Dr Clare Gerada
Dr Clare Gerada became the
first female Chair of the Royal College of General
Practitioners in 50 years. She has a long involvement with the
RCGP; she was previously Vice Chair of College Council and is
immediate past Chair of the Ethics Committee. She currently
Chairs the First5 Committee, and established the RCGP’s
groundbreaking Substance Misuse Unit. Her first move as
Chair was to establish a Centre for Commissioning, in
partnership with the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement,
to support general practitioners across the country.
Dr Gerada has been a GP since 1992,
when she became a partner for the Hurley Clinic in South London.
The practice started life in 1969 – and remains on its current site
– on the ground floor of a 19-storey housing estate in Lambeth.
She has held a number of local and
national leadership positions, including Director of Primary Care
for the National Clinical Governance Team and Senior Medical
Advisor to the Department of Health. She is Medical Director
of the PHP Programme and has published a number of academic papers,
articles, books and chapters.
Prior to general practice, she worked
in psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital in South London,
specialising in substance misuse. She was awarded an MBE in
the Millennium Birthday Honours for services to medicine and
substance misuse.