“I am a consultant in palliative medicine and am the medical lead for end of life care for the hospital and community palliative care services in York and surrounding areas.

“The role cuts across many specialties and I am fortunate to work with dedicated consultants and their medical teams, nursing and allied healthcare professionals and non-clinical staff - too many to mention. Without all their efforts the NHS could not function.

“My first medical house job was in York in 1984. Before embarking on my career in palliative medicine I spent two years as a medical volunteer in Zambia. I learnt a lot about helping patients to manage symptoms, working with patients who had HIV and advanced cancer in a resource poor country where treatment was scarce or unavailable.

“When I returned to the UK I wanted to learn more about palliative care to enhance my medical practice. I realised there was unmet need in patients with life limiting illnesses in the UK too. I trained as a palliative medicine registrar in Leeds and senior registrar post in Liverpool. It was a relatively new specialty at the time. In 1996 I returned to York as a consultant in palliative medicine, initially as a split post between the hospice and the hospital. This led to being employed full time in the NHS in 2005, working in the hospital and community, venturing onto adult wards in the hospital and into patient’s homes.

“Nowadays I work on the wards with the hospital palliative care team and have two outpatient clinics and some home visits with the community palliative team. Working closely with the senior leads for end of life care, we have been able to provide a seven day service of which we are very proud. The initiative includes an innovative advance care planning project and new leaflets which will be launched in May’s awareness campaign - Dying Matters Week. The challenge will be embedding it into everyday practice in all care settings.

“We are always looking to improve patient safety which has led me to create new practices to ensure safer prescribing for syringe drivers. Working with the wider team we have developed a care plan for the last days of life. There are some challenging issues to address in end of life care and I’m involved in looking at policies and procedures around do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation (DNACPR).

“I also help provide education and I’m involved in developing strategy and services in the Trust. I love the diversity of my role as it also includes the role of deputy director of post graduate medical education and I am a tutor for Hull and York Medical School. I enjoy teaching and am happy if I have delivered a successful session particularly when using my creative side, designing charts or posters for patient safety.

“In my job I meet a whole range of patients who have a life limiting illness with complex physical or psychological symptoms. I feel privileged to be involved with patients and families and listen to their concerns and try and address their issues as best I can. It gives me real job satisfaction when I have managed someone’s complex symptoms and made a difference, or supported the nursing or medical staff on the wards when a situation has been particularly tough.

“Some things at work do frustrate me but most times I try and focus on the reason we are working in the NHS, and that is to make a difference and benefit the patients.

“On a personal note my family has benefited greatly from the NHS and will always appreciate the care given to my mother, father and sister when they most needed it. My mother was one of the first patients to have cardiothoracic surgery in the early days of the NHS and before she died was extremely well cared for on ITU in York.”