Reflections of a newly appointed consultant.

I had no idea what kind of medicine I wanted to practise when I left medical school. What I did know was that I didn't want to do psychiatry, and I didn't want to do obstetrics and gynaecology. My father is a GP, and I thought I'd follow in his footsteps, but general practice struck me as a tough specialty. In my opinion the hardest job in the NHS to do well, but one of the easiest to do badly. I was jealous of my peers at medical school who loudly declared their love of a particular specialty, and trauma and orthopaedics was particularly popular. I ended up in Colchester, Essex where I met two people who changed my life forever.