Lady Shore, who has died aged 94, was a medical academic and expert on manpower in the NHS, and the widow of the Eurosceptic Labour Cabinet minister Peter Shore, who was created a life peer in 1997.

Dr Elizabeth Shore (she seldom used her title) spent most of her career in the Civil Service, and from 1977 to 1985 was deputy chief medical officer at the DHSS. For the next decade, she was Dean of Postgraduate Medical Education for the NHS’s North West Thames and North Thames regions.

Down to earth and with an infectious sense of humour, Liz Shore was totally supportive of her husband, whom she married in 1948. She once confided: “I always knew he was brilliant,” and when a journalist called at an awkward moment, she told him: “I am watching my husband on television, which is far more important than talking to you.”

When Peter Shore first became a minister in 1967, she said his increased salary would mean a new carpet for their Putney home. As he became a potential Labour leader, she became uncomfortable with the limelight, showing no desire to be a prime minister’s wife.

Her dilemma – reinforced by her being a senior civil servant – came to a head when James Callaghan retired as leader in November 1980, and her husband threw his hat in the ring.

Elizabeth Shore made a brief appearance at that autumn’s party conference but kept well clear of the platform. When the contest began, she could not stop photos of herself appearing in the press, but did her best to avoid fresh ones being taken.

By contrast, the author Edna Healey, wife of the favourite, Denis, had no problem with publicity, nor did John Silkin’s wife, the film star Rosamund John.

In the event, Peter Shore (together with Silkin) was eliminated on the first ballot, having secured the votes of 38 MPs, to his wife’s almost audible relief. Then Michael Foot, to general surprise, pipped Healey to the leadership.

She was born Elizabeth Catherine Wrong on August 19 1927, daughter of the historian Edward Murray Wrong and the former Rosalind Smith.

From Cheltenham Ladies’ College she won a scholarship to Newnham College, Cambridge, where she read Natural Sciences, then trained at Barts. She went on to take specialist qualifications, including surgery and gynaecology.

She started her career in hospitals and general practice, then in 1954 took a public health post with Hertfordshire County Council, and subsequently with the London County Council.

Moving to Whitehall as a senior medical officer in 1962, Elizabeth Shore was faced with the problem that while one in four medical graduates was a woman, there was a substantial fall-off in the number becoming consultants.

In 1969, with hospitals being asked to “seek out” women doctors for suitable posts, she wrote in Health Trends: “Among married women doctors with children under five, 63 per cent still manage to do some medical work, but only one in six manages full-time employment.

“Once her youngest child has reached compulsory school age, the married woman doctor is as likely to practise as the unmarried, but although four out of five are working, more than half are in part-time posts”.

She said there was a need for more part-time senior posts, but also suggested that female doctors look at specialities that did not demand full-time responsibility, like anaesthetics and radiology.

In 1977, Dr Shore was promoted to deputy chief medical officer, specialising in NHS reorganisation, community health policy, health services for children, for the mentally ill and the handicapped.

That September, the Shores’ 20-year-old middle son Piers was found dead from drug addiction at a squat near their home. Weeks before, Elizabeth and Peter Shore had supported him in court when he admitted driving under the influence of drugs.

She moved into medical education in 1985, and her final appointment was from 1993 to 1997 as an honorary senior lecturer at the Charing Cross & Westminster Medical School.

She was a member of the General Medical Council from 1989 to 1994, chairing first its career progress committee, then in 1996 its Working Party on the Exodus of Doctors.

Launching a report that April that stressed the need for all NHS professionals to realise that discrimination and harassment were disciplinary offences, she said: “Sadly many health service workers regard sexual and racial harassment – particularly from patients – as something of an occupational hazard. But it is one which must be resolved.”

From 1990 to 1992 she was president of the Medical Women’s Federation. She chaired its careers committee, and from 1992 to 1998 edited the journal Medical Woman. She also chaired the Child Accident Prevention Trust, and was a council member of the Policy Studies Institute.

Elizabeth Shore spent an active retirement at St Ives in Cornwall, having long listed her hobby in Who’s Who as “swimming in rough seas”. From 2005 to 2007 she chaired the management committee of the town’s Archive Centre, and from 2004-07 she was chairman of the St Ives University of the Third Age, which caters for people no longer in full-time employment.

She was appointed CB in 1980.

Lady Shore is survived by her two remaining sons and a daughter.

Elizabeth Shore, born August 19 1927, died February 20 2022