Peter Kershaw

Born: February 23, 1935;

Died: July 26, 2024

Dr Peter W Kershaw, who has died aged 89, was a pioneer of NHS treatment services for alcohol dependence in the West of Scotland. Addiction was always his particular area of interest and he published on topics such as spontaneous recovery from alcohol dependence and the prevalence of alcohol dependence in “industrial Clydeside”.

From 1968 until 1991, he was a consultant psychiatrist, first at Ravenscraig Hospital in Greenock and then, from 1971, at Gartnavel Royal Hospital in Glasgow. He established an alcohol service within the psychiatric campus at Gartnavel in the 1970s which now carries his name. He was a senior lecturer in the department of psychological medicine at Glasgow University and after retiring from the NHS, was a consultant psychiatrist at the Priory Hospital in Glasgow.

When he qualified MD in 1973 with a thesis entitled, The complications of alcoholism: an epidemiological, statistical and nutritional study on alcoholics admitted to a general hospital psychiatric unit, the data was gathered in Greenock and Glasgow. He published a series of papers from his MD.

At that point, the post-World War Two alcohol epidemic in Scotland was becoming evident and one of the manifestations was that of increasing presentations to psychiatry of patients in suicidal crisis where the underlying cause was alcoholism or alcohol dependence. This needed a response from within psychiatry and alcohol and drug units were being set up around the UK as a result.

The addiction service which he and others developed at Gartnavel in 1978 was in some ways ahead of its time because of the multidisciplinary approach to assessment and management which Peter facilitated and encouraged. Alongside this, he also worked to develop close and supportive links with community groups and the local branches of Alcoholics Anonymous with the result that he and his service were greatly valued and appreciated in the surrounding area. The main component of the Alcohol Problems Treatment Unit that he developed with others was a day service - at various points seven days a week - which sadly was to close during the Covid pandemic leaving only an inpatient unit backed up by community services.

However, during its 42-year run, the day service was arguably the best in the UK helping tens of thousands of patients from areas where severe alcohol dependence had become endemic in the wake of the deindustrialization of Clydeside. As evidence for this, in a multi-centre study in the UK looking at the new drug for alcohol dependence, acamprosate, the Gartnavel unit was seen to have the best outcomes due to the prolonged support that was on offer.

Nicola Sturgeon as health minister visited the Kershaw Unit when it moved off the hill at Gartnavel for a relaunch ceremony in 2008 and had such an enjoyable day that she expressed a wish for a similar facility in South Glasgow. She remembered the unit and when the policy of minimum unit pricing was being launched she came back to the unit to hold the press conference.

Peter was a joy to work for and injected humour and positivity into his work. The work of the day unit was policed day to day with the breathalyser and patients breathalysing positive would be asked to return the next day. A similar unit in Paisley was said to be more tolerant of patients remaining for a while to sober up and Peter quipped to his opposite number there “Denis, I think you are running a pub.”

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Early on at the unit, Peter experimented with aversion therapy using the drug antabuse or disulfiram, getting the patient to drink on top of it to induce vomiting and hopefully an aversion to alcohol. This was abandoned when the patient failed to feel unwell and as a result it was Peter Kershaw who felt nauseous whenever he saw the particular brand of whisky utilised in this treatment.

In a memorable and fitting ceremony in December 2005, just before Christmas, his former unit was renamed after him. The Kershaw Unit continues today as a 15 bedded inpatient unit serving Paisley, Greenock, East Renfrewshire, South Glasgow and East Renfrewshire. It also takes patients who are homeless in Glasgow. The previous catchments of Clydebank, Vale of Leven, West Glasgow and Bearsden and Milngavie /East Dunbartonshire are now served by the sister unit, Eriskay House at Stobhill Hospital, along with the North and North East of Glasgow. Again, the provision is now solely an inpatient unit.

Peter was born in Bradford to his father Theo, a carpenter, his mum Ada and he had one sister, Anne. He attended school in Bradford, proceeding to medical school at Edinburgh where he was a keen athlete. This interest remained with him throughout his working life; he enjoyed orienteering and also completed a number of marathons, including the London Marathon twice. With friends he had many days on the Scottish hills and climbed over 200 Munros.

In 1964 he married Irene who he met in Edinburgh and they had two children, Mark and Kathryn. Mark died tragically young in 1992, an event from which Peter never fully recovered and Irene pre-deceased him in 2000.

He was involved with work of the Royal College of Psychiatrists both at a UK and Scottish level. Forensic psychiatry was another of his areas of interest and he prepared many psychiatric reports for courts in the West of Scotland. He was also for a time a member of the management committee of the State Hospital, Carstairs.

(Image: Gartnavel)

Away from medicine and particularly in his later working years after his athletic activities had reduced, he became an enthusiastic and skilled amateur artist, specialising in landscapes. He regularly attended classes in Dundee led by renowned artist James McIntosh Patrick, and for a time , with a group of artists, he had a studio in central Glasgow. Peter was very generous with his paintings and many of his friends have examples of his work on display in their homes. He was also an accomplished chef.

Opera and classical music were other interests for him over many years. Until his health began to decline he was an enthusiastic traveller, particularly to warmer climes. In his final years he was supported attentively and lovingly by his daughter Kathryn.

Peter’s main legacy will be as a pioneer of alcohol treatment services within the NHS in Scotland. There is considerable concern at this time that such services have diminished but given the recent alcohol death figures in Scotland we undoubtedly still need innovative and effective alcohol services and champions like Peter Kershaw.

By Dr Iain D Smith, Kathryn Kershaw, and Dr John Baird

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