Maureen Baker

Updated on Nov 29, 2023

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Name Maureen Baker

Dr maureen baker

Maureen Baker CBE FRCGP (born 20 September 1958) is a Scottish medical doctor who was Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) 2013–2016. She was previously Honorary Secretary of the RCGP 1999–2009.

Dr maureen baker full speech rcgp annual conference 2016

Education

Baker was born in Motherwell on 20 September 1958 to Helen and William Murphy. She was educated at the Holy Cross High School in Hamilton. After school she studied medicine at the University of Dundee, graduating with MB, ChB in 1981. She then attended the University of Nottingham, obtaining a DM.

Career

She worked as a general practitioner (GP) in Lincoln from 1985−2000. Early in her career, she was involved with teaching.

She joined Connecting for Health in 2007. She is Clinical Director for Patient Safety at the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC).

College positions

She was first elected as Honorary Secretary of the RCGP in 1999.

In May 2013 she was elected as chair of the RCGP council, taking up the position in November 2013.

In December 2013 the Health Service Journal listed her as the 26th most powerful person in the National Health Service, in 2014 she was listed in the journal's top 100 clinical leaders and in 2015 she was as the 39th most influential person in NHS (England).

During her term as chair of RCGP council, she often articulated problems affecting General Practice, acknowledging that some of these problems have been attributed to the "pull of London and the South-east". She has commented on the need to be able to improve the distribution of the medical workforce, suggesting that reasonable incentives might help attract doctors to some areas.

Her term as Council Chair ended in November 2016, when she was succeeded as Chair by Helen Stokes-Lampard.