Pro Chancellor, I present to Congregation Dr Tony Jewell.
Tony has been the Chief Medical Officer for Wales since 2006. In this role, he leads the medical profession here, is the medical advisor to the whole of the Welsh Government, and champions public health and the clinical contribution to improving the NHS. He is, in short, the physician for three million people.
But Tony is far more than just a consummate doctor and civil servant. He is a man who passionately believes in social justice, and in the capacity of all people and communities to defeat the scourge of ill health.
His whole career shows this. He was one of the first medical students to choose to include Sociology and Political Science as part of his medical undergraduate studies in Cambridge. After graduating he took time out to work as a sheet-metal worker in a car factory in Coventry, before proceeding to the London Hospital for his clinical training.
After qualifying as a Doctor, he joined the newly-established GP vocational training course in East London. This was at a time when general practice in the East End was in crisis – poor quality GPs, predominantly single-handed, with shop-front, lock-up surgeries. Far from the easy option which he might have chosen. He subsequently went into partnership and established a Health Centre in one of the poorest parts of the East End. Later, as the Trades Union Representative on the Tower Hamlets District Health Authority, he was one of the principal supporters of the Health Inquiry that looked at the reasons for the poor health of that community.
But Tony’s desire to improve health and tackle the obscenity of gross inequality took him after, ten years in general practice, into public health. Again, far from an easy choice, because it meant going back into training for his new speciality. He trained in the East Anglian region, acquiring a powerful reputation as a highly-effective, passionate and action-orientated crusader for public health. This was recognised in successive appointments as Director of Public Health for increasingly larger areas, and ultimately as Clinical Director and Director of Public Health for Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. He also served as a highly-respected Chair of the Association of Directors of Public Health. He was appointed Chief Medical Officer for Wales in 2006.
Chief Medical Officers are senior civil servants, and therefore have no public political views. But before taking this vow of silence, Tony was a prominent member of the Central Council of the Socialist Medical Association. As its Chair at the time noted, ‘If ever the discussion got bogged down and did not appear to be leading anywhere I learned to ask Tony to summarise the position and give a steer for action. He never failed to deliver’
During the last five years, Tony has certainly left his mark on Wales. He has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to shape policy to reduce inequalities, such as through work on child poverty. He has been the principal architect for the development of the Public Health System in Wales with his vision of a Public Health Service, Observatory and Institute. He has also led calls within the UK to protect children from passive smoking. Within the Welsh Government he has been a tireless advocate for Wales to act as a global citizen and work with others in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere to improve health.
The sort of personal commitment to health which took him to the East End and into public health in the first place, lives on. He has recently completed the Cardiff Half Marathon, and is known by his staff at Christmas Parties to promote the benefits of Fruit Salad rather than Plum Pudding with Cream and Brandy.
Above his desk, overlooking Cathays Park are pictures of the four people he regards as the architects of the NHS in Wales: Lloyd George, Aneurin Bevan, Julian Tudor-Hart and Archie Cochrane. But despite the best efforts of Tony and these distinguished predecessors, health inequalities continue to blight many of the communities in Wales, including plenty around this University. Despite rising life expectancy, you can still expect to die five years earlier in some parts of Wales than in others, and to have even more years of poor health before you die. In his open letter to the First Minister, at the start of his most recent annual report, he wrote: ‘I must again draw attention to the pernicious inequalities in health outcomes across the country… We need to ensure that the gains are distributed across the socio-economic gradient… Health gain in Wales needs to be fair’
Tony Jewell’s life-long contribution to improving primary care, to the health of the people of this country, and to tackling health inequality, are outstanding. For all these reasons, Pro Chancellor, I present to Congregation for the award of Doctor of Science, Dr Tony Jewell.
Text of oration given by Professor Marcus Longley at the awards ceremony this morning.