He worked as a GP in London between 1977 and 1992. He chaired the BMA's Medical Ethics Committee from 1997 to 2006, and its Representative Body from 2004 to 2007. He is the immediate Past President of the Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME). He is Chairman of the Trustees of the Rehabilitation of Addicted Prisoners Trust (RAPt), a leading provider of addiction treatment in UK prisons, of BMA Charities, and of the Sick Doctors Trust.