The life of a country doctor Northern Ireland 1998

In 1998 my agency Network Photographers documented different aspects of the National Health Service to commemorate its 50th anniversary. I photographed two rural GP practices in Northern Ireland. Both were small communities where doctors and patients knew each other well. I stayed in the doctors’ homes and was introduced to patients as a friend. Until the early 1990s doctors in one-person practices had no life of their own. People could be knocking on the door 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Now, doctors began working together to avoid the pressure on their own families. Country doctors are likely to see the patients, who in towns and cities go to an A&E department. They do more stitching up than their urban counterparts and see less drug addiction and HIV. They’ve got to be able to listen to what the patient has to say, to listen between the lines. The work was published nationally, and a small exhibition supplied to every GP practice in the country.