• Provides a historical context for the developments in health over several decades prior to the study • Shows how oral history methods have increasingly been used in medical history research and explores the benefits of this approach • Covers many of the themes of the oral history which enabled and encouraged patients to comment on what was important to them in their encounter with health care • Follows the increasing acceptance of women in medicine, demonstrating how women doctors were viewed by patients within the practice compared to changes in the wider society • Presents a ‘history from below’, using voices that are not normally heard in the medical discourse illustrating the importance of the doctor-patient interface

• Provides a historical context for the developments in health over several decades prior to the study • Shows how oral history methods have increasingly been used in medical history research and explores the benefits of this approach • Covers many of the themes of the oral history which enabled and encouraged patients to comment on what was important to them in their encounter with health care • Follows the increasing acceptance of women in medicine, demonstrating how women doctors were viewed by patients within the practice compared to changes in the wider society • Presents a ‘history from below’, using voices that are not normally heard in the medical discourse illustrating the importance of the doctor-patient interface