Dr Hogg's Pod

In this this weeks episode we talk to Dr Steven Land, owner of Novellus Aesthetics, Newcastle. Steven talks us through his journey into the increasingly popular area of facial aesthetics which he does alongside his role as a specialty doctor in emergency medicine.  https://www.novellusaesthetics.co.uk

In keeping with last months theme about obesity we are joined this week by Ann Isbell who struggled with her weight ever since having children. In 2017 Ann had a gastric bypass procedure carried out by consultant bariatric surgeon Mr Nick Carter of Portsmouth's Spire hospital. After facing many extraordinary challenges this surgery has turned things around for Ann and given her a new lease of life for her and her family.  

Joining us this week to discuss the UK's ever expanding waistline is the rather fantastic Lucy Perrow of the British Dietetics Association. Lucy has a wealth of experience working in a level 3 weight management service at Central London Community Health NHS Trust. Whilst there is never an easy solution to weight loss, her insights will help give us all some pointers in the right direction to overcome the barriers to a healthy weight. 

This weeks guest, Tim Farmer is the founder of TSF consultants, the UK's largest provider of mental capacity assessments. In this podcast Tim breaks down the basics of the mental capacity act into it's 5 core principles and outlines the practicalities of his assessments in the form of the 2-stage test. Bristling with anecdotes, Tim has a wealth of information about his experience assessing capacity that will be relevant to almost everyone working in the health profession.  Tim's book, Grandpa on a skateboard: the practicalities of assessing mental capacity and unwise decisions, is available now through Amazon. Please feel free to email me for topics you would like me to cover, or just to give feedback at [email protected]

In this weeks podcast we meet Jacob Haddad, co-founder of AccuRx, the SMS chain based software that is changing the face of communication in the NHS. It is especially timely in light of the current COVID pandemic that doctors have resources available that make communicating with their patients easier. Jacob takes us through the building of AccuRx, it's current features and plans for the future.   https://www.accurx.com

This weeks podcast is about chronic pain with consultant specialist in pain management Dr Tim Bushnell of the William Harvey Hospital East Kent NHS trust. Dr Bushnell bristles with anecdotes from his 25 years of experience in the profession. In this podcast he helps to demystify some of the many misconceptions about pain and how doctors can help patients better manage their symptoms.  Useful links: British pain society: https://www.britishpainsociety.org Opioids aware: https://fpm.ac.uk/opioids-aware

In todays episode we talk to Martin Bromiley, pilot, OBE, and founder of the Clinical Human Factors Group. In 2005 his wife Elaine was in hospital for a routine operation. During her anaesthetic there were serious problems establishing an airway and she subsequently died of a hypoxic brain injury 13 days later. Whilst on the intensive care unit Martin commented that he was hopeful that some good might come from her investigation in order to see if anything could be learned from her death. To his surprise he was told that there would be no investigation unless he complained or he sued the trust. As an airline pilot this just didn't make sense to him- why wouldn't they want to find out more about what happened? To learn not to blame. As he came to discover, the learning culture that he was familiar with in the aviation industry was not one that was shared in the NHS. Today we talk to Martin about his experiences and how he set up his own charity to change the NHS and make it safer for everyone.    

Joining me for this podcast is cancer screening specialist Professor Stephen Duffy. We discuss his views on the UK's current cancer screening programmes for breast, bowel and cervical cancer as well as areas of research for future conditions. 

In episode 3 of Dr Hogg's Pod we meet Sandra Barclay - widower of Andrew Barclay who took his own life at the Swiss clinic Dignitas in 2016 at the age of 65. Andrew had struggled with complications of multiple sclerosis since 1992 and after 24 years he decided enough was enough. Sandra drove her husband 500 miles so he could take a lethal dose of sedative in order to end his life on his own terms. In the second part of the podcast we hear from Dutch General Practitioner Dr Martijn Phaff about his experiences of assisted dying in Holland, a country which is known to practises euthanasia on patients with dementia as well as other terminal conditions.  

In 2006 a young woman was tragically killed in a car accident after suffering a catastrophic head injury on the M20 motorway. Kirstie was only 26 when she  died,  but from her death came new life for several individuals who benefitted from the donation of her organs. We talk to her mother, Eunice, about the events surrounding her injury and how she and her family made the decision to donate Kirstie's organs.