Mira Harrison’s One In Three had its official release at Dunedin Hospital’s Barnett Lecture Theatre on Friday.
She said the idea for the novel had been percolating for about 35 years when she began her career as a junior doctor in Southampton in the late 1980s.
"During my first weekend on call, which was particularly horrific, I thought that one day I really want to write about this.
"So essentially, the book was going round in my head for 30 years."
Dr Harrison said her first work of fiction, Admissions — a series of short stories revolving around a hospital — gave her the confidence to write something longer.
"I never really think about a particular individual reader when I'm writing.
"I really just try to focus on telling a good story that would appeal to anybody, no matter what their background. So I didn't particularly write this book for a medical audience, for example."
One In Three is set in Southampton in the late 1980s and focuses on the tribulations of a young doctor and his attempts to cope with his work.
"I wanted to try to show how he first of all doesn't cope with the stresses, but as the novel progresses... he meets a woman who's a trainee surgeon from New Zealand and he forms a relationship with her.
"He becomes better at coping, and then in the third part of the book, things unravel a bit for him."
Dr Harrison’s medical career has been split between the United Kingdom and New Zealand, but she sees parallels between them.
"I was just preparing some slides for the launch and I've got a picture of the hospital in Southampton in 1989, and I've also got a picture of Dunedin Public Hospital in 2024.
"It's remarkable actually how similar the hospitals look. Apart from the external appearance of the hospitals, I think the sad thing is how dilapidated they both are and underfunded, and it's not the best environment that we would want for patients."
She said the recent controversy over the fate of the new Dunedin hospital project, which included the march of 30,000 people along George St, showed how much people cared about health issues.
"We all, at some point in our life, are going to be a patient.
"Most of us are born in a hospital, in a public hospital. Many of us will die in a public hospital.
"In the years in between, we have many interactions. Health is very important to us. We have times when we are in hospital ourselves."
Although the book was not one of "political protest", she wanted people to consider the importance of those who worked within the health system.
"I think the people that still work in public health services are very committed, are very hardworking and compassionate and we do our best to support patients at very difficult times in their lives. I think that despite a lack of money, despite a lack of funding, there is still a will to do the best we can."
Dr Harrison said she had been pleased with the early response to the novel, but was planning something "completely different" for her next work.
"I might even write some science fiction."
