Doctor's bag's starring role on TV

Dr Adrian Hayter tells how his GP father’s ‘doctor's bag’ was brought back to life on TV’s The Repair Shop

After noticing a BBC advert calling for items of interest for a special episode of The Repair Shop to mark the anniversary of the NHS in July last year, I decided to apply, submitting the doctor's bag which my late father Dr Noel Hayter had used in his career as a GP.

I had used it for a little while myself, but as it wore out, I took it into local schools to use as a prop when talking about the work of a GP, before putting it into storage. When I got it out it had deteriorated further and needed resuscitating, so it was an ideal opportunity to get some professional help.

My father was born in Rangoon, Burma, earning his qualification from the Rangoon Medical School. He then set his sights on a career in neurology, which meant moving to the UK in order to undertake postgraduate study in Edinburgh. He eventually switched to general practice, training in Orpington, Kent before becoming a partner at a practice in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, establishing both his career and a role in serving the local community, and taking responsibility for his patients 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all year round.

The doctor's bag

As my dad was often on call during the weekend, his doctor's bag carried all the equipment he would need. It had many different compartments, and I remember him opening and carefully packing or repacking various pieces of equipment into each of them. He looked after it well and eventually the bag was passed down to me upon his retirement.

He had used it through most of his years as a GP and made some amateur repairs in order for it to survive after 20 years of use, reinforcing the sides and corners as it started to split, which allowed me to use it briefly in my own work as a GP. I had to stop using it when it became a little too tired, and I put it away in the loft, before retrieving it for our appointment with The Repair Shop.

Visiting the Repair Shop

After a series of casting interviews with my daughter Lydia who is a dental student at Birmingham, we were selected for the programme. We made a trip to the Weald and Downland Living Museum where the barn on the Repair Shop is located and did the first day's filming. The TV crew were charming (entertaining my 84-year-old mother off camera) and Suzie Fletcher, the leather craftworker, took the bag to undertake the repair.

After a few weeks we returned to record the final ‘reveal’ shot before taking the bag home. It was lovely to see it back to its former glory. Suzie had truly done a great job with expertise.

A few months after the recording, I was able to resume using the newly restored bag as a prop, beginning with a talk about careers in the NHS, particularly in general practice, when visiting a school in Maidstone as part of the NHS Schools programme.

My dad was proud to have worked in the NHS and that many of his family and both his children continued with careers in the service. The positive promotion of both the NHS and general practice – as shown in the programme - is just what is needed to counteract the negative narrative which pervades many of our current media headlines.