Hillwalker, wine drinker, and former chief scientist at the Scottish Office, Graeme Catto has just been elected president of the General Medical Council. Caroline White spoke to his colleagues to discover what the council should expect
A former secretary of state for health, Frank Dobson, once likened the speed and ease of tackling waiting lists in the NHS to turning a giant tanker round in mid-ocean. Restoring faith in the General Medical Council, the body that regulates the UK medical profession, might prove just as daunting for its president elect, Professor Graeme Catto, when he takes up his post in February next year. But as one of his colleagues remarked: “You can bet that Graeme will produce the tightest turning circle.”
Highly organised and prodigiously energetic, he brings a tremendous amount of political savvy and clear focus to the job. And beneath the disarming charm and the softly spoken, rather unassuming demeanour, lies what one of his former students terms “a core of steel.”
Those who have worked with him have variously described him as “an ideas person,” a “change merchant,” “always five miles ahead of the game,” and “an extremely strong tide,” but also as a man with a lot of common sense and a firm grasp of reality. A friend and colleague comments: “He's not very interested in being visible, acquiring a big name for himself, or getting a knighthood; he's interested in solving problems, and he likes a challenge.”
The son of a family doctor, Graeme Catto was born in 1945 in Aberdeen, where he still lives with his wife, an eminent lawyer, when London business is finished for the week. A friend suggests that his highly committed approach to work has been informed by the Presbyterian background in which he grew up, with its imprint of strictness, order, and seriousness.
But dour he most certainly is not. He has a sharp and ready wit, is fond of telling humorous tales against himself, and is known as a highly entertaining after dinner speaker. Not one for revealing very much about himself, he will admit to being a keen hillwalker and wine drinker.
He embarked on his adult life by becoming school captain of the independent Robert Gordon's College in Aberdeen in 1963 and winning its annual Otaki Shield scholarship to New Zealand for outstanding leadership and athletic prowess in the same year. He now chairs the board of governors at the school, and since his appointment, he has increased the number of assisted places available to local children.
A board member says that he moves meetings along with demon efficiency, slicing rapidly through any woolly thinking and indecision. “He manages to give people the idea that they have actually had a lot of time for discussion, when usually they haven't.” He adds that while sentiment may not be high on the list of Professor Catto's priorities, he is a deeply caring man. He will always find time for people no matter how busy he is, and he makes particular efforts to visit those who are sick.
He won the first medical bursary to the University of Aberdeen, where he accumulated a string of prizes, culminating in the Murray Medal and Scholarship for most distinguished graduate of the year in 1969. He was awarded a Harkness Fellowship and spent 1975-7 at Harvard University. After a senior management course at the Management College, Henley, he became the Cabinet Office top management programme nominee in 1993.
As a specialist in renal medicine, he has published more than 200 research papers, and he teaches and examines undergraduate and postgraduate students. He is heavily involved in all aspects of curriculum development, both locally and nationally, and he is a member of the Institute of Learning and Teaching.
He has an impressive and lengthy list of assorted professional, policy, and advisory committees to his name, including some at the BMA and the Independent Tribunal Service. He is a veteran of the Scottish Executive, and over the past year he has been heavily involved with workforce and training issues at the Department of Health.
He was elected to council at the GMC in 1994. He is currently chairman of the education committee and has served, or continues to serve, on over 20 GMC committees, working parties, and steering groups, covering fitness to practise, professional performance, and revalidation. And in 1998 he became a founder member of the Academy of Medical Sciences, of which he is now treasurer.
Since October 2000 he has been dean of Guy's, King's, and St Thomas's Hospital and vice principal at King's College, London, the demands of which have left friends and colleagues unconvinced that he will be able to continue in this post as well as steer the GMC out of extremely troubled waters and through reform, while tackling the thorny issue of revalidation.
But Professor Catto enjoys a reputation for delivering the goods. He is an extremely effective and skilled delegator and persistently follows up what other people have to do, while powering through phenomenal amounts of work himself. He is also highly, and quietly, persuasive, says a colleague, and capable of taking people along with him, even against their better judgment.
Professor George Alberti, president of the Royal College of Physicians of London, recently paid tribute to him by suggesting that if he had been captain of the Titanic, he would have managed to persuade the passengers that they were stopping off to take on ice.
Professor Catto became chief scientist at the Scottish Office in 1997, but Scottish colleagues feel that he deserves the most credit for putting the University of Aberdeen firmly on the map— by becoming dean and then vice principal of the faculty of clinical medicine.
A colleague says: “He streamlined and restructured, brought in new management techniques, and emerged with less power as a dean than his predecessor. He had the courage to do what people knew needed to be done but wouldn't take on themselves. And he's not afraid of what people think of him. If he's committed to something, he'll go for it.”
Another said: “If you attack him, be ready. He'll come back at you very fast. You need to be a very fit and agile opponent.” Such a style may be just what the GMC needs. 