Having been to many tens of thousands of ophthalmology registrar presentation competitions and seen the types of presentations that consistently impress the judges, as well as the ones that fail to make the grade, I feel it is my humble...
The crowd is gathering at the watering hole in the Serengeti that is Friday teaching at the Major Teaching Hospital. Would there be enough different species of consultant present or would there be insufficient numbers? If a critical mass of...
There she was. Sitting in the waiting room with her arms crossed, tut-tutting to herself and shaking her head mournfully every few minutes. We gazed at her from a safe distance while one of the nurses confirmed what we already...
There is a song by the Amateur Transplants called ‘Finals Fantasy’ which describes in humorous detail how stressful clinical exams can be. Having not done any viva or objectively structured clinical examination (OSCE) style exams for many years indeed I...
“How do I apply for expenses?” I asked one of the secretaries. The Royal Gwent Hospital was so far from home that I had been forced to rent one of their spartan on-site rooms in order to avoid a crippling...
Ike (Iqbal) K Ahmed is a pioneering ophthalmologist from Canada, currently serving as Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, and Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Utah. He is also the Research Fellowship Director, Department of Ophthalmology, University...
It is quite worrying how many registrars reach the final years of training without choosing a subspecialty. Sometimes this is because they love everything and cannot countenance giving any of it up, but more commonly this is due to various...
Firstly may I thank all of you who took the time to answer the survey. I hope you will agree that the findings are very interesting. From a medicolegal perspective we always consider the Bolam test which can be summarised...
The College of Optometrists has awarded three new Life Fellowships and two new Honorary Fellowships to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the profession or to the College.
Swansea University invited me to an Away Day. There was a whole day of lectures planned at a hotel conference suite just outside Swansea but due to clinic commitments I only caught the afternoon session; a ‘workshop’, on how to...
When I worked as a registrar at Newport many years ago I remember a no-nonsense corneal consultant railing about the way the tragic case of Lucie Linforth was being reported in the media. Lucie was a toddler taken into a...
One of the great disasters of becoming a consultant ophthalmologist is the massive increase in emails that then occurs. Every time I open my inbox in work it seems complete luck whether there are 50 or 90 emails waiting avidly...