During his tenure as chief medical officer for England, Sir Kenneth Calman visited our medical careers research group, led by Michael Goldacre, in Oxford in the 1990s.
This was at a time of long and arduous work demands on newly qualified doctors and many had written to us expressing their fears and concerns personally and for their patients. Ken sat down and read the carefully anonymised comments of the doctors for some time and was visibly moved.
As he went on his way, we were hugely impressed by his evident compassion for the junior doctors and steadfast determination to improve working conditions and support for doctors at the beginning of their careers.
