DOING two shows a day over 23 days at Edinburgh is probably a little like working for the NHS.

If anyone would know, it would be Dr Phil Hammond, BBC broadcaster, Private Eye journalist, activist, and still an NHS doctor.

"I've been working for the NHS for 30 years," he says, "doing comedy for 27 years, as well as working for Private Eye and the BBC for 25 years."

That's a pretty impressive CV for any person to have.

Add on activist and crusader and it's no wonder he hasn't lost his mind a bit, and I use that sentence very carefully since there is a long line of mental illness in his family.

His new tour rolls those previous Edinburgh shows into one, covering a subject which is very close to his family and another that is close to his own heart.

In the first half, Phil looks back on his 54 years and considers how he has apparently managed to remain sane in a family with a strong history of depression and suicide. Phil considers deaths in his doctoring and his family - some too soon, others too drawn out - and ponders the case for both resisting and assisting suicide.

Phil adds: "There’s a lot of material about self-help in the new show, and a very personal account of mental illness and death in my family. Most of us spend our lives trying to balance pleasure and harm, and ignore the toxic rucksack of disappointment, harm and grief we carry around every day. Everyone needs to know how to be kind to their mind."

In the second half, Phil sets about saving the NHS, which according to the good doctor is being ideologically and incompetently destroyed.

He says: "Approaching the 70th anniversary of the NHS has made me reflect on what’s happening to our health service (and what politicians have done to it) and I’m always trying to discover where all the money’s gone.

"£120 billion a year and the NHS is still no safer than bungee jumping. We need to join up the NHS rather than fragment it by putting every service out to tender.

"Patient empowerment is the crucial bit of the jigsaw missing from NHS reform, and being heard is even harder if your illness isn’t sexy to the media. I’m a vice president of the Patients Association and a patron of the Herpes Viruses Association, and I try to raise the profile of those forgotten illnesses that don’t get a look in on the front of the Daily Mail."

Born and raised in Australia, Phil's mum moved their family to England after his Australian father filled himself.

"She picked up the pieces after my Dad's suicide in 1969," he reveals, "crossed the globe and rebuilt our family with extraordinary resilience, wisdom and compassion."

He qualified as a doctor in 1987, from Girton College, Cambridge, and St Thomas' Hospital Medical School, London, around about the same time he met fellow junior doctor Tony Gardner. Together they became Struck Off And Die for a Christmas show at their hospital, which was so good they took it to the Edinburgh Fringe.

"Going to the Edinburgh Fringe in 1990 with Tony was easily my best career move," he says. "The most fun I've ever had with a rancid rice pudding and the door-opener for everything I've done since. After six years, Tony gave up medicine to be a comedy actor, and now has a BAFTA for Last Tango in Halifax. Not that I’m at all jealous."

Phil hasn't done too bad himself as a regular both on the stage and on our television screens as a panellist for such diverse shows as Have I Got News For You and Question Time.

Even in his early days as a junior doctor, Phil liked mixing comedy with politics.

"I stood for the Struck Off and Die Junior Doctors Alliance (SODJDA) in 1992," he explains, "against health secretary William Waldegrave, to blow the whistle on our dangerous working conditions. We got loads of publicity, but only 87 votes.

"I protested outside the Department of Health last year with junior doctors," he adds, "and was very proud to support their brave stance for patient safety.

"In truth, I hate adversarial party politics. There should be no left and right, just right and wrong. Get the best people in post and let them grow up and work together. Politics needs a more scientific approach where we pilot new ideas before implementing them across the board, and we’re not frightened to admit something didn’t work and try another tack. The over-promising and unrealistic expectations fostered by politicians makes them all ultimately fail. Big ideas are generally rubbish. Incremental change based on the best available evidence in a realistic time frame sound very dull, but it’s more likely to get results."

But perhaps his greatest success was as a Private Eye journalist when he broke the story of the Bristol heart scandal in 1992, gave evidence to the public inquiry and was shortlisted for the Martha Gelhorn prize for investigative journalism for his Private Eye special report on the shocking treatment of NHS whistleblowers.

He says: "My biggest inspiration is Steve Bolsin, the whistleblowing anaesthetist who raised concerns about heart surgery in Bristol. He taught me to never lose sight of the patient and to speak the truth to power, no matter the personal consequences. Steve spoke up about the number of babies who were dying and sacrificed his NHS career in doing so. It was a huge loss to the NHS – we need to celebrate those who stand up to poor care."

Dr Phil Hammond: Dr Phil's Health Revolution

Colchester Arts Centre,

Church Street, Colchester.

Thursday, April 13. Doors 7.30pm, show 8pm.

£15, £12 for concessions and employees of the NHS. 01206 500900.

www.colchesterartscentre.com