How can one possibly get into UK medical school these days?

Had been approached by quite a few bright all As students who wanted to enter medical school. It has been so difficult lately for locals to get admitted to UK medical school. Many of them, having been top students in their school thought that they shouldn’t have any problem securing a place in medical school. [...]

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All in the name

I wonder what it is like if your name is the same as that of a famous celebrity. There must be lots of incidents where the name is used as a joke or a means of humiliation.
I have treated quite a few patients with such names. I have treated Michael Jackson, Tom Jones, Kevin Costner, [...]

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Just another rant at current medical school teaching

Unbeliveable. What a group of consultant colleagues said during lunch regarding the quality of training of junior doctors. Many universities are now using a problem based learning (PBL) approach Apparently studies suggest that it should  produce doctors who are more independent in their learning and thinking, putting them in the right path for the rest [...]

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Will never manage any treatment

A 80 yo man was unfortunately diagnosed with lung cancer. Extremely anxious to begin with, made worse by the fact that his grandson has recently died from metastatic cancer.
He wasn’t able to tolerate lying down flat, he told me. Even for his diagnostic CT, he had to lie on his side. He and his wife [...]

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Maturity for clinical contact

People here start medical school quite young. Many are 18 or 19 by the time they enter medical school. Most have little in terms of life experience, especially nowadays when parents tend to be overprotective and sheltering. 
Nowadays, many university has a new medical curriculum which puts medical students into clinical contact the very first year [...]

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Emotional shock

What do you get when you mix indignation and disapproval with sympathy, sorrow and regret? I don’t know how to describe it: the mixture of feelings roused up more emotion: resulted in a deep feeling of lost, perhaps mixed with some shame.
I had this colleague in my hospital who has been on “gardening leave” for more [...]

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Mother and child

Unfortunate family. Mother and son are both my patients. Mother in her 50’s has stage 3 lung cancer, son in his earlly 30’s has Stage 3 head and neck cancer.
Son responded real well to treatment, almost a year since completing chemotherapy and radiotherapy, MRI showed no disease.
Mother had little disease response from chemotherapy and radiotherapy, [...]

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A lesson in humility

It wasn’t the nicest of experiences. Being dragged into an inquest in a coroner’s court. It seemed so unfair: I wasn’t given the post mortem report prior to the inquest. The pathologist (general pathologist, with no subspecialty interest in oncology nor have seen many such cases) thought that the patient died from acute lung injury [...]

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Generate savings

I have just been issued with an e-mail from the clinical director asking all consultants to write down how each of us has made savings for the Trust. Then within a week, some manager came to the consultant meeting and repeated the request, suggesting that the exercise will allow the trust to know how we [...]

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No insight

Most of the newer oncologists should have been on advanced communication courses, and through practice can often relatively good at breaking bad news to patients. But this one is a hard nut for me to crack.
Has a trainee who has been having regular probelms throughout training. Wondered whether he should have been appointed at all [...]

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