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News

Docs to star in docu drama

By: KentOnline reporter multimediadesk@thekmgroup.co.uk

Published: 16:15, 07 August 2008

Dr Milli Milroy with patient Gillie Taylor. Photography by Matthew Walker

A new brand of reality TV stars could soon hit our screens when doctors throw open their surgery doors for a behind the scenes documentary.

GPs from Bearsted Medical Practice will be filmed treating patients as part of six part series The Doctor Will See Through You Now.

It’s the brainchild of Dr Milli from the surgery who wanted to break down common misconceptions about doctors being intimidating.

She said: “We’ve had a bit of bad press recently and we wanted to make a programme to show what we do behind the scenes.

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“All kinds of interesting things happen in people’s lives, it’s our job to find what we call the hidden agenda.

“Someone might come in and tell us they are tired all the time and they think they’ve got a physical illness.

“Our job is to find out what’s going on behind the scenes and find out what they are actually worried about.”

She first hit on the idea last year, and when patient Terry Armstrong of Triple A Multimedia Group at Maidstone Studios came in to see her, the plan was born.

Filming will start in earnest in the next few months and the producers are currently in talks with the BBC and Channel 4 to get it on screen next year.

Dr Milli thinks she’s hit on an original idea: “I remember watching something about vets, but to be able to do a programme in general practice with real life patients who have consented to take part, I think this is unique” she said.

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She hopes one of the side effects of the programme will be to show doctors are less intimidating than people thought.

She said: “I’d like to show we are normal people, that we have lives, that we have hobbies.

“One of my doctors Andrew Mortimer has a penny farthing, he has lovely old Riley’s and he drives round and visits patients on them.”

One doctor at the practice is a cardiologist and another, Dr Chris Cranston, is a surgeon.

They also do training on site for doctors who want to be GPs.

Dr Milli said: “It’s a very varied job, one minute you are seeing someone who’s just been bereaved, and the next you are talking to someone who’s just had a baby.”

Many of the patients are already looking forward to being involved but Dr Milli stressed it is voluntary.

She said: “We’ll just ask people when they come for their consultation whether they are happy for the camera to be on, nobody has to do it at all.”

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