Gina Johnson MRCGP

Gina was an NHS GP from 1983 to 2017. In 1997, with her colleague Ian Hill-Smith, she began to create the first training courses in the UK for nurses in the management of minor illness. These courses eventually led to the development of the National Minor Illness Centre (NMIC), which offers an accredited diploma course and online resources. Over 1500 students have attended our face to face courses; more recently other types of health professional such as paramedics, physician associates and pharmacists have joined with the nurses.

In the beginning there were no suitable guidelines or published texts available, so The Minor Illness Manual was born. Now in its fifth edition, it has sold over 30,000 copies and remains the standard textbook on the subject. NMIC were commissioned by HEE to develop a course for health visitors, which led to the publication of the book "Minor Illness in the Under Fives". NMIC were also commissioned to develop a "Red Flags" course for community pharmacists, from which the "Little Book of Red Flags" was born. See the NMIC website www.minorillness.co.uk for information about our online and face to face courses.

Gina has previously worked as a Clinical Assistant in Paediatrics, is a medical acupuncturist and researcher, and has an MSc in Medical Anthropology. She still lives in her home town of Luton with her husband and a crazy young beagle called Henry.