An anecdote of an interaction with a patient that has stayed with me for 15 years.

When I was a fresh-faced 2nd year doctor in a GP practice, a young lady came for an appointment.

She couldn’t have been more than 5 years older than me.

The reason was ‘work stress’

A long 🧵 A young, educated professional, she worked in an industry where she had to entertain clients regularly

This involved being out late every other day, and involved lots of alcohol.

She explained she wasn’t getting good sleep, and was drinking too much, she was tired all the time

As a consultant oncologist this is hugely worrying.

A 🧵.

Somehow the UK is elevating PAs (w/ 2 years basic training) to a level expected of a doctor with 5-10 far more rigorous years of training and exams.

https://twitter.com/medicalmodelbri/status/1761997019307274288

Oncology SHOs/registrars/SAS have immense training including MBBS, often a BSc, MRCP & likely FRCR (for clinical oncologists) Some may have further diplomas and PHDs in oncology. Even with this, they are heavily supervised by consultants.

As a consultant, I question my decisions

I’m excited to announce I will be joining the Bermuda Cancer Centre in the coming weeks.

I look forward to joining the fantastic team in Bermuda and working in close collaboration with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

A 🧵 on how I got here.

I’m saddened to be leaving my great colleagues at @PHU_NHS and @UHSussex, who have been a genuine pleasure to work with as a consultant over the last 3 years.

I found my feet as a consultant here and will forever be grateful for the supportive team.

It’s easy to have a degree of schadenfreude about #BrexitFuelShortages. #BrexitHasFailed as it was always a shit idea.

But I commute 130 miles round trip to single-handedly provide lung cancer services to a region and am now worried my patients’ cancer care will be affected. The region I provide lung cancer services to voted to leave the EU. They didn’t vote for fuel shortages, gas price rises, empty shelves, or their cancer care to be affected.

#BrexitReality is hitting home, and it will be my patients that suffer.

I don't know who wants to hear this, but being single during this pandemic has been downright dreadful.

I'm not taking away from the seriousness of the pandemic. Please take it seriously, but by God has it been hard when you simply don't have anyone to share time with. The national rules are so strongly geared towards couples and families, and really leaves single people in no man's land, fending for themselves.

No one is forming a bubble with a guy they met in a park that one time just so they can get to know each other.