Dr Mohsin Malik (FRCPCH)
Name : Dr Mohsin Malik (FRCPCH)
Employer : East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust and Royal Free Hospital, London
University : Nishtar Medical College, Bahauddin Zakariya University
Subject : MMBS
Graduated : 1985
After my medical degree I started work as a paediatric SHO in the hospital attached to my medical college. Paediatrics was not my first choice at the time but I was hooked on the specialty within a year. I also worked in a rural health centre for 2 years where I was the only doctor serving population of over quarter of million. I moved to the UK in 1993 and completed a year as an SHO before I was appointed as a specialist registrar. Within six years I had completed my CSST in paediatrics and paediatric gastroenterology.
Working life
Each week my work takes me all over East Kent. I run three clinics at my base hospital, QEQM in Margate; I also do outreach clinics at the child development centre in Hythe, King Fisher Centre in Broadstairs and William Harvey Hospital, Ashford. I work at the Royal Free Hospital one day a week in my paediatric gastroenterologist capacity. I am also a college tutor so I am responsible for teaching junior doctors at all stages of their training; I enjoy teaching – it’s my passion probably because I had some great teachers. My typical working hours are 8.30 am to 5.30 pm. On-call hours are one day in five and one weekend in every five, which involves being on call from Friday through to Monday.
My career highlight
My subspecialty is paediatric gastroenterology and nutrition. When I started at my Trust back in 2002 there were no clinics covering this specialty – most children with GI problems had to go to London. Now we provide tertiary level services locally at Margate. We run two multidisciplinary feeding clinics a month. We have also established regular endoscopy services. We are, in fact, the first team in the country to do paediatric endoscopies under a special form of anaesthesia, which is more pleasant for children, and also means a shorter stay in hospital. Last year a team from Great Ormond Street Hospital came to observe this service. My team in Margate and I are very proud of this achievement.
Best and worst
Children are the best patients to work with. I’ve seen children with life-threatening conditions but they don’t moan constantly – they just take things on board and get on with it. They also respond quickly to treatment which is very rewarding and enjoyable. It’s always sad to lose a child but the toughest part of the job is dealing with children who are victims of abuse.
The realities of paediatrics
People view paediatrics as a difficult area because children are often not able to tell you where they feel pain or what’s wrong with them, but once you start to understand children it becomes easier to make a diagnosis. In other specialties, you may just be dealing with the patient but in paediatrics the family of the child is equally important in helping you to get a full picture of the child’s problems. It’s also easy to forget that children are much more resilient than adults and respond more quickly to treatment.