It was difficult not to see Channel 4's new three part documentary series The Surgery as propaganda–very good propaganda, it has to be said, but propaganda nevertheless. Three seemingly excellent general practitioners are featured in a university practice situated in a deprived area of inner city Manchester. The strength of the first programme lay not in the “fly on the wall” format but in the extensive discussion of the role of the urban general practitioner by doctors Gabbay, Esmail, and Chew.

Superficially, these doctors had much in common. Unlike many general practices, where patients are able to choose a …