G W Robinson (GP and ENT specialist) & the battle of the SHMO's
In 1958 Ken was commissioned to do a painting of Dr Geoffrey Robinson, his farther in law by the British Medical Association. It was Ken's first commissioned work and it was shown at the Royal Academy Summer exhibition in 1958. The painting attracted a lot of interest at the time for a couple of reasons. Firstly the painting was shown on National television to advertise the exhibition and it was described as a great example of a former pupil of the academy's work. Ken received a commendation for the way he painted the hands. His work was listed next to his tutors work, Peter Greenham, the well known British portrait artist and was a proud moment in Ken's life. The second reason for the interest was in the story about why the painting was commissioned (see below).
The story
In short Mr Robinson selflessly helped many consultants who had been demoted unfairly at the start of the NHS to Senior Health Medical Officers to regain their status as consultants by taking on the Government case by case for years. Although the consultants were very experienced they had been through the wars and had qualified the old way which was superceeded by new training. Mr Robinson himself had suffered this demotion but was eventually reinstated as consultant after his retirement.
Short Biography
Mr Geoffrey Waring Robinson (GP) was an ENT specialist who in his early years worked with the mentally ill. A paper he wrote in 1937 laid the foundation for much research into tinnitus and hallucinations among the mentally ill and he has been widely quoted by many other researchers since. He tried to serve in the first world war but was not allowed. Many of his friends and colleagues perished in the war which made him determined to sign up to the second world war even though he did not have to. He became a Major in the RAMC and was at Dunkirk and he served in West Africa during the Boer war.
His biggest battle occurred when the health service was introduced in July 1948 by Aneurin Bevan. To have a free health service available to all was a great step forward but a considerable amount of re-organisation took place and the hospital speciality service was regraded which is where many consultants were affected. Prior to the NHS to become a consultant the normal path after qualification had been to progress through the ranks: House officer for one year, senior house officer, junior registrar, registrar, senior registrar and then consultant. During the reorganisation the new way to train was to take further exams such as the FRCS to become a Consultant in surgery or the FRCP to become a Physician. Many specialists at this time had been appointed to a post but had not been through the new training. They had followed the other acceptable career paths and many had served in the wars and were now much older. Instead of phasing in the new way to become consultant and allowing older consultants to retire as they reached retirement age they were regraded to Senior Hospital Medical Officers (SHMO) which was a step down from consultant. The decision was made on the doctors perceived level of responsibility, their qualifications and the time they had spent working in the voluntary hospitals. It is estimated that between 15,000 and 20,000 consultants were affected at that time
The downgrading to SHMO reduced Mr Robinson's income and also changed the hospitals he worked in. He had to sell his lovely thatched cottage in the village of Billesdon and move into Leicester where he received sharp disapproval from some who did not want to work with an 'SHMO' at the hospital. Mr Robinson started studying to try and get the FRCS. He was in his 50’s at the time and it was a very tall order. He tried twice and passed all the sections but not at the same time, so he did not get it. His wife, Lois, said "stop grumbling and do something about it". Mr Robinson called a meeting for the SHMO's but most were so disheartened that only 2 came initially but numbers soon started rising. When the SHMO committee was born Mr Robinson became the Chairman. He built his own duplicator and circulated hundreds of members in the group with a questionnaire. From this he was able to build up a picture of their qualifications and their level of responsibility. It became evident that the grading was unfair and in some cases it appeared the government was using the grade to get a cheap pair of hands. As Chairman he started attending all the British Medical Association meetings, speaking out for the SHMO's whenever he could and he also began lobbying the government.
Mr Robinson took up individual cases and argued with the government that the grading was wrong. SHMO after SHMO contacted Mr Robinson and he succeeded in most cases to get the grade changed back to consultant. He was in frequent contact with the minister for health and because of his level of success on one occasion he was told ‘if we make your grade up, will you go away’. Mr Robinson was horrified and continued as Chairman. He battled on for many years until the government gave in and the grade was abolished. He was finally regraded himself but only after his retirement. The British Medical Associaton gifted Mr Robinson with the commissioned painting by Ken Hill and the SHMO group gave a generous donation to thank Mr Robinson for the many years of determined effort to fight for their rights, even at the cost of furthering his own career. His selfless determined contribution had helped many thousands to get justice.
He continued to have an active life after retirement. He helped at a GP surgery on a voluntary basis to his late 80's. He wrote a book, 'Satan's Spawn', about his life experiences at the age of 95. He wrote letters to the government on how to reform payments to the unemployed in a manner similar to the modern tax credits and he died two weeks shy of 100 after getting prostate cancer. He said of himself before dying that he thought he had had a 'good innings'.