ABOUT Medic Mentorship & Portfolio Careers

Born in the UK, we emigrated to the Middle East in 1979, and a decade later were suddenly displaced at the start of the Gulf War (1990). Through the turmoil, we moved to the far-east, and eventually, returned to the UK where I attended secondary school. I travelled after my ‘A-levels’ and found a medical school in Budapest, and decided to take a chance on something wild, new & life-changing. Although the teaching was in English, I learned a new language & culture and truly loved my time there! I got married in Oslo in my 5th year, and we returned to the UK.

 

After training as a GP in Kent, I felt that my learning journey was ‘incomplete’. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I was looking for something more. After MRCGP, I enrolled as a Psychiatric Core Trainee, achieved Section 12 status, and was asked to join what I fondly and somewhat euphemistically call ‘the medical civil service’ as a Clinical Lead in Mental Health for NHS Thanet Clinical Commissioning Group, and entered the brave new world of commissioning.  

 

Five years later, I was voted in as CCG Clinical Chair. This was truly a baptism of fire, the heat shield was off! I was exposed to a searing intensity of medical politics, policy and responsibility. Through that period, I helped reconfigure stroke services in the South East, I was Clinical Director for Hospital/Community Transformation (budget £450m), and led on many clinical areas, as diverse as ‘Children & Adolescents, Dementia, Learning Disabilities, Maternity Care, Mental Health’ and others. I received media training, worked with MPs, think tanks and even got invited to the House of Lords! 

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Sensing the ‘changing of the guard’ again, with another NHS reconfiguration, I returned to university and won 2 fully - funded NHS scholarships to study health economics & policy, followed by global healthcare leadership. The trigger was the inaugural Kent and Medway Medical School lecture by Prof. Chris Whitty. I had the privilege of meeting him as Thanet Clinical Chair in 2020, literally on the cusp of the pandemic. The thesis in a nutshell, was that life expectancy has risen consistently and inexorably in almost all disease domains. That is clearly not down to medicine alone, but is a function of public policy, legal advances, engineering and multi-disciplinary action.  I am by nature an outward thinker, and have always been fascinated by the interface between medicine, the humanities, law and the arts. The vision was so appealing and enticing, I was sold and applied for funding.​ My journey has taken me to Rome, Pavia, Ahmedabad, Trivandrum, Bangkok, New Haven, Mae Sot, Kathmandu, Butwal, Pokhara & more.

 

Through life experience, work and academia, I can share stories of resilience, motivation and in retrospect, moments of pure madness! If you are after clarity, purposeful and intentional guidance, then I can help. ​​