Krishna Korlipara: founder of the National Association of GP Cooperatives and longest serving elected member of the GMC

Krishna Korlipara was born in Denduluru, a rural agricultural village in Andhra Pradesh state, south India. Korlipara grew up in a large family. His father was Laxminarayana Korlipara, his mother was Krishnaveni, née Kodali, and he had three sisters and one brother. He studied medicine at Kasturba Medical College, Karnatak University of Mangalore.

In 1964, Korlipara travelled to London from India for the first time and boldly walked into the office of the medical director at Guy’s Hospital and asked him for a job. It worked, and he was offered a job at the Royal Free Hospital under Sheila Sherlock. After feeling homesick for his wife and family, however, he sailed back to India after a month and stayed for six months before moving back to England and securing a job as a senior house officer in Bristol. He later worked in Huddersfield, Sheffield, and Nottinghamshire, before being appointed registrar in general medicine at Bolton General Hospital in 1969. He had accepted a job at the Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, but was persuaded at the last minute to stay in the UK by his mentor, consultant physician Guy Coleson. In 1973 he decided to switch to general practice and became a partner in a practice in Horwich, Lancashire, where he remained serving his community for 40 years. The practice moved into Pike View Medical Centre, the first purpose built medical centre built in …