Profile

My husband and I are both doctors-we met at medical school. I don’t think any of our daughters are interested in studying medicine but I like to think we haven’t put them off-they just prefer other (non-science) things. Hopefully I might inspire some other children instead hence why I’m on this chat.

I love cooking and entertaining my friends-making all types of curries is my favourite and I have quite a few recipe books-in fact probably too many.

I was never that sporty at school but now I run, ski, do yoga and last summer started playing tennis. I’ve run a few half marathons but normally it’s just a Park Run (the 5km run on a Saturday morning).

I love reading too and usually have a few books on the go at once.

Our dog is called Delilah-she’s a black labrador and she is very adored.

Mimi is our cat-she was a stray and moved in with us a few years ago-she likes sleeping on all the beds and leaving her fur everywhere. But we love her!

I work in a large University health  centre-it’s like a normal GP practice but it’s quite big-lots of patients-and mainly students and staff that study or work at the University of Nottingham. That means most of our patients are quite young.

When people are ill or want to know about some aspect of their health then the GP surgery is normally the first place they would go. There they could expect to see a doctor or a nurse who can help them with their problem. At our health centre we also have other specialised staff eg occupational therapists, pharmacists, physiotherapists and health care assistants. Some of these people are taking part in this outreach if you want to find out more about other roles.

As a female GP I would normally see quite a lot of patients with female type problems (eg period problems or pregnancy related issues) but I have also done extra training in skin diseases (dermatology) and so I see a lot of patients with rashes too. GPs also look after a lot of patients with mental health problems eg anxiety or low mood. And then there’s everything else too-headaches (or ache anywhere), asthma, diabetes, sports injuries-literally hundreds of different things so every day is different.

GP surgeries are not just about ill people -we also try and help people stay well-so we also offer immunisations (injections against disease-like covid), tests to detect early cancer (we call this screening) and healthy patient checks too.

Its a really busy practice and we really rely on our practice manager, secretaries, receptionists and lots of other vital people too to help it all to run smoothly. We receive hundreds of phone calls and emails a day and it is this team of people who make sure patients see the right person for their problems, type letters and make sure all the staff are paid!

I get to work about 08:30 and have 30 minutes before I call any first patient. I use this time to check any blood or X Ray results that have come in over night. I will also sign any prescriptions that are waiting (prescriptions are like messages to a pharmacist stating what medicine I want the patient to have). If there’s time I’ll also have a quick look at my list for the morning-there are 14 patients to see (or telephone depending on what they have asked for ). At the end of that it’s about 12:30 if I’ve run on time (rare!) and there might be extra patients to see too -those who have phoned up during the morning and need to see or speak to a GP that day. After all the patients are seen there are then letters that I might need to write to specialists (called referrals), or tests to arrange for patients eg they might need a scan of their knee if they have had an injury, blood tests or Xrays. There may also be reports to write eg patients need their GP to write a report if they want to study abroad for a year, own a shotgun or apply for life insurance.

This might take most of lunchtime too. But usually there is at least 20-30 minutes to grab lunch with my colleagues in the staff room and if I’m very efficient I might even have time for  quick run around the lovely university campus. We usually have a lunchtime meeting with lots of the other staff once a week where we discuss all sorts of things-eg new guidance, updates from the rest if the clinical or admin team, patients with complex needs or children who we are worried about from a  safeguarding point of view (children who maybe at risk of harm).

Occasionally at lunchtime GPs need to visit a patient in their own home because they are too ill or frail to come to the practice. (A GP practice is sometimes also called a GP surgery -but we don’t operate on people other than fairly straightforward things like injecting joints or removing small skin lumps.)

The afternoon is pretty much the same as the morning-another 14 patients-paperwork and referrals afterwards-then normally finish about 6-sometimes nearer 7-then home.