Dr. Patel saw Alf Roberts when he was recovering from a skull fracture in May 1979. Alf sustained the injury two months earlier, when a lorry overturned and its timber load crashed through the Rovers outer wall while Alf was drinking at the establishment. By the time Alf saw Dr. Patel, he was nearly ready to return to work but Renee had made him see a doctor as she was rattled by his recent uncharacteristic outbursts at people, Annie Walker among them. Dr. Patel was friend and polite, addressing Alf as Councillor and first commenting on the weather before starting on him. Her findings were that his blood pressure was normal but that he was a bit overweight. Patel referred him to Dr. Gillespie, which Alf thought nothing of at first but he was later shocked to find out that Gillespie was a psychiatrist.