school, Hove Grammar School for Boys, wasn’t particularly impressed by my offer of a place at Charing Cross Hospital Medical School.”

His head teacher told him: “There are scores of students here who are much more deserving of a place at medical school than you.”

Their self-deprecating humour is likely to be evident today (Thursday 13 July) when the mayor of Brighton and Hove is due to host a reception to mark the official book launch.

And the mayor, Councillor Jackie O’Quinn, is due to be joined by another author – Brighton crime writer Peter James – to mark the book’s publication.

The special guest in the mayor’s parlour may have sold more books than most living authors but Dr Stewart and Dr Brooks had the last word.

Dr Stewart said: “We’ve had quite a lot of fun giving it away. So far we’ve raised at least £3,000.”

And Dr Brooks added: “We’re really chuffed about it. We’ve had a lot of really good feedback from a lot of people – and I don’t think they were all just being nice!”

The book is due to go on sale in bookshops in Brighton next week. To donate to the Martlets, visit www.martlets.org.uk/donate.