17 Facts About Clare Gerada

Dame Clare Mary Louise Francis Gerada, Lady Wessely was born on November 1959 and is a London-based general practitioner who is a former President of the Royal College of General Practitioners and a former chairperson of the RCGP Council.

Clare Gerada has professional interests in mental health, substance misuse, and gambling problems.

Clare Gerada was born in Nigeria although her father came from Malta; the family moved to the United Kingdom in 1963.

Clare Gerada then trained in psychiatry and worked at the Maudsley Hospital in south London.

Clare 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 services in England.

Clare Gerada has 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.

Clare Gerada is one of the partners in the Hurley Group which runs a number of GP practices and walk-in centres across London.

Clare Gerada was the college's first female chairperson for 50 years, the previous female chairperson having been Dr Annis Gillie.

Clare Gerada resigned from this position in April 2015 so she could speak out against what she calls the Conservatives' "desperate quest for privatisation".

Clare Gerada established the Practitioner Health Programme to support general practitioners, dentists and other health professionals with mental health and associated issues.

Clare Gerada had been a lifelong supporter of the Labour Party until the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum.

Clare Gerada was appointed in April 2021 as an Independent Advisor to address Governance and Clinical Quality to her first role within the private hospital sector with Cygnet Healthcare, an independent provider of mental health services that had acquired Whorlton Hall shortly before an undercover investigation by BBC Panorama in 2019 filmed vulnerable patients being abused.

Clare Gerada is married to Sir Simon Wessely, a professor of psychiatry.

Clare Gerada was one of the first people in the UK to publicly self-isolate when she contracted Coronavirus during a trip to New York in March 2020.

Clare Gerada described it as the 'worst illness I've ever had'.

Clare Gerada gave an interview from home to Good Morning Britain, which entertained viewers when she was interrupted by her phone and her dog.

Clare Gerada was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2000 Birthday Honours for service to medicine and to drug misusers and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to general practice.