The Medical Professions Meeting

13th March 2018

The meeting this year was again a success especially in terms of its academic content with around 30 OMs, teaching staff and pupils enjoying a pleasant finger buffet supper in the surroundings of the Old Library of the Bart’s and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry at the The Royal London campus. We were pleased to welcome Richard Llewellyn, who assured me that as a lawyer he would still feel quite at home as he comes from a ‘family of dentists’.

The Scientific Programme was again fully provided by Old Millhillians who, on this occasion, each trained at the host Medical School. We started with two excellent short papers from James Berwin (Weymouth 1999-2004) and Amit Gupta (Weymouth 19992004) followed later by a stimulating Keynote Address, entitled Leading Change - hip replacements as we look to 2020, delivered by Pramod Achan FRCS (Ridgeway 1983-88), Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon to Bart’s Health NHS Trust.

Mr Achan discussed the future advances and developments in joint replacements with particular emphasis on hip surgery while reflecting on the history of this type of surgery. In addition he described the structure and size of modern orthopaedic and trauma units and how important it is for directors of such departments, of which he is one, to be skilled in man management and leadership. His talk was charismatically presented and inspirational to all ages within the audience but none more so than to the pupils from the Foundation. A better advertisement for a career in one of the medical professions and for the School in helping to shape Pramod’s career could not have been shown. It was fitting, therefore, that we welcomed Trevor Chilton and his wife to this event. Trevor was Head of Biology when Pramod was at the School and no doubt he contributed greatly to Pramod’s preparation for a career in medicine.

The programme also included an energetic and stimulating presentation from Leanne Armitage, past recipient of the Donald Hall ABC Bursary and