I strongly believe that medical care is a contract and joint enterprise between the person receiving care and the doctor giving it. The role of the consultant is to provide information in a comprehensible way that is understood by the intelligent lay person. Alternatives should be presented but a clear way forward and plan of care agreed.
Private practice offers the opportunity to form a therapeutic relationship between the person and the doctor whom they know, and in people with chronic conditions (as many heart diseases are) this relationship is long-term. I very much with to empower patients in their own care and help them to be an agent of their care by helping them to understand their condition and the technology and pharmacology that is available to treat it.
I provide outpatient services mainly based at the Clementine Churchill Hospital and also The Trust Plus, Private Patients Facility at Northwick Park Hospital. I would wish to give everyone sufficient time to explain their symptoms and their concerns, and allow us to agree a plan of care in an unhurried and unstressed conversation.
Coronary angiography, angioplasty and other invasive procedures are performed via the Northwick Park Private Patients Facility, Trust Plus. The procedures themselves are carried out in our two cardiac catheter labs, where there is an experienced nursing, technical and radiographic team who have worked with me over the last 20 years to provide what we judge to be a high-quality service. We would typically perform 1,500 diagnostic angiograms, 550 coronary angioplasties and more than 200 pacing procedures through our facility.
We have a rich culture of audit and reflective practice and meet on a quarterly basis as a team to reflect on our activity and outcomes, and particularly reflect on adverse events and how we might learn from these and prevent them from occurring again.
