In the first of a new series on the the under pressure workers holding the UK together in this difficult winter, doctor Laura Mount reveals how staff sickness, spiralling waiting lists and political pressure have left GPs on the brink
Laura Mount became a doctor – she visibly winces at repeating such a cliche – to help people. Also, she was good at school. Her dad was a chemist, which is where she got her love of science; her mum, who was a hairdresser, gave Mount her drive. “If you didn’t do well and get on with it, you knew,” says Mount. “She felt she missed out on all that. So she was quite strict. She wanted us to do well.”
Mount, 44, has been a GP for 15 years. She is a partner at the Folly Lane medical centre in Warrington, Cheshire, which is also where she grew up and has lived her entire life, apart from her training in Sheffield. In addition to being a GP, Mount is the clinical director of a primary care network, coordinating six GP surgeries across Warrington. On top of this, she runs a vaccine clinic from a community centre in Orford. “It’s all a bit mad,” she says.
