Dr Catherine Kinane (MRCGP MICGP MRCPsych)
Name : Dr Catherine Kinane (MRCGP MICGP MRCPsych)
Employer : West Kent NHS and Social Care Trust
University : University College Cork
Subject : MBBCh BAO
Graduated : 1987
I originally wanted to be a doctor to understand how people worked biologically. I started training as a GP and during my trainee year, working in a rural practice, I became more interested in why people behaved as they did and decided to train in psychiatry. I worked for six months in the Middle East and then took up an SHO training rotation at Guy’s Hospital. I became a senior registrar in general adult psychiatry before specialising in forensic psychiatry. I worked in the private sector as a consultant before moving back to the NHS about two years ago. I have been working in my current position since then and became clinical director in May 2004.
Working life
During a typical week, I supervise an SHO and an SpR, and attend a variety of directorate meetings, trust-wide meetings, clinical team meetings, which patients attend, and departmental meetings. In addition to this I produce risk assessments on patients, work on court reports, which can take me to other hospitals or to prisons and hold case conferences on a variety of patients. There is a lot of medicolegal patient-focused work. I am scheduled to work a 40-hour week but quite often work longer hours. On-call hours are one day in five. I don’t have to be on site during these hours, but I am available to offer advice to junior doctors and I come in if there’s a serious problem.
Best and worst
It’s enormously rewarding when patients are successfully rehabilitated into society. It’s particularly gratifying when a patient reflects on their situation and says, ‘I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for this service’. It can be hard making decisions that are completely unwanted by the patient and having to accept their anger and resentment.
Don’t bother if...
...you do not enjoy detailed exploration of cases. You need to be able to pay attention to detail, be ordered in your thinking and potentially justify your decisions in court under cross-examination.