After graduating Thomas
Acheson Harden Carter (“Harden”) gained his membership of the Royal
College of Physicians, worked in paediatrics in New Zealand, returned to
Scotland to train in general practice (gaining membership of the Royal
College of GPs), and then began training in public health. He won the
prestigious Littlejohn Gairdner prize before starting his first
consultant appointment.
Harden Carter was a highly esteemed consultant in public health and
worked in three adjacent Scottish health boards: Fife, Forth Valley, and
Lothian. He drew on his qualifications and experience in general
medicine and general practice in a highly productive public health
career. His research and publication record was remarkable among his
peers.
He worked closely and effectively with clinicians, patients, and
managers to develop innovative services well ahead of their time. An
early example was the development in 1988 of an infant car seat loan
scheme throughout Fife. This was some eight years before they became
generally available and 19 years before they became compulsory. NHS Fife
bought several thousand seats and encouraged all mothers leaving the
maternity hospital to hire the seat for a year for the sum of £10. The
mothers took their babies home from the maternity ward in them. While
the scheme was running there was evidence that serious infant injury had
been prevented.
Harden was an early champion of measles immunisation and, subsequently,
the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR). He worked with clinicians
and parent groups to promote immunisation at a time when the general
public did not consider measles a potentially serious and fatal disease.
Harden drove Fife’s immunisation rates to the highest in Scotland.
Harden, throughout his career, moved through different remits and
responsibilities, bringing his innovation and drive to varied client and
patient groups. Working, as always, with clinicians, voluntary groups,
and managers, he instigated innovative services for excluded and
sometimes forgotten groups. He had a knack of achieving substantial
recurring funding for new services. In Fife these included parent held
records, Fife’s first consultant community paediatrician, a new area
rehabilitation service for physically disabled people, headed by a new
consultant in rehabilitation medicine. In Forth Valley these included a
newly funded community based area rehabilitation service for physically
disabled people, a specialist healthcare worker for homeless people,
dedicated primary care services for homeless people, new mental health
services for offenders, and mental health resource centres in Stirling
and Falkirk. In Lothian these included a direct access Dexa scanning
service, services for people with eating disorders, and a managed
clinical network for epilepsy for south east Scotland.
Harden chaired and contributed to Scottish working groups on areas such
as chronic pain, autism, eating disorders, and chronic fatigue syndrome.
His colleagues recall him as a sincere, conscientious, and highly
capable colleague. He was a high achiever while being kindly and
considerate.
Harden was as active and wide ranging in his personal life. Married for
47 years to fellow Queen’s University Medical graduate Romilly Carter
(née Nelson), he was always proud of his children, Alastair and Emma,
and, more recently, his grandson, Noah. Harden threw himself into many
hobbies and activities including hill walking, long distance cycling,
running (he ran the London and Edinburgh marathons in 2003 with his son,
Alastair), music (clarinet and piano), and golf. He was an active church
member and elder in Dunfermline and then Pitlochry.
After retiring to the beautiful town of Pitlochry in Perthshire, Harden
dedicated time and energy to developing his skills as a painter in oils
and other media. He developed well beyond that of a talented amateur and
exhibited locally and beyond. He successfully sold many of his paintings
with the proceeds going to the charity Linda’s Fund in Malawi and also
the local haematology unit. He had many happy times painting in his
studio in the garden.
Romilly plans to hold a memorial event for Harden when this becomes
possible.
Consultant in public health (b 1947; q Queen’s University, Belfast,
1973; FRCP, FFPHM, MRCGP), died 11 October 2020.