Pam Zinkin obituary

My mother, Pamela Zinkin, who has died aged 94, was a consultant paediatrician credited with saving the lives of children all over the world. She was also a lifelong campaigner for the NHS.

In 1977, by then a single parent with two young sons, Pam moved to newly independent Mozambique to work as a senior paediatrician, then head of paediatrics, at Maputo central hospital. The country’s healthcare was in a precarious state, with 80% of its doctors having left after independence in 1975. Within five years, Pam and her team had reduced mortality among the 8,000 annual child admissions from 25% to 4%.