Book Review - ‘Yes, Health Minister’

“Women’s lives have certainly changed dramatically, with outcomes that could never have been foreseen.” says Dr Sonya Leff, a specialist in public and child health, in her book Yes, Health Minister which is about her forty years experience working in the NHS. Dr Leff moved, with her mixed-race family, to Lewes in the mid-1970s. She still lives here happily, even though it wasn’t an auspicious start when “KEEP SUSSEX WHITE” posters were stuck on their gate. I asked her if she felt Lewes has changed in the last 30 years: “Oh yes. It’s now a more vibrant place, and culturally it has taken off.” Dr Leff was raised in a family passionately committed to social change, and she took part in the first Aldermaston march against nuclear weapons whilst still at school. I asked a socialist and feminist friend if she knew of Dr Leff. “An amazing woman.” she said. In her book, Dr Leff explores the history of childbirth and mothering, and considers the enormous impact on society of the introduction of freely available contraception and abortion. She began her career at a time when there were few women in medicine, and describes a job interview where one of the panel of male doctors, without looking up, asked what position she played on the rugby field. Threaded through her descriptions of changes in the NHS, are fascinating insights into the resilience required to juggle being a ground-breaking woman doctor with the challenges of raising her own family. EC

Yes, Health Minister is published by Book Guild Publishing £15.99