Michael Flynn, General practitioner.
Personal/family: Married to Tess with four children & one dog.
What figure from the world of medicine/health do you most admire?
There were two role models, both general practitioners, for whose influence I am grateful, the late Manne Berber and my former partner and mentor John Mason. John was the first President of our College.
What other career might you have chosen?
History or law.
If you were appointed Minister for Health, what would be your first priority?
The present Minister has an opportunity to alter radically the primary care service in Ireland. The last time this opportunity presented itself was in the late 1960s prior to the introduction of the GMS. The priority must be that the primacy of personal health care should be preserved in the face of pressure to move to a focus on targets for population health objectives. The needs of the individual are at the heart of the doctor patient relationship in general practice; that this is difficult to measure does not make it less important.
Do you have a phobia/what is your greatest fear?
Loss on control /autonomy.
Have you ever been a patient and were you a good one?
Yes and I hope that the nursing staff would say yes, but I suspect the cardiothoracic surgeon would say no.
What three books would you bring to a desert island?
Reid's Nautical Almanac, The Diary of Samuel Pepys, a compendium of the Aubrey/Maturin stories of Patrick O'Brian.
Have you a fail safe method of dealing with stress?
In the summer - sailing, otherwise walking Henry (the dog).
What is your favourite TV or radio programme?
The Morse series, Lyric FM is on all the time in the background.
If you did not live in Ireland, where would you choose to spend the rest of your life?
Tuscany, which seems to surprise my wife.
Summarise yourself in 12 words.
Enthusiastic, opinionated, gregarious, pedantic, loyal, prolix and desquipedelian
Do you use alternative medicine/therapies?
No.
Who or what makes you laugh?
Scrap Saturday (even now), The Two Ronnies, The Doonesbury Cartoons of Gary Trudeau.