Katrina Erskine (MRCP, MRCOG, MD)

Name : Katrina Erskine (MRCP, MRCOG, MD)
Employer : Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London
University : UCL
Subject : MBBS
Graduated : 1980

As a pre-registration house officer I spent six months in general medicine and six months in general surgery. I then did a six-month SHO post in O&G and I really enjoyed it. In those days, junior doctors had to spend a year doing something outside their chosen specialty so I did a year’s medicine concentrating on diabetes, ICU, cardiology and also did some research – which led to an MD in preeclampsia. I later became a registrar at King’s and Greenwich Hospitals, then became a senior registrar at UCL. I started at St Bartholomew’s & Homerton Hospital in 1992.

Working in obstetrics and gynaecology

O&G is a varied discipline, made up of medicine, surgery and psychology. I get involved in aspects of medicine where you can make a real difference to lives every day, such as helping a woman through a miscarriage or dealing with an early, difficult caesarean. I enjoy my job and feel privileged to be doing it. I get a buzz when junior doctors tell me that I have encouraged them to go into O&G. In a typical week I spend time on the labour ward and operating theatre; do ante-natal clinics, specialist clinics for women with HIV or diabetes and general gynaecology clinics; meet with midwives and senior doctors to discuss patients, clinical negligence cases or protocol development; work a day in private practice; discuss research with a research registrar; and see women who have had abnormal smears. I generally work 8.00 am to 5.00 pm and am on call one weekend in eight. To work in O&G you need to have good diagnostic, delegation and interpersonal skills and be inherently cheerful!

The realities

The most common misconception that the public have about O&G is that doctors like doing caesareans and hysterectomies. On the contrary, we are keen for women to have normal births and the hysterectomy rate in this country has dropped dramatically in recent years. The toughest aspect of the job from the doctor’s viewpoint is the number of complaints – O&G has the highest amount of litigation of any specialty. That said, the pluses of this field far outweigh the minuses. It’s a varied, exciting area offering opportunities in, for example, infertility, foetal medicine and gynaecological cancer.