ABSTRACT
The roots of the Macmillan general practitioners (GP) story go back to the 1970s and 1980s, when the hospice movement was growing in the UK. Cancer had come to be seen as a specialist area involving chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery, and even palliative care itself seemed to be turning into another medical specialty. In 1989, Macmillan therefore approached the body responsible for training GPs, the Royal College of General Practitioners, to see what could be done to engage GPs in improving the experience of people affected by cancer. Early evaluations gave a sense of the wide-ranging activities pursued by Macmillan GPs in the first decade. Crucial support for the new centre came not only from Macmillan but also from the Lynda Jackson family and from Mount Vernon’s visionary Chief Executive, Stephen Ramsden, who had always wanted to see a complementary therapy centre at the hospital.
