Seventeenth Century

Dr Obadiah Walker from Barnsley (1616-1699), prior to confinement (twice) in the Tower of London for religious dissent, tutored the famous Dr John Radcliffe (physician to three ruling monarchs) and gave a few words concerning those preparing for professional life:

"exercise should be prescribed to regulate and discipline the body of the student. Health is to be monitored generally so as to pre-empt the expense and inconvenience of illness and harsh 'Physick' should be applied to those who imagine themselves to be ill to dissuade them from feigning illness"
(Of Education, 1673)

Eighteenth Century

Dr William Elmhirst (1721-1773) set up a training practice at Genn House, near the Sheffield road to the south of Barnsley, in 1743. Assisting him was his sister Martha in a dual role as receptionist and nurse. In addition to his fees for medicines, surgery, vetinary activities and tooth-pulling, he earned extra income selling 'fat oxen' to a Barnsley butcher, and letting out property to one of his patients, a 'constipated tallow-chandler'. Venesection brought in a shilling a time: frequently (writes a descendant) he was 'called in to bleed the plethoric countrymen of Hanoverian Yorkshire'.

The terms of an apprenticeship stipulated that those studying under him 'readily and chearfully (sic) obey' and conduct themselves 'with all due diligence, honesty, sobriety and temperance' (the Registrar contract has been somewhat amended since). His last "GP Registrar", an apprentice fond of doodling on practice documents, John Hayes, attempted to continue the medical practice after Elmhirst's untimely death (thrown from his horse at the nearby Hangman-Stone), but lacking the support of a local VTS or PCT this lasted only a few weeks: the young widow, Elizabeth Elmhirst had 'seen enough of doctoring' with its 'irregular hours' and lack of deputising services, and soon 'Genn House was cleared of medical debris'. Poor John Hayes was sent packing, and the widow 'bought a harpsichord to fight the gloom and emptiness of silent rooms.'

(Cue harpsichord music . . .)

Nineteenth Century

Dr Richard Crooks (1777-1845) ran a training practice from his town centre surgery on Church Street, a next-door neighbour to legendary Barnsley hero 'Tom Treddlehoyle' (the nearest pub to our VTS meetings is named after him). Crooks was notably 'a great swearer' whose medical apprentices, like young Robert Iberson, were regularly 'beaten with a walking stick'.

And you thought GP Summative Assessment was gruelling!

Twentieth Century

At last, those aspiring to enter General Practice began to be better treated, as the terms of service were improved, and the 'apprenticeship' model gave way to 'traineeship' and finally to 'registrarship'.

In the early 1970s the redoubtable Dr Milnes-Walker persuaded a group of hospital consultants to accept General Practice Vocational Trainees onto their teams. A radical concept this: a non-career SHO accepted as able to do the work of an aspiring specialist? The deals were done by inviting the consultants, one by one, out to dinner . . .

At about the same time Barnsley Beckett Hospital (the miners' hospital) was closing and joining forces with St Helen's Hospital. St Helen's stood roughly where the Junior Doctors' Mess stands now, and the new Barnsley District General Hospital was built round it. With a typical sense of occasion the first part of the BDGH to be built was the Social Club.

Such was the success of the Vocational Training Scheme after these tentative beginnings that within a few years consultants were falling over themselves to get a GP Trainee onto their staff, since the standard was so much higher than the normal applicants. Then, as now, the pick of young doctors wanted a career in General Practice.

> About the Course in the 21st Century