Amanda Howe: Champion the GP

Biography

Amanda Howe was told by a tutor in medical school that it would be a waste for “a bright girl like you” to become a GP. Her whole career could be seen as a rebuttal of that charge, although she admits that such attitudes persist. She is professor of primary care at the University of East Anglia and president of WONCA (the World Organisation of Family Doctors) and was an officer of the Royal College of General Practitioners from 2009 to 2015. She works part time as a GP at Bowthorpe Surgery in Norwich. At a time when general practice struggles to attract recruits, Howe believes that there is no substitute for students having early contact with GPs and their patients: “When they meet …