Last week I reached what I think is a fairly significant milestone in my career, as on Wednesday it was ten years to the day since I started my consultant cardiologist job in Bournemouth. A decade has gone in the blink of an eye, yet when I think back, so much has changed. I was […]

I’m sure many of us, myself included, take health for granted much of the time, and it’s only when a health issue occurs do we suddenly appreciate quite how much we should value it. Clearly I see ill-health day in day out, so you might suppose that I would be more aware than most. I […]

I am fascinated by longevity. Each week I see such an extraordinary difference between ‘older’ patients and their quality of life. At one end, I’ve a patient in her late 80s having had a huge open heart operation, now off to Australia on her own to see her family, and a lady of 96 living […]

At every European Society of Cardiology annual conference, we learn about updated guidelines for a handful of different conditions. Typically these guidelines get modified every 4 or 5 years, and is very important, because new medical evidence appears all the time. To understand any medical guideline, it is important to remember a few key principles. […]

Sleep is a fundamental pillar of good health and wellness. I like the description that it is the health tide that rises all ships. Unfortunately for me, it has been in short supply recently. Last weekend’s European Society of Cardiology conference in Madrid was excellent, but the Spanish are not known for eating early, and […]

It’s the last week of the summer holidays, which for me means the European Society of Cardiology meeting (and also my wife’s celebration that our children go back to school this week!). Why it runs over a weekend is anyone’s guess, but so be it. This year it is in Madrid, and I’m actually writing […]

After nearly 25 years as a doctor, for the most part, the actual medicine is the easy bit of my job. I’ve been around long enough to see most things in my speciality, and so I particularly enjoy seeing patients where things aren’t as clear cut. Patients in whom there are different strategies to consider, […]

Many years ago when my children were around 6 months and under 2, I came back home late one night to our London flat after a friend’s leaving party to hear my daughter crying and crying. Wondering why my wife hadn’t gone to her, I soon discovered the answer was that she couldn’t, because she […]

As a rule I don’t read the news any longer. I’ve been an avid consumer of the news most of my life, but a few years ago came to the realisation that it wasn’t doing me any good. It’s almost always bad, often sensationalist opinion rather than the reporting of fact, and written in such […]

The longer I spend as a doctor, the more frustrated I become at how poorly we do at primary prevention, or in lay terms, preventing problems before they arise. Healthcare is extraordinarily expensive for governments to deliver the world over, yet resource always seems to be spent too late, at which point the costs are […]

I’m always harping on about the need for plenty of exercise, but I’m not sure I acknowledge the importance of recovery as such as I ought. After a week in the French countryside doing lots of reading, eating of cheese and drinking of wine, I’ve been keen to get back to my normal exercise plan. […]

All good thing must come to an end, and so it is that I’m shortly to board a ferry home after what has been a lovely week away in France. We got lucky with the weather, hot but not too hot, and it was all rather restful. We stayed at an Airbnb in the Dordogne, […]

A definite fault of mine is an inability to down tools. My life is too fast paced, and there’s always something on the go. I seem to cycle through periods of time getting increasingly busy, that are punctuated by much needed holidays. It is in these holidays that I reflect on how I need to […]

I actually started drafting this week’s blog quite a few days ago, as had family plans this weekend and therefore less time. I wanted to write about an inspirational patient from this week, which I have done, but given a tragic accident will start with that. As readers will know I’m a big football fan, […]

Both my children have had coughs and colds last week, despite the nice weather, and I get the distinct impression this is their body’s way of saying they need a break. They’ve had exams, lots of sports fixtures, and are knackered. Summer holidays are around the corner, and I’m also very much looking forward to […]

I visited my mum in her dementia care home last weekend, and the best word I think to describe it is sad. Sad that she is living out the very thing she always said she did not want. Sad that she didn’t know who I was (although recognised a friendly face). Sad that she did […]

Happy Father’s Day! I’m writing this in advance as on the day this goes out I have travelled up to my home village in Warwickshire to see my Dad. This will be the first Father’s day without Mum at home, and whilst he always said he thought Father’s Day was a made-up Americanism and not […]

I am lucky that I experience job satisfaction relatively frequently in my role. Yes there are many aspects that are rather tedious and administrative, but often I’m reminded what a privileged position I am in to be able to help others with something as important as their health. Is there anything more important in fact […]

I have been off for half term this week, so no interesting patient stories to learn from. It hasn’t felt like a week off though, as we have spent the week painting and decorating. I would be lying if I said there were no times when I wished I had paid someone to come and […]

A question I often get asked, is whether it is safe to exercise with a heart condition. Almost always, the answer is yes, and more often than not, a person is more likely to do themselves a disservice by not exercising, or taking it easy, than if they push themselves a bit. It’s perfectly understandable […]

How lovely it is to be sat in the garden with a coffee, feeling the sun on my face whilst I type. Not so lovely that when I’m finished there’s a lot of weeding to do, but hey. Did you do your homework from last week? Did you reach out to someone you’ve been meaning […]

This week’s blog has been written in advance, as it has been one of the highlight weekends of my year. The annual ‘miscellaneous medics’ golf tournament. 8 of us who met either at medical school, or in the first year or two as junior doctors, have got together annually for over 20 years now to […]

A month or so ago I received an email asking if I would give a talk at a conference. The request was from the British Society for Heart Failure (which is the specialist society for this in the UK) and so I was flattered to be asked. I was also a bit nervous. I’m quite […]

I’m sat writing this in the glorious sunshine after a day’s gardening, and it makes such a nice change to be warm! Only last week I was having real issues with Raynaud’s in the mornings, and here I am today in suncream. I’m not a very good gardener, and find it quite a chore, but […]