David Ernest Bolt

Former BMA president and negotiator who saved private practice within the NHS

David Bolt was, without doubt, one of the best loved and most effective medical politicians of his generation. He trained in surgery and in 1960 was appointed consultant to the West Middlesex Hospital, where he rapidly developed a reputation as a kind, caring, and competent general surgeon. He also consulted privately for some time from his rooms in Harley Street, but was never as comfortable in this scene as he was in his beloved “West Mid.”

A keen supporter of the BMA, he joined the central committee for hospital medical services (CCHMS) in 1970. His character and style were not those of the typical medical politician, in that he always exuded an aura of genuine …