HOWE, Prof Amanda : WONCA President 2016-18
Prof Howe was elected as WONCA President-Elect in Prague
in June 2013. She served as the first woman President from 2016-18.
Background
Professor Amanda Howe was elected RCGP Honorary Secretary in 2009. She
practises at the Bowthorpe Medical Centre in Norwich, England and has
been Professor of Primary Care at the University of East Anglia since
2001. “I wanted to be a GP when I was a medical student, despite
influences from tutors to do otherwise”, says Professor Howe. “I’m
fascinated by the role that the GP consultation can play in helping
patients make sense of their lives, and overcome physical and mental
adversity. ”
WONCA involvement
Amanda has been deeply involved with WONCA since 2000, when she
facilitated a workshop for their Working Party on Women and Family
Medicine. She is on their Executive, chaired the group from 2007-2009,
and hosted an international meeting at UEA in 2009. She now serves on
the newly created Equity Committee, is a member of WONCA Europe’s Bylaws
Committee, and (also as part of her role as RCGP Honorary Secretary),
often attends WONCA conferences in Europe and around the world to
contribute relevant papers and promote the development of family
medicine. She also has promoted the need for a more international
flavour for RCGP policy development, has supported WONCA at WHO
meetings, and has taught as a visiting academic in Malaysia, Hong Kong
and Thailand as well as in Australia and New Zealand.
A GP academic
Many RCGP Members and Fellows may know Amanda best as an academic GP who
tirelessly promoted research and teaching within general practice. She
was RCGP Chair of Research from 2000-2005 and her involvement continues
through the Society of Academic Primary Care. Her commitment as a
founder member of a new medical school in U.K. reflects her abiding
belief that it is only in community settings that students can really
understand how illnesses affect people, and what makes health care
effective. “As an academic you learn to structure your thinking to find
out what is already known and what changes, if any, need to be made. GPs
are out there really trying to do the best they can, often in extremely
difficult situations, and the College is there to help to strengthen
the development and the quality of practice.” “I like people and I like
to help them achieve their potential. Having a life outside general
practice does help too, but I must say that general practice is my
passion. I’ve been a College member since finishing my VTS, and feel the
RCGP is the most important body for professional GPs, especially at
this time. It’s a privilege to play a senior role for an organisation
that really matters, and to contribute through WONCA to the same
challenge in other countries.”
Amanda also has a cautious side which has proved useful in tackling her
responsibilities, not least in acting as the College voice on the
hundreds of consultations to which the RCGP responds each year - with
issues ranging from safeguarding children to the role of pharma
companies. “I do pride myself on being able to watch the back of an
organisation, and will do everything I can to protect and enhance the
reputation of the College”.
Passionate about patients and leadership
She is still very much involved in caring for patients, working one day a
week at the Bowthorpe Health Centre in Norwich – and she remains “in
awe” of how resilient patients can be. “It’s a privilege to work with
people faced by adversity and illness. People are often very courageous
and extremely strong, they really do inspire me, that’s why general
practice is such a great place to learn”
Another area Amanda is passionate about is that of promoting leadership
within primary care with a view to ensuring the profession has enough
leaders for the future. “Every doctor needs to be an effective leader at
various times in their career but I’m concerned that sometimes GPs just
don’t feel they have the time or the confidence to be leaders” she
says. “We really need to turn that attitude around to ensure the full
impact of the profession. “I think that women in particular do not have
enough confidence in their ability to become leaders: they need to be
supported to take on responsibilities where they can build up leadership
skills to become leaders of teams, communities, and the profession.
“When I entered general practice, women made up one in 10 of the
profession. While that has improved over the years, the RCGP needs to be
conscious that everyone gets an equitable chance within general
practice to develop as leaders..”
One of her major contributions to developing family medicine has been
the landmark RCGP report on the contribution made by medical generalists
- 'Experts in whole person medicine' . Amanda led the work on this, and
the Commission which underpinned it, and recently ran a workshop at
WONCA Europe in Vienna. The report can be found on the RCGP website at
http://www.rcgp.org.uk/policy/commissn_on_generalism.aspx