A RECENTLY retired Bradford on Avon GP has been awarded the Royal College of General Practitioners Fellowship for her 28 years’ of outstanding practice in the town.

Dr Ethel Johnson had the honour, an accolade fewer that seven per cent of GPs receive, bestowed upon her at a ceremony in London last month.

Dr Johnson was appointed along with fellow GP Dr Liz Christie to run the small practice of retiring GP Dr Doreen Ellis in 1986.

Together they went onto transform a single handed practice into a comprehensive primary health care team known as St Margaret’s Surgery.

“I have had a wonderful career living and working in Bradford on Avon, and I feel highly honoured to have had the Fellowship awarded to me,” said Dr Johnson, who also became an Appraiser of GPs in 2002.

“However, none of this would have been possible had it not been for the great team around me, and also not least - for the wonderful and unstinting support of my husband while all this was going on.”

A Patient Participation Group was established in 1994 - the first in West Wiltshire - now another service offered in every practice.

Dr Johnson retired from clinical practice in 2014, and will retire from conducting appraisals in August 2016 so she can enjoy developing her other interests including more travelling with her husband.