Dr Peter Pritchard
GP who served in Burma and witnessed the birth of the NHS
DR PETER PRITCHARD, who has died aged 99, was a general practitioner who started his career just before the NHS was founded; his memoir, An Eventful Life, tells the story of a remarkable man who was professionally active to the end of his days.
He was born on May 19 1918 in the middle of a Zeppelin raid. His father, Major Jack Pritchard, flew the Atlantic both ways in the airship R34, becoming the first Europe to America aeronaut, but was killed in 1921 in the R38 disaster which left his mother to bring up their three children on her own.
Peter was educated at Woodbridge School, then Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and St Thomas’ Hospital, where he was awarded the Solly Medal in Medicine, qualifying in 1942.
After three months as a house physician at St Thomas’ he joined the RAMC. Following a short spell with 223 Field Ambulance, he was posted to India but soon found himself in Burma as part of General Wingate’s 77 Brigade – the Chindits.
His column landed by glider miles behind enemy lines; wounded men had to be evacuated on horseback or stretcher via a difficult trek over hills in monsoon rain. All Pritchard’s patients survived and were evacuated by flying boat by the RAF. Pritchard was mentioned in despatches and promoted Major.
After demobilisation, he spent four years in paediatrics at University College Hospital and at Great Ormond Street, where he was attached to the children’s heart unit. Dick Bonham Carter was anxious to develop cineradiography to facilitate the taking of rapid serial X-rays of the heart. Pritchard was authorised to develop such a machine, which he did using US war surplus aerial survey cameras.
He entered general practice in 1951 at Dorchester on Thames, later moving to the new village of Berinsfield.
From the paternalistic early days of the NHS, Pritchard recognised the need to involve patients in the delivery of care. In 1972 he set up the first patient participation group, involving not only patients but influential figures in the local community.
They were asked to help develop the practice and to deal with complaints as well as interview new staff. This was not popular with the Royal College of General Practitioners so Pritchard resigned his membership. It was not until 2015 that patient participation groups became mandatory for all GP practices in England.
In 1979 he retired aged 60 and began a new phase of his career as a medical writer and teacher. He published widely on patient participation, the application of IT to primary care, on management in general practice and on shared care and team work in primary care. He also wrote a manual of primary healthcare.
In demand as a teacher both in Britain and the Nordic countries, he founded the Uk-nordic Medical Educational Trust and in 1995 was awarded the George Abercrombie medal by the RCGP, which also honoured him with a commendation for his outstanding contributions to general practice and primary care in 2017.
In a recent interview in the Telegraph, however, Pritchard was pessimistic about the future of the NHS. Shortly before his death he wrote a paper entitled: “The NHS is heading for bankruptcy.”
Pritchard was heavily involved in the local community and in 1995 he founded the Hurst Water Meadow Trust which has bought and restored 23 acres of water meadow on the banks of the Thames. For this he was appointed BEM in 2012.
A softly spoken, slight man, Pritchard was always smartly dressed and would often be seen in Dorchester on his souped-up mobility scooter.
In 1943 he married Daphne Witherby, a physiotherapist, who survives him. They had three children.