Why I became an occupational physician ...
Email: noemail{at}som.org.uk
I have read with great interest the accounts given by various occupational physicians, on their reasons for entering occupational medicine. Perhaps my own career, which involved a more positive choice than serendipity, will add to the pot pourri.
In the 1950s, I applied for a short service commission in the Royal Navy in order to enter my preferred choice of service. After some 2 years at sea, including the Gulf and East Indies, I moved to the Fleet Air Arm, specializing in aviation medicine. On leaving the regular navy, I transferred to the London Division of the Royal Naval Reserve, where I served for a further 24 years.
In 1960, I invested in a year's study at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where I was fortunate to be taught by Richard Schilling and Austin Bradford Hill. This enabled me to be appointed to the British Overseas Airway Corporation. My main job there was looking after flying staff. I was for many years an authorized medical examiner, although I was seconded for a short period as medical adviser to the emerging Nigeria Airways in Lagos.
I became senior medical officer at Royal Aircraft Establishment Farnborough, the home of British aviation. Then in 1972, following political changes in the Heath Administration, I was appointed Director of Civilian Medical Services in the Procurement Executive of the Ministry of Defence, a post I held for some 14 years. This involved running one of the largest multidisciplinary occupational health services in the UK and arguably the most diverse, covering some 40 sites. I was fortunate in having a talented team of occupational physicians, occupational health nurses and occupational hygienists.
I chaired the Ministry of Defence Occupational Health Committee for 11 years. Another interest was as Chairman of the Royal Navy's Underwater Personnel Research Committee, whose work on deep saturation diving was conducted at the Royal Naval Physiological Laboratory.
My work also led to my membership for some 10 years of the Anglo-French Concorde Aeromedical Subcommittee. These were exciting years, when one felt, albeit in a small way, part of the cutting edge of aerospace technology.
At sixty, I was able to work part time at the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston, part of my old bailiwick, for doctors I had appointed and helped to train. This is sometimes called role reversal and was for me salutary.
The seeds of my interest in Occupational Medicine were sown at Aberdeen University and flourished in the armed services. My positive choice enabled me to work with, and for, some of the best scientific and engineering talents in the UK and offered a variety of challenges denied to many.
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