Brian has been a GP in SE London for 25 years and is a member of the PEC in Lewisham PCT with a particular responsibility for liaising with the local authority. Brian is also chair of the PPI steering group.

For many years, Brian has been interested in user involvement in the NHS. He has tried to develop a number of different approaches to make this as real as possible. These have included community development (for which
Brian was awarded an MBE), Patients as Teachers, patient access to their health records and working with colleagues to ensure that lay people’s views are incorporated in the daily work of PCTs.

Brian is a member of one of 4 PBC clusters in Lewisham and have helped to support PPI in the process. He has helped to write a document for the NHS Alliance called “Engaging with local people” which outlines approaches to PPI for practice-based commissioning.

Brian champions patient record access, and is now  the director of a company called PAERS Ltd that has designed and built kiosk-based access, in conjunction with EMIS, the largest provider of GP software in the UK. It is now possible for all EMIS practices (60% of the UK) to offer this to their patients.

Brian firmly believes that patients should have full access to data about them and that this will enhance safety and care.