My father, Bill Cattell, who has died aged 92, was one of a generation of doctors whose pioneering work in the 1960s and 70s revolutionised the treatment of kidney disease. He set up the renal service at St Bartholomew’s hospital in London, and a dialysis unit at nearby St Leonard’s hospital in Shoreditch.
Bill was born and brought up on a farm outside Nairn in the north of Scotland, the youngest of three brothers, to William Cattell, a tenant farmer on the Moray estate, and his wife, Elizabeth (nee Fraser). He attended Inverness Royal academy and Edinburgh Medical School – as an ardent Scot he was always proud of his Edinburgh training. After graduating in 1951 he was posted to the Canal Zone of Egypt for national service. Working as a junior doctor in the Royal Military hospital at Fayid taught him a great deal about medicine and was to influence the rest of his professional career.
After junior posts at two Edinburgh hospitals – the Royal Infirmary and the City hospital – in 1956 Bill moved to London, where he worked at the Brompton and UCH and met his first wife, Ann (nee Beardwell). In 1959 he accepted a role as lecturer on the medical unit at Bart’s. He then took a Rockefeller travelling fellowship to MIT in Boston in 1963. At the end of his fellowship he turned down job offers in the US because as a socialist he did not believe in healthcare being dependent on the ability to pay.
In 1965 the Department of Health decided to fund a number of regional dialysis centres across the UK and Bill was asked to set up the Bart’s and St Leonards unit in 1966. While acute dialysis had been carried out for some time, this was one of the first units of its kind for regular dialysis. From the start Bill was keen that the doctors, specialist nurses and technicians worked as a team without the traditional hospital hierarchies. He continued to teach and research throughout his hospital career. Many of his former students, now professors and senior consultants, remember his sharp intellect and dry humour.
As a researcher he also wrote more than 100 papers and books, with a particular focus on the treatment of urinary tract infection and renal radiology. He retired from Bart’s in 1991, but remained active, splitting his time between London and Gissing in Norfolk. He edited articles, chaired committees and greatly enjoyed the role of honorary librarian at the Royal Society of Medicine, having spent so much time there as a young academic. He also loved to relax in Norfolk, building bonfires and regaling grandchildren with stories.
He is survived by his wife, Pat (nee Gordon), whom he married in 1977, five children – Kate and Alex from his second marriage and Sarah, Caroline and me from his first – and 10 grandchildren.
