Gavin Francis

speaker

523 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 13 Jun

Gavin Francis’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.

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London Review Bookshop Podcast · Gavin Francis & Philippe Sands: The Unfragile Mind · 13 Jun 2026 podcast

So I went for this big change where I moved to a bit swinging between a very rural, isolated, single handed practice for part of the month and then the university work.

So the rural work that you touched on, for me, it's really

There's something really special about being the only GP night and day in a community because everything then comes to you and you see all the patients with all the problems.

The appointment book system, if you live in a small island, is such that you phone up with a problem, I say, just come down at 10 o'clock.

Or, yeah, I'll see you when I'm finished my sandwich at quarter to two.

You know, so it's very easy going.

It's very easy to get an appointment, but also means that I'm also the person on call overnight.

And so if I see a baby with a high fever at half past five, I'm not worrying about the out of hours service because I know it's going to be me if that mother

or father calls me at 2 a.m.

And so there's a lot of continuity there where I'll say, well, I'm on call anyway.

So just give me a call if this happens or if this happens and this is the plan and I'll see you there.

And so there's a lovely kind of continuity about that.

And the broad spectrum of the cross section of society you're referring to, I think is also something that's very rewarding about those small communities because you're the only doctor who's seeing everybody within that community.

So whether they're rich or poor, young or old, all kinds of different social status, all kinds of different housing status.

And particularly in Iona, there's a very unusual community of people because of its ecclesiastical significance.

There's a lot of pilgrims, there's a lot of people associated with the tourist trade, and there's a lot of traditional Scottish crofting families too.

So it's a wonderful kind of fusion place to work.

And it's a rural place.

To be honest, really, not really.

People are people, generally, whether they're living extremely remotely or whether they're living in a city centre.

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