Job Title
Consultant Paediatrician. Honorary Clinical Associate Professor, University College London Medical School UK. Associate Professor in Paediatrics, St George's University School of Medicine, Grenada
Location
Related services
Specialty
- Paediatrics
Sub-specialty
- Allergy
Biography
I qualified from University of Leeds School of Medicine in 1995 and worked in and around Yorkshire until I moved to London for Specialist Registrar Training in the London Deanery in 2000. I have been a Consultant for over 18 years.
My training in General Paediatrics and Neonates included time at North Middlesex and Northwick Park Hospitals as a Specialist Trainee. In my final years of training as a Clinical Academic Training fellow (Clinical Lecturer grade) in Paediatrics at University College London working in undergraduate medical education and contributing to research into the molecular genetics of Infantile Hypertrophic Pyloric Stenosis and contributing to the paediatric service at University College Hospital.
I was appointed as a consultant at West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals in 2005. I am a General Paediatrician, proudly working in the NHS. For over 10 years I was the Paediatric lead for the Children’s Emergency Department at Watford and oversaw centralisation of acute paediatric services from Hemel to Watford and the redesign and expansion of the Children’s Emergency Department.
Effective communication is an essential skill for a paediatrician, and I aim to help parents of the children I look after understand their child's condition and make informed decisions about their care.
In my time at West Herts I have developed an interest paediatric allergy. I have been an Honorary Consultant at the Evelina Children’s Hospital (part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital in London) and attended the Paediatric Allergy Clinic there. I do 3 allergy clinics a week at Watford or Hemel and work with my consultant colleagues, our clinic nurses and our Specialist Nurse in paediatric allergy in supporting the families we see in the allergy clinic and in developing our allergy services.
I have long held a passion for Medical Education. I have developed my skills in teaching by attending, teaching and running education courses covering educational theory, core teaching skills and other aspects of education and training including workplace-based assessments, educational supervision and on the job teaching and learning. I have developed skills in both formative and summative assessments at undergraduate and postgraduate level. In 2009 I was awarded an Excellence in Medical Education award from UCL. In 2019 I supported the Undergraduate Team in the Medial Education Centre at Watford win their own Excellence in Medical Education award from UCL.
I led the ‘Teaching Hospital’ project, successfully changing our name to include Teaching in our title realising our long-held aim, becoming the West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust in 2021.
I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and of the Academy of Medical Educators. In 2017 I completed a Masters in Medical Education from the University of Bedfordshire, graduating with Distinction. I am a Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and have been an Examiner for their postgraduate examinations. Between 2012 and 2016 I was the inaugural Chair of the START Assessment (Speciality Trainee Assessment of Readiness for Tenure [as a Consultant]), the Royal College's assessment of paediatric doctors towards the end of their specialist Paediatric training.
In July 2016 I was appointed the RCPCH Officer for Assessment overseeing workplace-based assessment, e-portfolio, START and the introduction of a new Paediatric curriculum. Between 2007 and 2015 I facilitated on the RCPCH's national Paediatric Educators' Programme (PEP), an education course for UK Paediatricians, co-running it between 2010 and 2015.
In 2014 a book I co-edited with my colleague at Watford was published. Clinical Cases in Paediatrics?(ISBN:?9781907816475) is a unique training handbook for managing common presentations to Paediatric outpatients. Each chapter starts with a clinic letter form a GP and then describes the assessment of that child as if they are being seen in the children’s outpatient clinic.
I am an Instructor and Course Director for Advanced Paediatric Life Support courses.
From October 2015 to March 2020, I was the Undergraduate Tutor for the Medical Students from University College London at Watford General Hospital. In April 2020, amid the Coronavirus pandemic I took up the role of Director for Medical Education, as Associate Medical Director at the Trust. I oversee all education and training for doctors in the organisation.
In October 2023 I was appointed as Associate Dean - Lead Director of Medical Education for the East of England Deanery.
