My friend David Enoch, who has died aged 99, made his greatest mark as a campaigner for humane mental health care and was a founding fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. In the 1960s he served as a medical adviser to Barbara Robb, the psychotherapist who exposed neglect and abuse in long-stay NHS psychiatric wards and, through her controversial book Sans Everything (1967), pushed for major reforms.
Although health ministers, including Kenneth Robinson and Enoch Powell, initially dismissed the allegations, the campaign eventually led to policy changes. As the consultant in charge at Shelton hospital in Shrewsbury, David introduced “care in the community”, turning the former asylum into a training ground for reforms.
