My wife Elizabeth and I moved to the IOW from East Grinstead, West Sussex in 2006. We are dual citizens of the United Kingdom and the Republic of South Africa. We have no children. Leisure time is spent gardening, cycling, kayaking and travelling.
I did my pre-graduate medical as well as post graduate GP training in South Africa. With moving to the United Kingdom I also did post graduate UK based GP training. I have a healthy interest in all disciplines of medicine hence the decision to be a generalist i.e. General Practitioner. I think I would really get bored if I had to restrict myself to one speciality only, having to deal with the same type of pathology on a day in / day out basis. I offer the following special skills i.e. minor surgery (e.g. excision of skin lesions + “lumps and bumps”, nail removals, etc.), intra-articular + intra-lesional steroid injections as well as the insertion of sub-dermal implants and intra-uterine devices (coils) as well as ear microsuctioning.
My personal view of a General Practitioner’s role in current day society is that we are the managers of people’s health risks. In doing so, we are the gate keepers to secondary and tertiary health care. I believe that mutual respect / trust and above all good communication between GP and patient are essential ingredients to function at an optimal level and achieve good outcomes.