Mrs Hodgson

"Won’t somebody please think of the patients?" A free-ranging interview on health services with the founder of the Patients Association.

Medical advances of the 20th century didn’t always happen without backward steps. Part-time teacher Helen Hodgson was motivated by issues such as the thalidomide scandal and the ethics of organ donations to start an association to represent the rights and needs of patients, as individuals and as a group. The Patients Association continues today as an independent charity, "Listening to patients, speaking up for change"

Medical training, transplants and the right to death all feature in this free ranging interview conducted by Canadian actor and broadcaster Bernard Braden for his unrealised current affairs series, Then and Now. Helen Hodgson’s meticulous yet succinct answers to Braden’s question are revealing of her drive and determination, and likely effectiveness as a negotiator. It certainly seems to have the camera operator quaking in their boots as the image is far from steady in the latter stages of the interview.