The intention of this book is to capture the essence of
medical research and medical practice during the second half of the twentieth century
and the start of the twenty-first. I have focussed on what happens behind the
scenes as a student, house officer, undergraduate lecturer, research worker, GP,
postgraduate educator, and NHS manager. I am sure the average UK patient, and
indeed many health-care workers, including doctors, has no idea of what went on
behind the scenes. Those doctors who were GP trainees in Yorkshire as well as
those who were developed as trainers were so lucky to have some of the most
interesting and skilled teachers in the UK.
This book is about my experiences, views, and the colleagues
who have contributed to the direction of my medical journey. After the first
chapter about my early life, I have purposely not written much about my
personal life as the book is not intended to be an autobiography in the purest
sense. I have included anecdotes and mentioned many people. This is because I
do not want this book to be a text book. I apologise to those whom I have
omitted to mention and who have contributed to my journey. I also apologise for
not explaining fully some of the medical terminology used.
The British Medical Association has published guidelines for
the medical profession when writing about patients. Written consent has been
obtained for any named patients and an attempt has been made to anonymise the
cases that have been described.
I am grateful to Dr Liz Moulton for feeding back to me on the
final manuscript and advising me about any possible breaches of confidentiality
and any other ethical matters.
Soon after I started writing, Dr Maggie Eisner and Prof. John
Lord kindly read the first draft of Chapter 2 and gave me useful feedback.
I am most grateful to my wife, Kathleen, who gave me feedback
after each chapter.
My godson, Nick Earls, a successful novelist in Australia,
gave me valuable advice on a chapter in the very early stages of writing this
book.
My good friend and colleague Grahame Smith gave me useful
feedback on the chapter that covered our time together as preclinical medical
students, Chapter 2.
Brian Lewis, an artist and writer, gave me valuable advice
about publishing.
The last chapter involved talking to many people about their
work. They gave up their valuable time freely, and I am most grateful for that.
Prof. Christopher Dean, professor of Anatomy at University
College, London, kindly showed me around his department in March 2012 and
introduced me to Daniel Wornham, a third-year iB.Sc. student. I am grateful to
Daniel for informing me about the preclinical and B.Sc. courses as they were in
2012.
I am grateful to the dean of research at the Barts and the
London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Prof. Thomas MacDonald, for meeting me.
He showed me the state-of-the-art research facilities and explained the
situation with Ph.D. students and academic teaching. Prof. Mike Roberts, dean
for students, arranged for me to meet three junior doctors working at The Royal
London Hospital.
Drs Emile Khan, Natasha Atchamah, and Viyaasan Mahalingasivan
told me about clinical medical students and work as foundation year-one doctors.
Thanks to Carol Ward (practice administrator Roehampton
Surgery) and Sue Careswell (Leckhampton Surgery, Cheltenham) for talking to me
on the telephone and telling me how these practice have developed since I
worked there.
I am grateful to Anthony Nicholas (events manager), Linda
Reynolds (quality outcome framework lead), Karen Tooley (performance improvement
manager), Monica Smith (partner, Tieve Tara Medical Centre), Alison Evans
(Wakefield District appraisal lead, NHS Calderdale, Kirklees, and Wakefield
District), Adrian Dunbar (associate postgraduate dean, Yorkshire and the Humber
Deanery), and David Brown (programme director, West Riding General Practice
Specialty Training Programme) for meeting me in 2012 and informing me about their
areas of work.
Thanks to the following at Xlibris who have supported me with
the writing and publication of this book: Sophia Blake, publishing consultant, Naomi
Orleans, author services representative, Chris Lovedice, author consultant and
James Calonia, manuscript series representative.
The royalties from this book will be donated to charity.
The two charities I have chosen are:
Children of Peace is a UK
based charity that works with both Israeli and
Palestinian children to build relationships for a future generation
whose communities might live and work in peace, side by side. It is supported
by all three UK mainstream political leaders as well as other worldwide
leaders. For more details look at www.childrenof peace.org.uk
CAFOD is the Catholic
Agency For Overseas Development. My wife, Kathleen, works for the Leeds office
in a voluntary capacity each week. It works with partners across the world to
bring hope, compassion and solidarity to poor communities to end poverty and
injustice. For more details look at www.cafod.org.uk
Follow the link below to see the coverage in our local newspaper.
I have had positive reports from friends and relations.
It can be downloaded to a kindle and bought from various booksellers including Amazon.
