Day 5 of 8 in Mumbai. Enjoying the rains

It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring ... Yes. This is what I was humming to myself all through yesterday as I went about attending to chores that I should complete before I return to the United Kingdom.Today, I had a pretty busy day, what with meeting a guy in connection with personal work. This meeting, supposed to last for a couple of hours, lasted three hours. In addition, I spent time with a dear friend Dr. Ashish Shah, an ultrasound specialist at his new clinic in the Ashoka Shopping Centre. He was, as usual, very cordial and forthcoming. 

During my previous visit in Feb-Mar this year, as well as during the current visit, my main activity is bonding with my family, of course, but also, rejuvenating ties with my hundreds of friends, relatives,and others. This time, I have already had conversations with my brothers, mom, some of my uncles and aunts, friends, and others. In particular, I am going to mention some by name. They include my Paediatrician friend Moatasim Solkar, my old radiologist friend Muhbeen Shaikh, and my neighbour Iqbal Bhinderwala. I have yet to have many other conversations. I also met Dr Shirin Shikari and her immensely interesting spouse Mr Tofique Shikari a few days ago, and am meeting my school friend Farhad Khursetjee on Monday. Other interactions will pan out as they will ... but all in all, I am sure I will return with some distinctively sweet memories. 

I also procured my International Driving Permit - something that I should have done many months ago. Armed with this, I hope to drive my first car in the U.K. This might have to be a second-hand car to begin with. Let's see. It will be another four or five months before the validity of my Indian car driving licence will run out, and I will have to get a U.K. driving licence.

That's it for now. Do keep visiting and reading.

The journey back to Mumbai, a retrospective entry ... do read this one!

I started my travel at around 5 p.m. on Saturday the 23rd. Going by train to Manchester airport, I was aware that I would have to spend about 3-4 hours inside the airport. This time, I carried with me just one suitcase and one laptop bag. En route, my baggage will increase, as it always does!

Due to the onset of vacation time in the U.K., tickets to India weren't so cheap. I finally managed to find a trip that was reasonably priced; the catch, however, was that there would be a layover at Istanbul airport for over 13 hours. I left for Manchester airport by train, arriving there at around 6:15 p.m. I would be travelling by Turkish airlines. The flight time was 23:40 hours, and I had to while away my time in the airport, having food, relaxing, surfing the net, etc. until it was time for check-in to be announced. It was at about 11 p.m. that we finally collected at the gate from where we would board the aircraft awaiting us. (By us, I mean my fellow passengers, of course).

The actual boarding started after another 15 minutes, and the aircraft finally took off near around mid-night. I saw the newly made Disney movie Jungle Book. Food on the flight was quite okay, consisting of beef pattice on rice, bread, butter, dessert and, finally, tea.

I reached Ataturk International airport at around 05:30 a.m. The arrivals lounge was quite busy even at that hour. Transit passengers were all directed to the transit counters and then the international lounge, where I have been waiting since then until now, when I have begun to write this draft that will eventually appear on my blog.

I have had the occasion to meet a few people. The first was a mother-daughter duo travelling to Boston, Massachusetts. Mom and Dad live in Dhahran in KSA, where the dad is a university teacher. They have four children, two of whom are already married and settled in the U.S. One is a younger son, who is with the parents. The  last is the daughter who was accompanying her mom today. She has secured admission to a course on Politics in the University of Maryland, and they were flying there for her to start her course. They had a wait of over six hours.

After they left, I was joined by a Nigerian student of Hotel Management. Sarah is pursuing education in this course in Cyprus. Currently, she was travelling to her home country to meet her family. She, too, has a wait of nearly eight hours at the airport.

For lunch, I had a chicken hamburger with potato crisps and a diet coke. My new friend could not find something suitable and settled for just fries and a coke. Perhaps she would eat a more substantial meal later.

I have had the pleasure of meeting yet another interesting man, Philippe René Nsoa, a Cameroonian judge by profession.  This gentleman was returning home from a work trip to Malta, where he had gone to attend a judges' workshop. The sad thing was that he missed his flight yesterday evening, and has to wait until today evening (a total of 24 hours) at the airport. Additionally, he had to shell out €200 to purchase a new ticket.

In the later part of the afternoon, I had the occasion to meet Anjum, a Kenyan British person of Indian origin. This young, recently married girl is an auxillary nurse working in the community at Manchester. She had been to Male to be with her in-laws, and had arrived at Ataturk around the same time as me, and sitting just a few tables away from where I was during the entire morning. Now, she is returning to Manchester on an evening flight.

Wikipaedia would give you the exact details of this airport. What I wish to state here is that it is a very busy airport, huge in size, and handling at least 700-800 flights a day across its nearly 500 departure/arrival gates. The food court is FULL of travellers, and the tables at the side where people like me sit down to spend the whole day, perhaps placing our heads on the table and napping, and looking at the thousands of people who are all around me.

I did manage to buy a few things to take home, and will share pictures of the same in my subsequent entry. That's all for now ... so, as always, thanks for visiting and reading this entry. Although it was written "live" , I will be posting it a few days later after I am back in Mumbai and in my home internet network. 

Mumbai meri jaan

I reached Mumbai three and a half days ago, on a wet Monday morning. Actually, the Gods were smiling, as I made the last stretch home in a cab without any rain. No sooner had I stepped into my home than the rains burst upon us! My welcome was a very warm one, with Inas and Nishrin up at the early dawn hour. They quickly settled me onto a chair and served me hot chai. Hannah slept on, as she had slept late the previous night. After some cleansing, washing and bathing, I went to sleep, waking up at half past nine to be welcomed by Hannah, who was, by now, up and about and getting ready to go to work. 

I slept in through most of the morning and into the early part of the afternoon. In the evening, I went out for a few small errands; on the way back, I purchased food from Apoorva, which we had for dinner at home. This repast consisted of grilled fish (a large Rawas), prawns gassi and appams. It was thoroughly enjoyable. 

Tuesday saw me calling my relatives and close friends. In the evening, we went for dinner again, this time, to Chetana Restaurant at Kala Ghoda. This is a fine vegetarian place. While Hannah and I had a standard thali, Nishrin and Inas settled for dal-dhokli and a vegetable kadhai with chapatis. 

On the Wednesday morning, I went to the local RTO to apply for an international driving permit - something that I should have done when I first went to the UK (but had not). After this, it would be a mixed evening of meeting, eating and a movie -- but about all this, in my next post, as I haven't reached those events yet. 

And, so, am travelling to Mumbai tonight ...

It's that time again. I am travelling to Mumbai tonight. A rather quick decision on my part to go and meet my family ... and this time, a layover in Istanbul for 13 hours. I will, therefore, arrive a day later. See you all guys from Mumbai there ...

Easing into the second innings of my old job

My readers - I am grateful to all of you for your good wishes. I am aware that many among you have been disturbed by the recent posts where I have hinted at emerging problems with my work here in the U.K. I had given news that I was going to have to shift to a new job from August. I am happy to tell you that I won't be shifting after all. The recent months have seen my skills go up significantly. I am now able to understand the complexity of working with the UK's NHS system much better than where I was, say, in May 2016. 

As a result, I have been re-offered a new contract with the Blackpool Hospital. I will not be working as a registrar until I can prove my talent. However, I will stay on, and continue to work Mondays to Fridays as a senior house officer (with a reduced annual salary, of course), until I am adjudged to be skilled enough to re-take the registrar posting. This will allow me to grow professionally with the same team with whom I have begun my first innings in the U.K. I am hoping that I will continue to do locum jobs on weekends, and thereby augment my knowledge and income as I am doing currently. 

This is the news as of now. Do watch this space for more details and new happenings. Thanks once again for reading and for your good wishes. If you like - do leave your comments.

Medical Professionalism Matters

On the evening of the 12th of July, I had the unique opportunity to attend a workshop on the captioned topic. The venue was the Museum of Science and Industry at Deansgate, Manchester.

This was a joint programme of many organisations led by the UK's top regulating body, the General Medical Council. Other organisers included the British Medical Association, the RCGP, the RCP, and others. The thrust of this event was to interact and formulate a blueprint of what professionalism means to doctors and other healthcare workers in modern times. There were discussions related to several aspects of this; they included talking about proper communication, having compassion in care, being ethical and responsible, being concerned about self-development (professionally and otherwise), being safe and having a paramount concern for safety in healthcare, being a team-worker and being resilient. 

There was a keynote speaker, Prof. Jacky Hayden (@Hayden.Jacky), who spoke on several aspects of qualities of being a good health professional. Her talk was brief but it highlighted all the important issues and set the tone for the next programme - a series of group discussions. During these group discussions, a moderator from the GMC collected thoughts from the participants at each table on a specific aspect of the main theme. Thus, there were tables where, for example, communication was discussed; or, where the discussion related to patient safety, or, to doctors' advancement as scholars and innovators in their field. I enjoyed these group discussions tremendously. There were professionals from all walks of the medical field, right from junior doctors like me, to stalwarts like Pali Hungin, the president of the BMA, sharing ideas freely on all these topics. Each table sat for 20minutes, then we changed to another table, with another topic for brainstorming. 

Supper was served after these discussions, and this was then followed by a panel discussion where the panellists took questions sent by participants. The entire discussion was very illuminating. One of the speakers was Dr Umesh Prabhu, (@DrUmeshPrabhu), a Paediatrician from Wigan. He is a highly innovative person who has made a mark on NHS through his work related to Patient Safety in Healthcare. Do look him up on Twitter.

To read more about this event, and the issues raised therein, do visit www.gooddoctors.co.uk.

Thank you.

P.S. For non-medicos, who are not interested in this post, I apologise sincerely. 

Some unique experiences in my locum posts

The last month and a half have seen me hopping from one trust to another, gaining experience working as first on-call with them, seeing patients before they are seen by registrars, starting IV lines, attending delivery calls, and so on. There has been some addition to my savings as well, and that is definitely not something to be scoffed at. The result of these peregrinations has been satisfying. I have made new contacts at different hospitals. I have gained insight into how things are done. My practical skills are improving. The one other thing that has kept me interested in doing locums is that I am seeing a more diverse range of illnesses and learning more about how to manage them. 

To a layman, the prospect of seeing more illnesses and suffering might be intimidating. To a doctor who is learning on the job, it is very exciting to see newer problems and learn how to tackle them. In the process, I have enriched my knowledge. To give you a few examples, I worked at a tertiary care centre in Manchester. There, I saw a whole range of children with complex problems. I was able to, for the first time since I came to the U.K., understand what happens to children we refer to the tertiary centres from our own trust in Blackpool; in fact, I even met a few of Blackpool's patients receiving their treatment in Manchester. It was very educative. 

In Bolton, a few days ago, I met the first Bohri family with their sick infant. In fact, this family was the first Bohri family I have met since I came here to the U.K.! I was humbled. It was an unique experience. They were as happy to meet a doctor who is Bohri himself. Of course, it is nothing dramatic to meet a Bohri - in fact, it is normal to meet our community's people almost anywhere on the planet. But for me, on this particular occasion, it was the first time ... and so, unique.

My work at a trust in Greater Liverpool was another highlight. This is the hospital at Whiston. They have the most fantastic facilities for on-call doctors - a fully furnished room to spend the night in. No other trust offered that opportunity, and it was definitely something that was unique.

Were there other memorable things? Of course, there were. At every place I worked, I found something or the other that was different from my own place in Blackpool. Not everything elsewhere was always better; however, most registrars and consultants I worked with were very cooperative and willing to support me. That was very surprising to experience, since, in my past, when I was in India, team work and cooperation at this level is unheard of. As they say, Indians often try to pull each other down than lift each other up when facing a difficult situation. I learned a lot here. 

If I had to describe the above post in just one line, I would say that working in the NHS is an opportunity no one should miss if they can help it. It is not perfect, and it is facing a lot of difficulties, but the work culture here is so beneficial for one's personal development that it has to be experienced to be believed.

Thank you for reading this post. Do share your thoughts in the comments section by clicking on the "Comment" button. I shall eagerly await your input.

Catching up with my life here in the UK

Dear readers,

Due to various challenges that I have been facing here in the past few months, I have been unable to really do extraordinary things ... things that livened up my life in the UK in the first five months. However, my rather unexciting life has still been an enjoyable one ... at least to me. In the first place, it has been interesting to see the British people here as they went in to vote whether to remain within the EU or to vote to leave it. The results were not as resonantly in favour or against ... the spread between the victors (Leave) and the losers (Remain) was just 4% ( 52% vs 48%), but the political repercussions have been enormous. Both the leading parties - the Conservative party, or the Tories, and the Labour party (or simply, Labour) - are in a turmoil. While the Tories have to choose a new leader because the current PM has resigned (Mr David Cameron), the Labour Party led by Mr Jeremy Corbyn is also facing trouble as the MPs of that party have voted to give Corbyn a boot. 

Of course, the financial markets have fallen, and the pound, even more so. I remember exchanging a British pound for over 98 INR when my first salary was credited to my bank account in January. Now, it is at 88 INR. A fall of over 10% in just six months! Indeed, more pain is expected in the coming months. 

Summer, the most awaited season here, has been playing truant. The weather remains uncomfortably windy and chilly even though it is now July. It has been particularly difficult for me for 2 reasons: while I have lost quite a bit of weight (which means loss of the insulation cover of fat), the central heating in our flats has been switched off since the first of May. As a result, I now sleep with three covers over the upper half of my body, and a blanket atop that! Even then, I keep feeling chilly. The temperature is in single digits even as I write this. Oh, how I miss the heat of Mumbai! Or even Al Muwayh, for that matter (hee hee). 

Finally, I will end this with one more topic: how I am getting along. Most of my documentation for transferring to my new employment is now complete, but a few more things need to be completed. Just when I am preparing to move, my consultants are beginning to realise that they are about to lose a person who may lack some of the skills registrars possess, but who has the breadth and depth of knowledge that is really enviable. They haven't, of course, voiced that opinion publicly, but I can see that they see the improvement in my skills and understanding of the NHS. The writing is on the wall, however, and what has been done cannot be undone. I am ready to move to the new job. My experience with locum jobs in different parts of the country has really enriched me and given me the confidence to face the new challenge of working as a Senior House Officer. 

And that is where I wish to end this post. Eid Mubarak to all my readers. And a happy day to everyone as well.  Thank you for reading my blog. Do leave your comments down below. It will encourage me immensely. 

June has ended

Dear reader,

A lot has happened this last month. I was staying away from writing as my career was not going the way I would have liked it to go when May ended. I am happy to say that the month of turbulence has finally ended and there is some clarity as to where I am going next and what I am going to do. 

First of all, my apologies to all of you for not posting more often. I was really weighing my options when May ended. One of them was to keep looking for new jobs within the U.K. The second was to leave the U.K. and explore other countries to seek a new job. This would have included middle Eastern countries like the U.A.E., as also countries like Australia and NZ. Eventually, though, I decided to stick with the U.K. and work for some more time here and see if I am able to sustain myself. 

I am therefore happy to inform you that in most probability, I will continue my work here in the U.K. from another hospital, this time in London. I have received their letter of offer. The reason I am unable to confirm the job 100% is that I will need a new Tier 2 (General) visa to be able to earn the right to work. For this, the hospital must grant me a Certificate of Sponsorship. With that in hand, I have to approach the government of the UK for a new visa. Once I have that visa, I can move on to the new job. 

My work at Blackpool will end when July ends. During this month, I will continue to try and improve my skills, as I have been doing this last month. What changed for me in June is that I began to do locum jobs every weekend. I am very pleased to share with you that I have now worked in several new locations within the U.K. This included my work in Preston, Bolton, Whiston, Abergavenny and Manchester. I have now worked as a Neonatal SHO, a Paediatric SHO, and a Tertiary care SHO within England and Wales. Importantly, these jobs are giving me more and more confidence to work in the NHS. Additionally, they are paying jobs as well, so I get paid extra money for having done them. Payment is official and comes to me net of taxes. 

Many of my friends admire my commitment and resolve to make a success of whatever comes my way. I do not call it such big things. I call it my credo. My reason for existence. My basic nature. Try and try, then try even harder to succeed. Never give up. There will be days when you might want to give it all up and return to your safe zone. Don't do that. The advantage adversity gives you is something immeasurable. Keep reaching out for the stars.

Thank you for reading my entry. Do share your comments.