Dr Ben Essex

MBBS · MSc · FRCGP · FRCP

Primary care physician, international health consultant, and innovator in clinical decision-making systems across five decades of service in the UK, Africa, India, and South America

Summary Biography

Most of my working life has been in the field of primary care, in the UK and many countries in Africa, India and South America. This has included working as a GP in the UK, and also a consultant to the World Health Organisation. I was funded by WHO to undertake a 12 year research programme to develop and evaluate diagnostic and management pathways for physical and mental illnesses for medical assistants in many countries. This work included the development of appropriate educational and data storage technology.

As a GP I undertook research related to patient held records for people with severe mental illnesses, and new ways to support GP decision-making, and evaluating the quality of primary care.

After retirement from general practice I was employed by various Strategic Health Authorities and Primary Care Trusts to investigate serious untoward incidents. I also undertook many clinical investigations into deaths in custody on behalf of the Ombudsman.

Other areas of work undertaken more recently include being a Tribunal support worker for parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities. Between 2021-23 I developed and evaluated legal decision pathways for parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities. The Copyright and intellectual property rights were given to the Liverpool University Law Faculty in 2024.

Posts

1964 – 65
House physician and house surgeon Dulwich Hospital London
1965 – 67
Medical Officer Kisubi Hospital Uganda
1968 – 70
Medical Registrar Dulwich Hospital
1970
Temporary Assistant Lecturer Dept Community Health, Nottingham University
1970 – 72
MSc course London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and LSE
1972 – 74
Senior Lecturer department of Community Medicine University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. East Africa
1975
Consultant to African Medical Research Foundation Nairobi
1976 – 2000
Full time principal in 6 partner practice in Southeast London (retired from practice Oct 2000)
2000 – 2002
Medical Advisor to Lewisham Primary Care Groups / Trust
2002 – 2006
Medical Advisor to Northeast London Strategic Health Authority and advisor to several PCTs on clinical governance and performance concerns
2007 – 2011
Assistant / Interim Medical Director Croydon PCT which included undertaking extensive investigations into many serious untoward incidents
2010 – 2012
Clinical investigator of deaths of prisoners in Custody in Belmarsh, Wormwood Scrubs and Pentonville prisons on behalf of the Ombudsman

Consultancies

1975
Consultant to University of Hawaii, Manpower Training project
1977
Consultant to Centre Mondial Informatique et Resource Humaine, Paris
1976 – 90
Consultant to WHO developing and evaluating diagnostic and management decision pathways for training health workers in developing countries
1981
Consultant to Pan American Health Organisation & Ministry of Health Mexico
1983 – 85
Consultant to Director of Nutrition Unit WHO Geneva
1986
Consultant to Ministry of Overseas Development UK evaluating European Union aid to Medical Assistant Training School in Bo Sierra Leone
1997 – 99
Consultant to GP DoH Opportunities recruitment programme
1994 – 2002
GP consultant to Lambeth Southwark and Lewisham Health Authority
2001
Consultant to East London City and Hackney Strategic Health Authority (to identify and investigate serious untoward incidents in general practice)
2002
Consultant to North Southwark Primary Care Group (to undertake a risk assessment of clinical concerns in a local practice)
2000 – 2004
GP Advisor South London and DoH European Union doctors recruitment programme
2009
Consultant West Sussex PCT to investigate major serious untoward incident

Professional Activities

1978 – 83
Member of WHO Collaborative Study on Strategies for extending mental health care in developing countries
1979 – 90
GP trainer
1983 – 88
Lewisham GP course organiser
1984 – 85
Member of working party of College of Psychiatrists reviewing role of the community psychiatric nurse
1984 – 85
Member of WHO working party on training for mental health in primary care settings in the European Region
1979 – 89
Member of South London Faculty of Royal College General Practitioners
1986 – 88
Joint investigator with Dr Ross Mitchell. Project undertaken for WHO Mental Health European Region to assess training needs and objectives for mental health care in European countries
1987
Member of WHO Task Force on Growth Monitoring and Nutrition
1990 – 91
Provost South London Faculty of General Practitioners
1990 – 94
Lewisham GP tutor
1991
Advisor to Department of Health on Population Health Index
1993
Member of Secretary of State community psychiatry review working party
1990 – 94
Honorary Research Fellow UMDS London University
2000 – 03
Development of Induction programme for EU Doctors coming to work as GPs in UK. Advisor to DoH on international recruitment and retention
2000 – 02
Medical Advisor to Lewisham Primary Care Group
2006
Medical advisor to GMC in relation to procedures and policies for GMC management of unregistered or suspended doctors employed as GPs
2002 – 06
Medical Advisor to Northeast London Strategic Health Authority
2007 – 2011
Consultant investigator of serious untoward incidents and Assistant Medical Director Croydon PCT. Assessments of primary care and general practice including undertaking investigations of serious untoward incidents and record reviews as part of assessment of performance concerns in general practice
2014 – 2020
Volunteer Tribunal support worker for parents making a Tribunal appeal against local authority decisions about children with special educational needs
2014 – 2022
Trustee on Board of charity Independent Provider of Special Education Advice (IPSEA)

Recognition

2025
Times Sternberg Award

Awarded for outstanding contribution to society made after age 70, in recognition of the development of special educational needs decision pathways

Publications 1975 - 2023

International and World Health Organisation (WHO)

Clinical Medicine

Approach to Rapid Problem Solving in Clinical Medicine
British Medical Journal 1975; iii:34-6
Diagnostic Pathways in Clinical Medicine
Churchill Livingstone First edition 1977 Second edition 1980
Evaluation of Flow Charts in Guinea Bissau
Report, Division of Health Manpower Development WHO 1977 (with A. Amaro)

Antenatal

Use of Action Oriented Record Card for Antenatal Screening
Tropical Doctor 7:134-8 1977 (with VJ Everett)

Obstetric Care

Management Pathways in Obstetric Emergencies
Churchill Livingstone 1981

Mental Health

A problem-oriented approach to management of mental illness in Developing Countries
Journal of Royal College of General Practitioners, 1980, 30,648-655
Training Program for Identification and Management of Mental Illness
Churchill Livingstone 1982 (with H. Gosling)
An Algorithmic Method for Management of Mental Health Problems in Developing Countries
British Journal of Psychiatry Vol 142, 451-459 1983 (with H. Gosling)

Traditional Birth Attendants

Development of Management Strategies for Traditional Birth Attendants
First draft presented at WHO meeting on TBAs Mexico City 1979. Second draft revision WHO 1980

Appropriate Technology

Research Project on feasibility of microcomputer intelligence system for basic health care in developing countries
Report on an informal meeting on applications of microelectronics in educational support of health systems. WHO Geneva 1980 HMD/80.4 (with J. Tillotson)

Education

The use of flow charts in training
World Health Forum, 3(4); 380-384 1982
A Manual for Teaching and Evaluating Diagnostic Flow Charts
Published by Health Manpower Division WHO. Published in English and Spanish by WHO 1983

Village Health Workers

Creating Good Health. A book for training village health workers in preventive medicine
Published by WHO 1982 (with G. Fargo)

GP and WHO

General Practitioner and the World Health Organisation
BMJ Vol 282: 4446-448 1981

General Practice

Management

Moneymed: a game to develop management skills in general practice
Journal Royal College of General Practitioners 31;735-739 1981 (with R.N. Jackson)
Systemed: An Information System for General Practice
BMJ 1989
Audit in general practice by a receptionist: a feasibility study
BMJ 1991;302:573-6 (with J. Bate)

Decision-making

Decision Analysis in General Practice
Chapter in book titled Decision Making in General Practice. Edited by Sheldon Brooke and Rector, London. MacMillan Press, 1985
Evaluation of a rule base for decision making in general practice
British Journal of General Practice 1994, 44, 211-213 (with M. Healy)
Doctors Dilemmas Decisions
Book published by BMJ 1994 ISBN 0-7279-0859-6
A New Approach to Decision Making in Primary Health Care
Proceedings of Royal Society of London 1980; 30:209:89-96

Community Care

Problems in Community Care
Chapter in book Provision of Mental Health Services in Britain, Edited by Wilkinson and Freeman. Published by Gaskell Psychiatric Series p 146-151 1986

Psychiatry

Pilot study of records of shared care for people with mental illnesses
BMJ 1990; 300; 1442-6 (with R. Doig, J. Renshaw)
Psychiatric discharge summaries in the South East Thames region
Psychiatric Bulletin 1991, 15, 326-327 (with J. Rosenthal)

Risk Assessment

Performance concerns in primary care: a Delphi consensus on risk and investigation
Quality in Primary Care 2007; 15 (with Mark Ashworth, Nicola Crichton)

Special Educational Needs

Pathway Development

2021-23: Development of legal decision pathways for parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities. Working with Nottingham University computer science students to develop a website to access, edit, and update these pathways. The Copyright and intellectual property rights were given to the Liverpool University Law Faculty in 2024. www.sendecisions.org.uk

Publication

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities: A decision support tool for parents and professionals
Presented at the International Conference on Education Research and Innovation. Seville 2023 (Vettraino G, Banks J, Makeswaran T, Essex B, Hopkins G)

Project Highlight

SEND Decision Pathways

Between 2021 and 2023, I developed comprehensive legal decision pathways for parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities. Working with computer science students at Nottingham University, we created an accessible website platform to support parents navigating the complex SEND system.

The copyright and intellectual property rights were transferred to Liverpool University Law Faculty in 2024 to ensure ongoing accessibility and development.

Visit www.sendecisions.org.uk