 |
| Dr Graham Easton |
Ben Broglia: What do
you find rewarding about teaching Imperial students?
Graham Easton: One of
the great things is teaching people who are enthusiastic, keen, bright and
passionate, which helps me refocus on why I went into medicine. It’s easy to
get bogged down in the details of surgery, and teaching gives me the
opportunity to step back. It gives me a chance to reflect on what we do and
refresh my clinical skills, such as the neurological exam which I hated as a
student! The final thing for me is the thrill of inspiring students, and the
challenge of explaining a topic.
BB: You
recently had published a new book “The Appointment”, the story of a fictional
morning surgery. What inspired you to write this?
GE: I’m
passionate about general practice and wanted to show readers what it’s like at
the other end of the stethoscope, and what a challenging and complex role it
is. I wanted to give them a taste of what it’s like inside the mind of one GP,
during that extraordinary journey through a day in the practice. So I’ve told
it through eighteen 10-minute appointments, with each chapter being a new
patient, from sore throats to sick children. In the process I’m trying to show
some of the medical detective work we’re trained to do, and the fascinating
interpersonal aspects of an appointment, communication skills, dealing with
uncertainty and the bureaucracy in a health system that’s stretched to breaking
point. I’ve wanted to write a book on general practice for years, and having
written a couple of case-based medical books recently it’s given me the courage
to have a go.
BB: What are
your plans for the future as a GP, educator and author?
GE: As a GP,
I want to get through the current storm that is the modern NHS – my feeling is
there are peaks and troughs and this is definitely a trough. I’m doing that by
using a portfolio approach, continuing as a GP appraiser and developing the
undergraduate and teaching side of my career, and helping develop a new (SCM) Specialty
Choice Module called “Medicine in the Media”. Getting back to grassroots
community teaching, which is easy to lose sight of the more involved in
leadership one gets. As an author I’ve really enjoyed the process of writing,
and the journey from proposal to publicity. It’s been well received and I’m
delighted it’s been chosen for the Radio 2 Book Club. I’d love to do another
one and I’m talking to publishers and my agent about a focus for the next book.
It’s likely to be on a medical theme, but we’re not exactly sure on what yet.
It’s exciting!
BB: As one
of the Programme Directors for the Imperial GP Training Scheme, what challenges
do you envisage the programme facing in the future?
GE: I think
the challenges are positive ones, about making the most of the exceptional
potential the scheme has, still only 4 years old! It’s based in a department of
academic primary care which is unusual, which offers incredible possibilities
such as innovative training posts at the King’s Fund, research projects and
posts at the BJGP. I think the challenge is to build on that and really make
the most of the opportunities we have here, which most other schemes simply
don’t have. We need more GPs, so it’s likely that schemes such as ours will
expand, but as you expand you want to maintain the incredible training and
quality we have, so it’s going to be about growing without diluting the offer.
BB: If you
were made Health Secretary, what one change would you make to the way the NHS
is run, if any?
GE: Apart
from recognising the pivotal role of expert generalism in the NHS, and making
sure primary care is properly staffed and funded, though I’m probably not
allowed to have that! One of the key things would be to slash the
administrative burden on GPs so we can actually do what we’re trained to do and
look after patients. I know that administration and bureaucracy goes with any
job, but it seems to me the pendulum has swung too far in that direction, so
I’d like things such as more support/admin staff, streamlining the Kafkaesque
NHS referrals system, improving access to secondary care and advice, things
like that, which would help us to do more of the patient facing care. More
working together too – a lot of the stress of general practice is because we
work in isolation most of the time, and some of the protected time and space we
had to talk through things and support each other has dissolved. We need to
recoup some of that “team feel”, so you don’t feel as alone.
"The Appointment" is available from Amazon UK and all good bookshops
Comments