A SELKIRK doctor left office after four years exceptional service as Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners (Scotland) last Saturday. The role made Dr John Gillies one of Scotland’s most influential, respected and senior GPs.

Dr Gillies was a GP Principal at Selkirk Medical Practice, Borders until he retired in 2013.

He is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Community Health Sciences School, University of Edinburgh and a member of the EU Global health Academy. He was born and brought up as a Gaelic speaker in North Uist, Western Isles. Graduating in 1976 from Edinburgh University, he worked in a variety of junior hospital posts in the UK and Ireland before travelling to Africa in 1981 where he spent 3 years in a rural district of Malawi working as a district medical officer. He also carried out research in goitre and cretinism there for WHO.

Since returning to Scotland he has maintained links with colleagues in Malawi and between 2006 and 2009 was instrumental in obtaining Scottish Government grants to support training for nurses and clinical officers in palliative care and family medicine.

He remains involved with international work; for a number of years he was a committee member of the European Rural and Isolated Practitioners’ Association, which is affiliated to the World Organisation of National Colleges and Academies of General Practice.

Dr Gillies has attended several WONCA conferences in recent years and has been a member of the European Editorial Board of the Journal of Remote and Rural Health from 2004-2012. He is currently a member of both the RCGP International and ethics committees.

As a GP member of the NHS Borders Local Research Ethics Committee for five years, Dr Gillies initiated an annual training seminar by lecturers from the Centre for Professional Ethics at Keele University.

He was Guidelines Advisor within the Department of Public Health of NHS Borders from 1997 – 2005, leading the assessment of SIGN guidelines and NHS Quality Improvement Scotland endorsed statements and promoting their adoption and implementation by NHS Borders.

Additionally, he was Project Director of the Hearts in the Borders Coronary Heart Disease initiative; a multidisciplinary project on secondary prevention of CHD which included guideline implementation, audit and extensive primary care based educational programmes.

Between 2000 and 2006, he was Lead Programme Coordinator with Dr Joe Wilton for the NHS Borders Protected Learning Time scheme. This scheme continues to be highly successful and well supported by over 80 GPs from 20 practices, practice nurses, community nursing staff and practice managers.

He has published original articles or book chapters on philosophy of general practice, medical ethics, remote and rural health and coronary heart disease. He edited in 2013, the RCGP Scotland 60th anniversary publication 'The first 60 years’.

He has been involved with the work of RCGP Scotland since 2001 when he became an ballot member of Scottish Council.

He stood down from Council in 2008 but has continued to be involved in remote and rural education and in the Essence of General Practice project. He has been Chair since 2010. His priorities as Chair are in promoting generalism, developing leadership from general practice, and moving forward Quality in a changing NHS.