Elizabeth Greenhall obituary

Other lives: Doctor who specialised in public health initiatives, especially family planning

My friend Liz Greenhall, who has died aged 83, was a consultant in public health who was responsible for family planning services in Oxfordshire. Her work broke new ground in the provision of healthcare for young women and marginalised groups, and included the institution of “Bodyzone” clinics in schools, where pupils had direct access to advice on a range of health issues including providing contraception.

In 2000 the Faculty of Family Planning and Reproductive Healthcare (now known as the College of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare) recognised her work with the grant of the David Bromham memorial award.

Born in Birmingham, Liz was the daughter of Johanna, known as Hansi (nee Elner), an educational psychologist, and Helmut Reiner, who worked for Harris Brushes. Her parents met in Vienna, but came to England in 1939 to escape persecution; both were socialists, and Hansi was Jewish.

Liz went to King Edward VI high school for girls in Birmingham, where she was head girl, and met her eventual husband, Richard Greenhall, who was then head boy of the corresponding boys’ school. Liz studied medicine at Oxford University, where we met as fellow students, and then at Westminster Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1968.

In 1969 Liz and Richard married. After they had both worked in junior doctor posts in London and Bristol they settled in Oxford, where Richard became a consultant neurologist. In 1978, after starting a family, Liz became a registrar in public health with the Oxfordshire Health Authority before moving into general practice and then family planning. She and Richard restored an old cottage in the Welsh Marches where the family spent their holidays, and where they welcomed many of their friends.

After retiring in 2006, conscious of her mother’s early experience, Liz volunteered for local refugee charities. She also played the flute in a small musical group. In 2020, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, she joined volunteers in the Oxford University Results Liaison Team to provide advice to students and colleges on contact tracing and self-isolating. It was no surprise, in light of her background in family planning, that she recommended the inclusion of condoms in the support packages given to students during lockdown. In whatever she did, she was always calm, thoughtful, clear-eyed and, above all, warm and wise.

Richard died in 2021. Liz is survived by their children, Owen, George and Ruth, and six grandchildren.