January-March | 2019 ay in the Life of our lead consultant D NAME:
Dr Malaki Ramogi Clinical Lead for
ROLE: ESHS LOCATION:
ESHS Clinic, 66 High Street, Colchester
Dr Malaki Ramoji provides the clinical leadership for the ESHS. Under the ESHS model of care, it is the nurses who are responsible for assessing patients and deciding on the appropriate treating practitioner, with doctors supporting the management of care, led and delivered by nurses. In this relatively new way of doing things, the consultants and specialty doctors are able to focus on complex care whilst supporting nurses managing more routine interventions. Alongside delivering specialist sexual health services, Dr Ramogi supports the nurses through training and supervision, to deliver safe and effective integrated sexual health interventions for the people of Essex.
Like many of my colleagues, there is no such thing as a typical day in my role with ESHS. For the purposes of this interview I have settled on a Thursday because it covers the broad range of work that I am involved in as part of the ESHS Team. It is a bright and sunshiny Thursday morning. I was up around 6.30am today, as I am most weekdays, to give me enough time to drop my oldest daughter off at Colchester station to catch the train to London, where she is at college, before starting my working day. I get into the office around 8.30am. The clinic is in Colchester town centre, at 66 High Street – a former post office building across the road from Castle Park. My morning is taken up with our ‘consultant’ clinic which I conduct alongside other appointment lists managed by other members of the team. The appointments on my list start at 9am and continue until 12.30pm and are generally more complex presentations referred on by my nurse and doctor colleagues for my assessment as clinical lead. Under our new and innovative nurse-led service model, our nurses
www.eshs.org.uk | 0300 003 1212
Dr Malaki Ramogi are now delivering and managing a range of integrated sexual health care, including contraception management as well as testing, diagnosing, treating and following-up clients. What is great about this new way of working is that it has given nurses the opportunity to develop a broader range of skills and work with clients covering a broader range of needs. There are times when people coming in have complex needs or require a view from clinicians with more specialist knowledge and skills. This is where my consultant clinic comes in.
People are referred to my clinic for a variety of reasons. They might have been seen by the nurse who wants some specialist input, or by their GP, or at hospital by other specialties and they need specialist assessment and management by a consultant. The first patient of the day is a gentleman who has had multiple spots on his body and in the genital area. His GP is not sure if they are normal moles or maybe a viral infection, and has referred the patient to me for a specialist opinion. The patient wanted some advice on the right treatment, because this is a long-standing problem and the diagnosis was not clear. By speaking to him and examining him, I am able to come to a clear diagnosis and establish a clear plan on how we are going to manage the condition. In a realistic way, I am able to explain to the patient that it may require multiple visits and we may try different treatments.
@ESHS.Essex
@Provide_CIC PNL-3126-1908-01