Doctor's Dilemma

This short and simple public information trailer, shown in cinemas in the lead-up to the inauguration of the National Health Service, gives guidance on how to register with a GP.

The film would have been part of a larger cross-country media campaign involving newspapers, radio and posters. It’s hard now to imagine life before state-controlled medical care, but before the NHS was created surgeries were run as private enterprises, and consultations, treatment and prescriptions all had to be paid for upfront.

The family doctor has always been the first point of contact for people requiring primary care, and here the simple, bold visuals accompanying the narrator’s step-by-step instructions on signing up with a general practitioner (GP) put across an unambiguous message. As the final words, “Don’t Forget Choose Your Doctor Now”, loomed large over a cinema audience, they must have instilled a sense of urgency in any member of the public yet to complete his or her GP registration form.