My father, Peter Higgins, who has died aged 93, was a urologist in Stoke-on-Trent. A humane and considerate surgeon, he was committed to improving the experience of patients in the NHS, especially through his pioneering work in clinical audit. He also made advances in treating conditions including acute urinary retention. He had a voracious appetite for history, was a collector of ceramics, and nursed a lifelong, mildly disappointed love for Sheffield United.
He grew up in Sheffield, the son of Eileen (nee Morris) and Henry, the manager of a small branch of Boots, and shared his small bedroom with his grandfather, an Irish steelworker. The first in his family to attend university, he studied medicine at Balliol College, Oxford, working a variety of jobs – ice-cream salesman, Butlin’s entertainment officer – in the vacations. In Oxford, he met Pamela Deane, a student nurse; they married in 1955.
