Dr Lucy Henshall

Dr Lucy Henshall has been a General Practitioner since 1991 and was a Partner for 20 years in a large Suffolk practice, blending her clinical work with 20 years of LMC Committee membership, a variety of related GP advocacy roles, whilst juggling the realities of a two-GP marriage and raising three children.

In 2014, major surgery, ill health, and other challenges brought her career to an abrupt stop. Recovery was difficult, and with no clear path back, she felt professionally isolated and increasingly invisible. Practical barriers —such as NHS GP IT access—remained problematic, and supportive clinical environments without pressure to deliver output were rare.

From 2017-2022 Lucy held a non-clinical part-time role as East of England Clinical Lead for GP Health Service/NHS Practitioner Health, which she credits as a very welcoming organisation able and willing to actively support its staff. 

Since 2016, Lucy has actively campaigned for a more compassionate system to support GPs returning to work. Drawing on her own experience, she developed a gentler, personalised model for GPs seeking to resume work after less than 2 years absence —one without rigid protocols, built collaboratively and paced to individual needs.

Her approach is rooted in empathy, aiming to create a safe and supportive space where returning GPs can rebuild confidence and reconnect with their professional identity.

She founded www.welcomebacktowork.co.uk in 2018 and now combines supporting individual GPs, with her ongoing thought leadership, activism and advocacy for this often ‘lost in plain sight’ cohort within the profession.

Now clinically retired, as well as her WB2W endeavours, she is using her free time to embrace adventure, and recently cycled across Cuba raising £5000 for a breast cancer research project. 

Her motto is Be Brave Be Bold Be You.