Abstract
This is a series on the working lives of medical professionals. Please e-mail any suggestions or comments to
1. Please outline your typical working day
The typical working day starts with two ‘golden hours’ at my desk – 6am to 8am. I realized at medical school that I could not work late into the evening, and it is liberating to start the first meeting of the day with a clear desk. Indeed I am ill at ease and don't concentrate well if I miss this chance to catch up. Meetings of some sort or another occupy most College days – sometimes there is one at the Department of Health in Richmond House, Whitehall, and I have got the journey down to 18 minutes, door to door, on the Bakerloo line. Other times, perhaps too often, there will be a dinner of some sort in the evening, but I don't ‘do’ serious networking after 7pm! On Fridays I have a clinical day, culminating in the Friday afternoon Liver Clinic. When I started this clinic in December 1980 I intended to move it to another part of the week but it never quite worked out. I see lots of lovely Liverpudlians that I have been looking after for years.
2. One aspect of work you most look forward to each day
The aspect of my work that I look forward to and is the most rewarding is working with all the College staff. We are blessed with a group of young and enthusiastic people at the RCP who lead me tactfully but firmly in the right direction. Ian Gilmore
3. One aspect of work you least look forward to each day
I have to be honest that the ‘early shift’ on the in-tray beats pushes everything else in the day out of bottom place. It is hard to remember life before e-mail, but I think most people have found that it has just increased the volume of mail needing attention but added an urgency that did not seem to exist when matters were in the hands of Royal Mail.
4. A person who has inspired you most at work (past or present)
This depends on the phase of my life and what I have been doing. Ron Bradley, who ran the ITU as St Thomas' when I was an SHO, taught me so much about patient care. As a Registrar and Research Fellow, Richard Thompson at St Thomas' (now Sir Richard, College Treasurer) and Alan Hofmann at the University of California San Diego top the list. More recently I have been privileged to work with Michael Marmot, Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at UCL. Firstly this was on an Academy of Medical Sciences Working Party entitled ‘Calling Time – the Nation's drinking as a major health issue’. More recently I have joined him as one of the commissioners examining the social determinants of health in a crucial study commissioned by the Prime Minister last year.
5. The most significant achievement of your career
Obviously becoming President of the Royal College of Physicians has been a highly significant event, but something that has given me much pleasure was being elected honorary President of the Liverpool Medical Students Society. I came to Liverpool as an outsider, having trained at Cambridge and St Thomas' Hospital, and it meant a lot to me to be accepted by the students at the most exciting and diverse Medical School in the country.
6. List your reasons for choosing this career
There never seemed to be any real alternative to Medicine as long as I can remember. I did flirt with changing to Natural Sciences when I was 16, but that lasted only one school term. From the earliest days at Medical School I aspired to be a physician, and for inexplicable reasons I found the metabolism of bilirubin fascinating!
7. Alternative career (in another lifetime)
I have always admired the dissection of complex facts and arguments, and I could easily have been tempted to try to become a barrister.
8. Non-medical book(s) you are currently reading
There are usually several biographies gathering dust on my bedside table, as it often seems to be two pages forward and one back at night. Currently I am enjoying Lord Owen's account of illnesses of world leaders, In Sickness and In Power, and William Hague's account of Pitt the younger.
9. Song(s)/piece(s) of music you are currently listening to
I really enjoyed listening to my wife singing ‘The Creation’ by Haydn recently. I sang it (very badly among the second basses) some years ago and had forgotten how operatic it is in places. I always have Mozart's ‘Cosi fan tutti’ handy on an Ipod in case I need calming down.
10. How do you wind down at the end of the working day?
I am fortunate to be a sound sleeper, and so whatever I do to wind down, whether it is a book, Newsnight or Sudoku, lasts only a few minutes before sleep intervenes.