Family planning doctor who was also medical adviser and a writer for the UK's first hospital soap opera
Emergency Ward 10 was the Casualty or ER of its day. It was a huge hit, drawing in 16 million viewers a week and 24 million at its peak. Produced by Associated Television, Emergency Ward 10, which was broadcast live in black and white, ran from 1957 to 1967, spawning a spin-off feature length film, a board game, and children's annuals. Phyllis was medical adviser and a writer for the series from 1960 to 1963. At Elstree studios, she worked closely with television writers and actors, much improving the accuracy of medicine and medical storylines. Emergency Ward 10 was a series of much integrity and public health value, and, effectively, the origin of all medical “soaps.” Phyllis maintained this contact with television throughout her life; she was medical expert for the BBC Nationwide series Slim 72, where she introduced group therapy for overweight adolescents.
Phyllis had been one of the small selected quota of women medical students admitted to University College London in 1952. After qualifying in 1957, she embarked on a career that was a densely interwoven mix of clinical practice, local community involvement, and family commitments. As well as her television work, her medical activities included junior resident anaesthetist at University College Hospital, pharmacology research at University College London, and general practice. In 1963-4 she was a ship's surgeon, further extending her experience and speed of thinking on her feet.
She finally settled into community based clinical practice, joining the child health department of the Croydon community services in 1964 and the family planning department in 1978, becoming its head in the late 1980s. When the community unit became a first wave NHS trust in 1991, Phyllis was its first medical director. She officially retired in 1995 and moved to the south coast, where she continued working in family planning clinics. 
While at Croydon, she made a major contribution to the development of reproductive health, creating innovative outreach services dealing with fertility issues relating to conception and unplanned pregnancy, and the difficult personal problems associated with HIV and AIDS. She chaired the Croydon branch of the BMA and was membership secretary of the London Society of Family Planning Doctors.
Her teaching was widely appreciated, and she led by example, showing a caring and sensitive approach, and willingness to commit out-of-hours time in response to the needs of distressed patients. She shared her knowledge and experience with patients and staff through health education publications, writing the book Subfertility: A Caring Guide for Couples in 1997 and producing leaflets helping young people with weight problems. Her sparky sense of humour led to publication of a compilation of medical quotations, Only When It Hurts, in 1974-5.
Phyllis had a great sense of fun and a longstanding interest in amateur theatre. She learnt makeup skills, wrote review sketches, and helped direct student shows while an undergraduate. She enthusiastically maintained this interest within her local community, writing, acting in, and directing amateur dramatic productions. She enjoyed spicing the action by incorporating her medical knowledge into the plots, particularly in her play about John Snow and the halt of cholera. Although her health had never been good, Phyllis never let it interfere with her full life. She died from a coronary thrombosis closing the final curtain at a production she was stage managing.
She leaves a husband, Jack; two sons; and two grandchildren.
Phyllis Mortimer, née Spreadbury, former senior clinical medical officer in reproductive health care Croydon (b 1933; q University College Hospital, London, 1957), died from a coronary thrombosis on 20 May 2002.