Peter Maguire

Professor of psychological medicine who helped put communication skills training on the agenda for all healthcare staff and who promoted the role of the specialist cancer nurse

Since 2004 all future cancer specialists in the United Kingdom have been expected to receive specific training in how best to communicate with patients. This achievement resulted, in no small part, from the work of Peter Maguire, professor of psychological medicine at the University of Manchester.

Peter's early research showed that many patients in a medical ward had anxiety or depressive illnesses, which added to their suffering; these patients were not receiving any help with their psychological distress because their doctors were unaware of it. Over the next 30 years Peter devoted his professional life to overcoming this problem, especially in the field of cancer. He first demonstrated the various ways that doctors and nurses might prevent patients expressing …