Introduction
Clare Gerada, Lady Wessely (born 1959) is a London-based general practitioner and was Chair of the Council of the Royal College of General Practitioners for three years from November 2010. She was the college's first female Chair for 50 years, the previous female Chair having been Dr Annis Gillie.
Professional life
She qualified in medicine at UCL Medical School in 1982 and then trained in psychiatry.
Gerada cites her main interests of work as being around mental health and substance misuse and has spent over her professional career leading the development of primary care substance (alcohol, drugs) services in England.
She started work in general practice in Lambeth, London, in 1992, after working at the Maudsley Hospital, London, on substance abuse. She was awarded an MBE in 2000 "for service to medicine and to drug misusers". She has also been Director of Primary Care for the National Clinical Governance Team and Senior Medical Advisor to the Department of Health, and is Medical Director of the NHS Practitioner Health Programme, which provides confidential medical advice for doctors and dentists.
She is one of the partners in the Hurley Group which runs a number of GP practices and walk-in centres across London.
She was Chair of Clinical Board, Primary Care Transformation, NHS England (London Region) but resigned in April 2015 so she could speak out against what she calls the Conservatives’ ‘desperate quest for privatisation’.
Personal life
Gerada was born in Nigeria although her father came from Malta, and she grew up in Peterborough, England, where her father was a GP.
In February 2012 she appeared in the BBC Radio 4 series Great Lives, nominating Vera Brittain.
She is married with children to the psychiatrist Professor Sir Simon Wessely.
In February 2013 she was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.
On 29 March 2013, she appeared on BBC Radio 4s 'Any Questions?' which was broadcast from St. George's Chapel, Chatham. It was presented by Ritula Shah and the others guests were; Tom Newton Dunn, the political editor of The Sun newspaper, Lord Trimble (Irish Politician) and Angela Eagle (Labour Party MP). On 13 May 2013 she debated the NHS with Chris Skidmore MP on BBC's The Politics Show.
In September 2013 and 2014 she was voted by readers of the Evening Standard as one of the top 1000 influential Londoners.
She was named as one of the Sunday Times and Debretts top 500 Influential Britons in January 2014, and number 4 in Health.
In 2015 The London Evening Standard included her in their list of London's most influential 1000 thinkers.
Having been a Labour voter since she first voted, she joined the Liberal Democrats after the Brexit referendum result in 2016.