what is going on guys my name is kendri welcome back to the channel hope it's not the first time you're watching one of my videos but just in case it is I'm a doctor working in London and welcome to the new setup the new layout let me tell you guys that whenever you see this sort of layout you know it's going to be a very deep conversational video one to one with you guys and I've also got my coffee here with me I've got a really interesting topic for you guys here today um there's actually
no particular plan to this video um I have written some stuff down on my iPad that I want to touch on but there's no particular sort of video plan like there usually is on the channel it's going to be largely me down and talking to you guys about why to be very honest with you over the last few weeks to months I've been counting down the days to finally be done working in adult medicine now this is not going to be a dig on doctors who work in adult medicine it's not going to be a
dig on NHS or a dis on NHS I think everybody is different everyone has their own preferences so in this video I'll be talking to you guys about why I'm going to be choosing Pediatrics and definitely for the next year um I will be working in Pediatrics almost exclusively and yeah just digging deeper with you guys as to my feelings and and um thought about the last few months working as a doctor in adult medicine but before we start let's go ahead and take a sip of the coffee and we're going to jump straight into
it I just spilled coffee all over me so we'll be back in 2 minutes okay so apparently I don't know how to drink from a cup but let's go ahead and try that again and we're going to be talking about the very first point I've written down as to why I really haven't been you know enjoying the last few months working as an adult doctor and the first one really is I haven't been able to give the care that I would want to give to my family a lot of what I'll be saying is not
new it's all over the news this is not again me digging the NHS this is a this is a very well-known thing that is currently happening in the NHS but before we go onto that part so I want to give you guys a quick analogy let's compare medicine a little bit to another job like working as a pilot so imagine that you're a pilot your job is to fly planes you will eventually get your customers the people on your plane to the destination eventually in the process of that Journey when they're getting to that destination
there is loads of turbulence that you know you want to avoid but you just can't avoid they have to wait hours to get onto your flight rather than the flight taking 8 hours it takes 24 hours but eventually they do get there and they finally get to their destination from the customers perspective you know the people on the plane they definitely would not be happy or you know enjoy their experience of being on that flight and imagine you're the captain who is standing at the door of that plane as they leave the plane you know
they're going to be smiling saying thank you so much that was a great journey I'm glad we got here obviously but you know it was a very safe and smooth Journey there was no turbulence and they're smiling at you but imagine you're that pilot who sat at the door all your customers are walking past you saying you know what is going on we've had to wait a long time we'd have to you know there's been so much turbulence and we just have not enjoyed the Journey of course they appreciate getting to that Journey finally and
eventually but the whole entire process wasn't was 24 hours rather than an 8h hour flight imagine you're that pilot right so put yourself in that position where you're that pilot who had the responsibility you know your customers put the trust in you to get you to that destination right all the trust was was in you and they believed in you and it's supposed to be that sort of profession that is respected it's just trustworthy essentially that's sort of how I've been feeling the last few months you know when I first started working as a doctor
I initially worked in Pediatrics which I absolutely enjoyed I loved so much then I moved on to working in Internal Medicine as a doctor and that was probably the worst 4 months that I had not just because of you know what I'm talking about now but just generally I didn't really enjoy the specialty as much I went on to other Specialties like Obstetrics and Gynecology Psychiatry which I really enjoyed but in the last 4 months my final rotation working as doctor I was back again in Internal Medicine and again just really really counting down the
days and not enjoying myself to be honest with you because of this analogy that I've just spoken about but how does that analogy actually compare to what I face as a doctor day-to-day I hope that gives you a bit of an understanding of what I'm talking about but first and foremost I'm talking about patients having to wait in corridors for 24 hours to be seen by doctor I'm talking about patients waiting in ambulances you know for hours just to be to be put into the a department I'm talking about how it's you know at least
in my where I work it's normal to have patients in corridors you know waiting to be seen examining patients in corridors or being expected to you know examine patients and corridors I'm talking about having to wait 4 days for an MRI head to confirm whether or not a patient has a stroke this is all the sort of thing that I'm talking about when I'm when I'm comparing the analogy that I gave you of a of a pilot to my day-to-day work as a doctor all of this means that you know although the patients eventually do
get free healthare which is absolutely phenomenal that is fantastic if they do eventually get seen by a doctor when they actually come to see me so when I'm the Doctor Who's on call for example and I'm coming to see this patient who's been sat in a chair literally in a chair and she's 80 years old waiting 60 hours to be seen by me I feel very bad for these patients yes they do get the healthcare they eventually need they do eventually get to a ward although it might take 24 36 hours they might get the
MRI head eventually but it's that process of waiting and getting there that I just really have not enjoyed because I can't give the care like I said that I would I would want to give to my ones I'm not complaining guys I do really love the NHS I really appreciate what it does um and I still think it's fantastic that at least you do get some healthcare and you eventually get the scans and stuff like that you need but I'm talking about the perspective of me as a doctor right what does that do to to
to to me what does that do to the nurses the doctors all of the healthcare professionals you know I've thought really long and hard about this but what it does is that it really lowers my job satisfaction again if you if you're talking about the pilot who works for that Airline he's not going to be you know proud about the job did you know maybe he's really passionate he wants to fly planes he wants to get you know his his customers there safely but if he can't do that in a manner the best way possible
that he would want you know for his family then that definitely lowers job satisfaction and has you know honestly contributed to the fact that I've been so looking forward to to finally you know closing this curtain of working an adult medicine and we can talk about why this is happening you know as I said it's all over the news but really and truthfully the NHS is at its an ease you know there's long waiting lists for to be seen by a doctor in the community we know that this is this is not something new we
also have a very elderly population of course that is getting older you know patients are living longer we also have the highest population that we've ever seen in the UK right now that's a topic for um a different video and if you want me to talk about my feelings as to why it's happening leave a comment down below but all in all what I'm trying to say is that there is a huge amount of pressure on the Healthcare System currently the staff are feeling the pressure you know the the nurses the doctors the physiotherapist everyone
who works in you know in the NHS we're all feeling that pressure greatly and again you know me being on the front line it's definitely been affecting me as well so a quick coffee break before we move on to the next point so from a doctor perspective you know how do I feel that pressure how does the pressure come across to me so first and foremost I feel like there's an immense amount of pressure to see as many people as possible as many patients as possible so give you an example yesterday I was on call
I was working in an and my job was to Clark all of the patients who will be coming to hospital and that list is ever growing right it's always going to be full but it's getting more and fall you know I'm sure compared to a couple of years ago the list of the patients that we have to see who are waiting to be seen is slowly growing growing growing and I know that for a fact I know that the a any Department um at my hospital I know that it's not really fit for purpose the
numbers of patients that the a department is seeing is not the numbers that it was built to sustain essentially so I feel a huge amount of pressure when I'm on call when I'm on my job or even you know my day-to-day job on the ward to see as many patients as possible in the least amount of time there and again that's not that's not what I want to do you know I want to be able to sit down my patients and I want to be able to give them the time they deserve I want to
get to know them I want to get to know their family I want to talk to them I want to make a very accurate diagnosis and actually solve the problem that brought them to hospital not feel pressured to see them as quickly as I possibly can so that I can just move on to the next patient and keep this treadmill going so that's you know two points really the first being that I don't feel like it's it's fit for purpose a lot of the time and secondly the pressure of being you know having to see
as many people as I possibly can and you know really sort of um to do with that point as well it's looking after more patients with the same amount of doctors so sometimes I'll be on a Ward and we'll we'll randomly have a patient in our coridor that we're just expected to look after now you know the ward is built for let's say 25 beds but one day we'll come to the ward and there'll be 27 beds and you'll think I'll think to myself you know how how are we seeing two more people you know
there's not enough beds here there's not enough rooms and there'll literally be two patients in the corridor and we'll randomly create a bed because we just there's a patient who needed to be seen it's more patients that we need to look after with the same amount of doctors and the same amount of nurses and again that puts pressure on the staff it puts pressure on me because it means that I have to take you know maybe fewer breaks and you know I have to get through the W round I have to get through all the
jobs that are there so that definitely makes me feel a lot of pressure and again contributes overall to my job satisfaction and I really want to just reiterate that point you can't get to know your patients and I feel like medicine is changing a lot you know I've only been in medicine for the last 8 years or so but I imagine that maybe 15 years ago the landscape or the the culture of medicine was very different I feel like back then at least from what I've heard from my patients but also my family is that
back in the day you would know your GP you know your GP very well your GP will know your whole family if you want an appointment to see your GP like you can see one today or tomorrow when you're in hospital the same thing applies you know you'd get to know your your team very well you might be on the ward for a week or two weeks and you'll know the whole family you'll have time it won't be a 10-minute conversation or 5minute conversation like right now honestly the Consultants probably spend 2 or 3 minutes
with patients including myself I probably spend a bit more because I'm on the ward for a long amount of time you know we don't get much time with our patients again because of that pressure we feel I don't even know who my GP is if I'm honest with you I have not been to the GP in months not because I don't need a GP but because it's been impossible to try and get an appointment and I'm sure you guys who are watching this video probably are experiencing the same thing if you live in the UK
and you know go to the NHS so I feel like the landscape is changing so much and the culture is changing a lot and again that is just something that I just I just don't feel good about what makes the situation even worse although we are facing record numbers of patients that we see in hospital or G or in the GP every single day they just seems to be this this this poor Staffing level that is an Ever growing problem that is never fixed you know the W that I've been on um not right now
but the last SW that I've been on was chronically understaffed you know we always had below minimum safe levels from um of doctors of nurses and it's just a normal thing that people don't really like look into and fix right which which is just so weird there's been many times where I've been on call and I'm on call and there's there's supposed to be two registrars in the hospital one registar won't show up for whatever reason maybe they're sick or whatever and the other registar will just be expected to do the job of two registrars
and cover the entire Hospital of 600 patients and the weird thing is sometimes the doctors are just happy to do it like sometimes the doctors like no worries I'll I'll do their job but I I I I find that quite strange you know if I was the registra I would say no this is not fair on my patent and it's not fair on me you know why am I doing the job of two doctors and why is this normal like why is no one complaining to the seniors and often times we do complain we'll send
a message to the the road managers and Consultants say hold on this is you know we need more we need more doctors and that that just won't be solved like it's it's it's almost sort of accepted that this is just a standard um which is not very fair so staffing has been a big problem that has really really um you know made me not particularly happy over the last few months going back to the feeling the pressure right for what I spoke about earlier on every inch of the hospital is taken to look after these
patients and I'm glad of course that we put patients first but it's I think that it has to be a balance you know it has to be a balance between putting your patience first but also a balance with looking after the staff because if you don't look after the staff then you can't the staff can't look after patients right so it's actually a you know a sort of hierarchy that should be overturned I think staff should also be looked after equally to patients because again if you don't have good staff who are wellfed well rested
Etc then you won't have the the right level of of patient care essentially they won't be able to do their job and as I said every in of the hospital is being taken sometimes to to look after patients like I I'll show up to the ward to put down my bag you know before going to see my patients the place where I leave my bag which was previously like a cupboard has now been transformed to a patient bed and that's slowly been happening over the last few few months of working here every sort of corner
um which used to be a staff room or a well-being place for the for the staff every inch is is slowly being turned into an extra bed an extra Ward to look after the patients again because we're trying to deal with a huge demand of Health Care with not enough space you know with not enough hospitals and GPS being built fast enough to sustain that and again you know going back to the individual the doctor it makes it difficult because you don't no longer have that space to rest and recover to then go back to
your job on call or or you know wherever you are to give the care that you want to give to your patients so that's also quite an important um point that it's been definitely on my mind the last few days now I could honestly go on and on about this topic for for hours if I'm very honest with you but I want to keep this video short let me know if you want me to make a part two of this video guys but I want to quickly just touch on how this compared to Pediatrics and
why I'm really excited to be moving on to Pediatrics um over the next coming weeks um and months I will make a separate video on why I chose Pediatrics but again don't hold me to this guys I'm always allowed to change my opinion in the future but currently my thoughts are on Pediatrics and those are my current plans and very quickly I will touch on this so how does this compared to Pediatrics so in Pediatrics so staffing has never been an issue in any of the time that I've spent in Pediatrics over the last 2
years if there is a gap in the rotor if a doctor calls in sick or for whatever reason they will do whatever they can to make sure that there is a doctor who replaces that doctor even if it's the very last minute even if they have to pay someone four times their normal hourly rat to get the doctor to come to the hospital at 930 p.m. at the last minute to make sure that there is enough doctors to look after the patients and again not to put any more pressure on the stuff in Pediatrics there
is no room for failure because we're dealing with children and this should be the case for everyone whether you're a child or not but particularly because we're dealing with children there is no room for failure which means that we give the children that we see the absolute best care that they can possibly receive I've had my own family come to to my hospital where I work in Pediatrics multiple times and I feel very confident that they're going to be given the best care they possibly can they will get their scans straight away their CT heads
MRI heads what whatever they need it will get it in a timely manner also there is no patient in corridors let's just put it that way I'm not going to go into detail on this point but there are no patients waiting corridors there is enough place and beds for our patients in Pediatrics I also don't from a doctor perspective I don't feel rushed to see my patients as quickly as I possibly can even when I work in the emergency department in Pediatrics in the Pediatric assessment unit when I'm there I will spend and the team
as well will spend as much time as we possibly need to make sure that we have the correct diagnosis at the point at which we see the patient patient it's not simply a case of triaging the patient as quickly as we possibly can and sending them to the next Doctor no we we will sit there we will take a thorough history a thorough examination I will see the patient the registar will see the patient the consultant will see the patient they will have three doctors at different seniorities come and give their full attention and full
Focus to the patient but also the patients family to make sure that they're happy with the care that they're getting so that's also really important important point to to mention also again from a doctor's pers perspective because Pediatrics is a small group group of doctors you know it's not like 600 doctors that we have in Internal Medicine Pediatrics is its own sort of um corner of the hospital that is managed separately we get to know the team very well I know my Consultants my registrars the rest of the team the nurses so so well because
we're a close-knit group of people so the culture is very different when I'm in Pediatrics I feel like I'm I'm part of a family and um everyone cares about each other we look after each other we support each other and that honestly feels so so nice but yeah I don't want to go into too much detail and I don't want to keep comparing Pediatrics to adult medicine it's very different I know I'm not stupid like I know there are so many differences between the two and it's a very nuanced topic I will talk about why
I've chosen Pediatrics in a later video where I can go into a lot more detail about that uh cuz it is an important point but yeah I hope this has sort of explained my point of you guys I think it's on this channel I want to be as as open and as honest to you guys as much as I possibly can and that really is um you know the tip of the iceberg as to why over the last few months I've been counting down the days to move on to Pediatrics and finally leave ad medicine
so I hope you've enjoyed this video I hope it's been somewhat informative I I don't want it to be a complaining video but I want it to educate you guys maybe you're a medical student going into to to work as a doctor maybe you're a foreign doctor coming to the UK I hope it's been sort some sort of um you know been beneficial to you in some way or form if it has done please leave the video a thumbs up U make sure you subscribe with notifications on to never miss another upload leave a comment
down below as well if you if you're a doctor or not if you're a patient we're all patients at the end of the day and a citizen of the United Kingdom please leave your opinion Down Below in the comments I'd really love to have a conversation with you guys about your own perspective um from a patient's side or a doctor's side thank you so much for watching I'll see you guys on the next video
