Dr Alan Woodall, known for his work in General Practice as the immediate past Chair of GP Survival, has joined the DAUK committee.
Who is Alan Woodall?
Alan is a GP partner and OOH Doctor in rural mid Wales and Shropshire. A coal-miner’s son who endured the 84-85 strike just like Billy Elliot, but without the dancing ability, he originally trained as a postdoctoral research scientist working at the University of California Berkeley, before returning to study medicine in the UK. Alan decided to pursue a primary care and public health focus, and during his training published research in a number of areas, including work in the BMJ that helped to secure the smoking ban. He gave over 30 media, radio and TV interviews at the time.
He founded GPSurvival in 2015, recognising the need to give grassroots doctors a voice, and has served as a campaign lead and chair. It now represents over 8,000 GPs UK wide, mainly campaigning on primary care issues initially, but his focus widened over the last year to reform of the GMC, in the light of poor regulatory practices. In that role, he found himself increasingly collaborating with other grassroots groups such as DAUK. His activist work is regularly quoted in the medical press, and he and his team have recognition as partners with NHS England on looking at campaign areas. He is excited to be joining the DAUK team to provide more public health and primary care input, and to strengthen collaboration between different grassroots groups.
Alan is married to Joanne, an education officer/primary teacher, and has a 7 year old daughter Abbie. He is happy to be contacted at any time for advice.
Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden, DAUK Chair said “We are delighted that Alan has come on board with DAUK. We were very keen to have more representation from General Practice on the executive committee, and Alan was the perfect candidate. Alan cares deeply about the wellbeing of GPs and of the medical profession, and his work for GP Survival speaks for itself. We look forward to continuing to advocate for General Practice with renewed energy.”
