Why I became an occupational physician ...
Milton Keynes
Email: John.E.Sorrell{at}BTInternet.com
It all started when I was a partner in a rural general practice. It was decided at a partners' meeting one Monday in 1985 that we should all find a clinical assistantship. Our village had a government establishment on its boundary and regularly the Civil Service occupational physician in London requested a medical report about a patient of mine employed there. That Monday I put a postscript on the latest report I had written. ‘If you ever need any help locally I might be interested.’ Dr Tony Haines, from the Civil Service Occupational Health Service, telephoned me saying he would value some help. Within a few weeks of a pub lunch with Tony I was doing a session a week at this establishment. It took me about three sessions to realize I was out of my depth and knew nothing about occupational medicine. Panic discussions with Tony encouraged me to consider the Manchester Distance Learning Course which I completed and enjoyed enormously, particularly the ‘summer school’.
I studied for and passed the AFOM in 1989. The AFOM Journal was a problem, as the government establishment would not give me permission to record my work activities there for security reasons. Cap in hand I approached Eoin Hodgson, who was then medical director of Milton Keynes Occupational Health Service (MKOHS), for help with occupational experience that I could use for my exam journal. Eoin was tremendously supportive and he arranged my contact with a wide range of workplace environments throughout Milton Keynes. I battled on in general practice as a general practitioner (GP) trainer but the sessional occupational medicine was becoming an increasingly important part of my professional life. I had joined ALAMA and SOM and the regular contact with other occupational health colleagues fed my enthusiasm for the subject. I started to do sessions with MKOHS and increasingly felt that I wanted to specialize. Eoin, now at Oxford University, continued to encourage me and in 1994, aged 47 and after 18 years as a GP, I took the plunge and set up as an independent occupational physician. MKOHS was one of my clients and I became their medical director, Eoin agreed to become my supervisor for my specialist training until his untimely death and I eventually became MFOM and accredited in August 2000. MKOHS (one of the original Charitable Occupational Health Trusts) became MKOH (a private company) and the range and diversity of workplaces I became involved with grew rapidly. I still live in the village where I was a GP and not once have I had a twinge of regret about my career change. I feel that the GP experience was a vital background for my current job but the only regret I have is that I did not switch my career 10 years earlier.
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