Sir Henry Yellowlees
Authors: Caroline Richmond
Journal: BMJ (2006)

​SirSir Henry Yellowlees was chief medical officer (CMO) at the Department of Health for England during a decade of major reorganisation and change in the NHS. It was a period that covered two changes of political parties in government, and he served under five ministers of health: firstly Sir Keith Joseph, Conservative; then Barbara Castle followed by David Ennals (Labour); and, when Mrs Thatcher's Conservative government was elected, Norman Fowler and Patrick Jenkin.



Figure 1



Shortly after Yellowlees took office, the Labour Party won the general election and Barbara Castle took over at the Department of Health and Social Services. She was keen to “finish what Nye Bevan had started,” by moving private patients out of NHS hospitals, which consultants hated. Yellowlees was “piggy-in-the-middle” in the ensuing battle between the government and the medical profession, each regarding him as the other side's ally.

During his time in office, the NHS underwent the first of a series of massive reorganisations as its three previously separate parts—the hospitals, the family practitioner services, and the services provided by local authorities—were brought together into a single organisation. A whole administrative layer, of regional health authorities, was abolished. In the community, general practitioners came together in groups, usually moving into larger and better premises.

Yellowlees's decade as CMO also saw the introduction of a whole raft of innovations including pacemakers, open heart surgery, transplants, computed tomography scanners, and the new abortion act. One of his tasks was to introduce new treatments in areas of the country where they hadn't previously been used. This was generally achieved by building services around a new consultant, who would sometimes unintentionally scupper the project by moving away from the area.

During his years in office, new medical specialties, including accident and emergency medicine and community medicine, came into being. Under his direction, the first steps were made in reducing the number of hours worked by junior doctors. The number of consultant posts was increased and, most important of all, he put in place arrangements for women doctors to go up the hospital career ladder while taking time out to have children.

His period of service also covered several upheavals, including the 1970s oil crisis, the miners' strike, the three-day week, and cuts and reforms in the civil service. Computers were used in health service management for the first time, and Sir Keith Joseph brought in management consultants. The abolition of smallpox and the first appearance of Lassa fever also occurred during his time in office.

Yellowlees had survived a coronary thrombosis in 1972 and, with this in mind, Sir George Godber, his immediate predecessor, proposed that there be two CMOs, the senior one to advance public health and the other to advise on the NHS. But Yellowlees preferred to remain the sole CMO, with four deputies.

One of these, Dr Liz Shore, wrote of him, “Henry Yellowlees was an outstanding administrator, totally without status consciousness, genuinely non-discriminatory and always ready to give credit where it was due. He had a strong belief in an NHS free to all and leading the field in research and innovation.

Yellowlees was the son of another Sir Henry Yellowlees, an eminent psychiatrist. He was educated at Stowe school and University College, Oxford. He was a Royal Air Force flying instructor from 1941 to 1945, which delayed his entry to clinical studies. After qualifying from the Middlesex Hospital in 1950, aged 31, he was picked out for promotion for his diplomacy and leadership skills. As soon as he finished his house jobs, he became resident medical officer at the Middlesex, where his handling of an epidemic among staff first brought him to Godber's attention.

From 1954 to 1963 he worked as a medical officer at the South West, and then the North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Boards. He was seconded to the Ministry of Health, which later became the Department of Health and Social Security, in 1963. Yellowlees was deputy CMO to Godber from 1967. He was knighted in 1975, two years into his post as CMO.

When he left the Department of Health in 1983 he worked for a year at the Ministry of Defence, restructuring the medical manpower of the armed services. He then became a consultant at the World Health Organization European Office, where his team negotiated for the provision of health care for Bulgarian refugees. He was a General Medical Council member for 10 years and an active and vocal member of BMA Council from 1986 to 1990.

Henry Yellowlees was a natural and instinctive diplomat with a strong sense of public service. He was always ready to listen to argument and adjust policy in the light of new evidence. For many years his work was the mainstay of his life, but in his retirement he learnt to drive a steam engine and enjoyed gardening, walking, and his grandchildren. A heart bypass operation in 1987 improved his health, though he was troubled by deafness in his last years.

He married Sally Comber in 1948; she died in 2001. He first met Mary Porter in 1984; they set up home together shortly afterwards and married in 2001. He leaves Mary, and the three children of his first marriage.

Sir Henry Yellowlees, chief medical officer for England 1973-83 (b 1919; q Middlesex Hospital, London, 1950), d 22 March 2006.