Dr Amanda Brown traded her relatively comfortable life in a village surgery for life in some of Britain’s most notorious prisons. As she told me her story, she rolled up her jeans to show me at least 20 small circular scars from cigarette burns inflicted by her abuser. Unable, or at least unwilling, to alter her practices (and as she saw it, to tick boxes) in line with government initiatives, and having been told of her colleagues’ resentment, she left the surgery and re-ignited her career with a move to the prison service. It can also be difficult to achieve continuity of care due to the transitory nature of life in custody, as many prisoners are released or transferred before they have attended a hospital appointment or a GP follow-up .

Some of the inmates we got to see and the interactions and issues were in fact very interesting and I felt a lot of empathy for them. The baby was found lying in a pool of blood on the cold, hard floor, the umbilical cord torn by the mother.But, as this book explains, that is an impossible goal for so many women who are repeatedly stuck behind bars. All the characters speak with the same voice and none of them sounds authentic to the characters or the stories as she presents them.

Based on narrow perspectives, I used to have the impression that surgery and other specialties were more electrifying than general practice, but now I have come to see that a GP is the first point of contact for patients, someone to confide in and pour their hearts out to, regardless of the size of their problems and worries.

I am filled with wonder at Dr Brown’s audacity and her strong will—the unwavering drive to help others that sustained her through the transition from a typical community GP to a violence-filled, adrenaline-pumping job. But this has also been an exciting challenge and through the years, I’ve witnessed a fascinating mix of humanity. By not asking about their crimes, or their thought process around the time they committed crimes, Brown can frame her patients in such a way that she can treat them with compassion. In general, physical health issues in prison are the same as in the community, however dealing with them can be very challenging – particularly if anyone needs to attend a hospital appointment for specialist advice or investigations. Horrifying, heartbreaking and eye-opening, these are the stories, the patients and the cases that have characterised a career spent being a doctor behind bars.