Hospital Dr invited Dr Mark Porter, chairman of the BMA’s consultants committee, and consultant anaesthetist in Coventry, to answer 13 questions and complete a half finished sentence.
1. What is the biggest challenge facing the profession?
“We’ve been used to continual increase in resources allocated to healthcare in the UK, with the biggest expansions being in the last ten years. Now the profession is being asked to manage a reduction as we all pay for the burst banking balloon. The challenge will be continuing to be effective advocates for our patients while feeling a justifiable sense of outrage at this.”
2. When did you last laugh and why?
“A few minutes ago at one of the idiocies of life. There are so many.”
3. What are the BMA’s priorities over the next year?
“To represent our members to the best of our ability, and to a high standard, both individually and as a profession. I expect that a significant part of my own time will be spent on ensuring that revalidation does not become a threat or a disproportionate burden on the profession.”
4. Which person influenced you the most and why?
“My family; Dr Sandy Macara, a BMA officer in the 1990s, who encouraged me to become involved; Dr John Elton, a colleague at work, who is an inspiration in his focus on patient care and multidisciplinary working.”
5. What is your favourite book?
“So many and too difficult to choose but one. In the last year, Direct Red by Gabriel Weston stands out; an elegantly written memoir of a surgeon’s journey through her career. Stunningly perceptive.”
6. Will revalidation be implemented as the GMC envisages?
“Yes and no. It will come, and it will be as the GMC envisages at that point, but to get from where we were to where we will be has involved significant change as the GMC and other organisations have been brought to accept that revalidation is unavoidable but it must not be oppressive.”
7. What is your guiltiest pleasure?
“The DVD box set of Battlestar Galactica.”
8. What can doctors do to protect services in the face of cuts?
“Make sure that we have a strong voice in decisions; that we bring our experience, our advocacy and our evidence to bear in those decisions.”
9. What was your most embarrassing professional moment?
“Entering the main hall at a BMA conference and being immediately called to speak, having forgotten that I had submitted a speaking request or what the debate was about. It was a long walk to the podium as I tried to work out what the preceding speaker had been exhorting the conference to do.”
10. Of what achievement are you most proud?
“Being part of the team that put the present consultant contracts into place.”
11. Is the downturn going to compromise the 2003 consultant contract for many?
“For some, perhaps. There has always been accountability in any employment contract, and some consultants are still less able to give a meaningful account of what they spend their SPA time on - time that costs their employers in cash terms. In some trusts this brings the role of SPAs into question and challenge. I’m quite clear what they are for - quality assurance and quality improvement for our roles as doctors in looking after patients.”
12. When were you most in danger?
“At 60 mph ten metres from a car that had pulled out in front of me.”
13. The government are keen to extend the role of the private sector in delivering NHS services. What progress has the BMA’s Look After Our NHS campaign made?
“We were never under the illusion that the Prime Minister would smack his head and say ‘of course’ - we set out to raise awareness about an insidious process occurring alongside fine slogans about patient choice and creating spare capacity. And we have done that with the support of many doctors.”
Finish this sentence: juniors working a 48-hour week will have their training opportunities improved by… careful attention to their needs instead of an assumption that given more time it will just happen.
Tags: Interview
