All 8 episodes of my BBC Radio 4 podcast, Doctor Doctor, are available on BBC Sounds. It was a privilege to interview such inspiring colleagues
My BBC Radio 4 Archive on 4 programme, How I Ruined Medicine, was broadcast in July 2023 as part of the “NHS at 75” coverage and is available on BBC Sounds.
My previous Radio 4 series, Dr Phil’s Bedside Manner, is also available, as is my interview for The Confessional with Stephen Mangan.
Struck Off and Die’s Complete Radio 4 Series Collection (1990-2001), co-written and performed with Tony Gardner, is available on audible. Some of it is dated, cruel and inappropriate (sorry), some of it still makes me laugh. And it’s a good reminder of what has, and hasn’t, changed in medical culture.
I also have seven books in print or on Kindle
2022 Dates
Southwold Arts Festival June 28
Tickets here
Lymm Festival June 30
Tickets here
Tringe Comedy Festival July 20
Tickets here
Hen and Chicken, Bristol July 21
Tickets here
Widcombe Social Club, Bath July 22
Tickets here
Edinburgh Fringe 2022
Tickets are now on sale for my two shows at the Edinburgh Fringe 2022 @edfringe
“Dr Hammond’s Covid Inquiry” and
“How I Ruined Medicine”.
Please share & come if you’re there. Thanks x
August 2021
Dr Phil Hammond has a new book and a new radio series.
and
Enjoy!
For all enquiries, please contact Cheryl Hayes at Vivienne Clore Talent Agency
cheryl@vivienneclore.com, 0207 497 0849, vivienneclore.com
Edinburgh 2019 (for nostalgics)
DR PHIL HAMMOND
Edinburgh Fringe 2019
A Dr Phil Double Bill
Prices: £12/ concessions £10. 2 for 1 Friends of Fringe
Venue BO: 0131 510 2385
Fringe BO: 0131 226 0000
Suitable for 14+
Description
In “The Great Health Con”, Dr Phil ponders why we spend trillions on ‘health’ when, like Brexit, no one can agree what it means. So who’s conning who? The causes of poor health have less to do with what’s going on inside our bodies and more to do with who’s shitting in our heads. Advertising, Inequality, Big Pharma, Bad Porn…
Dr Phil, perhaps unwisely, uses his own mental and sexual health as examples. And his favourite drug is kindness – it works for everyone and it’s very hard to get the dose wrong. So why do we still treat poverty with statins and alienation with anti-depressants? And who’s most likely to kill you; doctors, druids or the DUP? It’s time to take back control of our health. Together, and free from bullshit.
Tickets on sale here
(not 6, 14, 15, 20)
Prices: £12/ concessions £10. 2 for 1 Friends of Fringe
Venue BO: 0131 510 2384
Fringe BO: 0131 226 0000
Suitable for 14+
Description
In “Vote Dr Phil?”, Phil charts his ill-considered plan to topple his MP, Jacob Rees-Mogg, before having a pop at Health Secretary. His campaign got off to a glorious start when he was sacked by the BBC for broadcasting to potential constituents. Undeterred, Dr Phil has made a thorough diagnosis of our terminal political system and has some radical solutions to put the pulse, hope and compassion back into public service and public services. Come hear his People’s Plan for the NHS, support Decent Jobs and Deaths For All and join The Popular Front Against All Things Bad. In the case of a snap election, this show may be retrospective. In the case of somebody discovering photos of what he really got up to at medical school, Dr Phil may abruptly retire from politics citing ill health.
Tickets on sale here
“If Dr Phil were a medicine, you should swig him by the litre” The Times ****
“One of the most entertainingly subversive people on the planet.” The Guardian
“Hugely enjoyable, well crafted, poignant stand up” Broadway Baby 2016 ****
“Hammond is a passionate rabble rouser and impressively positive…. the perfect health secretary” Fest Magazine 2016 ****
“Very funny, honest, clever and moving. Passionate about the NHS” Dr Clive Peedell, founder National Health Action Party
Here’s my previous show, ‘Life and Death…. but Mainly Death’
It’s my most personal show, with a few harsh truths, home truths and lies for laughs. But there are lots of positive health messages too. Feel free to share
For all other enquiries, please contact Shelley Devlin at the Richards Stone Partnership shelley@vivienneclore.com, 0207 497 0849
Biog
Dr Phil Hammond can talk seriously or humorously, and usually both, about any health and lifestyle topic. He has been an NHS doctor for 32 years, a comedian for 23 years, a BBC broadcaster for 29 years and Private Eye’s medical correspondent for 27 years. He qualified as a doctor in 1987, was a part time GP for 20 years, spent 5 years in sexual health and currently works as an associate specialist in paediatrics in an NHS team helping young people with chronic fatigue. Phil presented five series of Trust Me, I’m a Doctor on BBC2, and has appeared many times on Have I Got News For You, the News Quiz, the Now Show and Countdown.
Phil has been a Lecturer in Medical Communication at the Universities of Birmingham and Bristol. As a journalist, he broke the story of the Bristol heart scandal in 1992, and gave evidence to the subsequent Public Inquiry. In 2012, Phil and Andrew Bousfield were shortlisted for the Martha Gellhorn Prize for investigative journalism for their Private Eye special report on the shocking treatment of NHS whistle-blowers, Shoot the Messenger. He has twice been named in the top 100 NHS Clinical Leaders by the Health Service Journal, and was voted Teacher of the Year by the medical students of Birmingham University. He was revalidated by the GMC in 2018 with the best patient satisfaction ratings his appraiser had ever seen (largely down to the fact that he is the only doctor in the NHS who gives 90-minute appointments)
With David Spicer, Phil wrote 5 series of the medico-political satire ‘Polyoaks’ for Radio 4, and five books including ‘Staying Alive’ and ‘Sex, Sleep or Scrabble?.’ Phil was half of the award-winning comedy junior doctor double act Struck Off and Die with Tony Gardner, and has done four UK solo comedy tours, teaching audiences how to pleasure themselves sensibly and take the pressure off the NHS. His show, ‘Happy Birthday NHS?’ celebrates its 70th birthday and provides a road map for its salvation. It toured in 2018.
Phil presented his own BBC Radio Bristol show for 12 years, ‘Dr Phil’s Saturday Surgery’ before being sacked by the BBC in August 2018 for tweeting that he would stand against his local MP, Jacob Rees-Mogg, at the next election. Having previously been assured he would only have to stand down during purdah, the BBC did a U-turn when they realised Rees-Mogg could demand his own radio show to broadcast to constituents. This story, and Phil’s subsequent campaign to become health secretary, is featured in Phil’s 2019 Edinburgh Fringe show Vote Dr Phil? His other fringe show, The Great Health Con, explores how and why we spend trillions pursuing ‘health’ without understanding what it means. Phil speaks widely on the daily habits of health – CLANGERS (Connect, Learn, (be) Active, Notice, Give back, Eat well, Relax, Sleep – and tries to practice what he preaches.
Phil has been married to Jo, a GP, for 26 years and she is the main reason he is so healthy. They live in North East Somerset, just a condom’s throw away from Jacob Rees-Mogg. His hat is still in the ring to stand at the next election as an independent candidate promoting intelligent kindness and health for all.
GET THE CLANGERS HABIT AND SAVE THE NHS
The daily habits of healthy, happy people are easy to say but harder to do. Try to do your daily CLANGERS, and help others to do theirs. Changes in lifestyle are far more powerful than any drug we have to offer.
My review in The Times of Dr Rachel Clarke’s riveting medico-political memoir ‘Your Life in My Hands’, which details the pressures felt by NHS junior doctors working in an unsafe system, and the desperation that lead them to strike. Uncomfortable reading for Jeremy Hunt and the BMA
SUPPORTING JUNIOR DOCTORS
A SEVEN DAY NHS NEEDS MORE STAFF AND FUNDING TO BE SAFE AND HUMANE
Here’s my BBC NEWS interview about junior doctors. You can’t have a ‘truly 7 day NHS’ without truly 7 day funding and 7 day safe staffing levels. For junior doctors alone it would require another 4,000 to have the same high quality, safe care 7 days a week – you can’t just stretch 5 days’ staffing over 7. the same applies to all other groups of NHS staff. The 7 day NHS is an aspiration that will take time, training, inspiration and involvement to achieve. It can’t be brutally imposed to a political deadline with no funding or staffing.
WHISTLEBLOWING IN THE NHS
Has anything really changed since 2011? Has any NHS whistle-blower been compensated or reinstated? Is it any safer to blow the whistle in the NHS?
‘Shoot the Messenger’ – a Private Eye special investigation by Phil Hammond and Andrew Bousfield into how NHS whistle-blowers are silenced and sacked was shortlisted for the Martha Gellhorn prize for journalism 2011. Available to download here
TO BOOK A SHOW FOR ANOTHER VENUE, AND FOR ALL OTHER INQUIRIES, PLEASE CONTACT SHELLEY DEVLIN OR VIVIENNE CLORE AT shelley@vivienneclore.com, vivienne@vivienneclore.com, 0207 497 0849
Dr Phil Hammond
NEW BOOK
Staying Alive – How to get the best from the NHS – is full of inspirational stories from patients and carers and glued together with my own reflections of working in, thinking about and investigating the NHS over 30 years. You can read the reviews or add your own tips and tactics here
‘This is a fantastic book about how to live well. Phil Hammond’s goes beyond the usual tips about diet and exercise – we hear about the power of positive thinking, as well as how to get the best out of the health service. And this book is packed with real stories – from people who have become survival experts through their own experiences. Their stories are heartwarming, enlightening and useful.
Phil Hammond has a knack of being brutally honest and very funny at the same time. This is quite simply the most useful book about health and the health service that I’ve ever read.’
Professor Alice Roberts BSc MB BCh PhD Hon.FBAASc
Anatomist, author & broadcaster
Professor of Public Engagement in Science, University of Birmingham
www.alice-roberts.co.uk
NEW BOOK and EBOOK – WHAT DOCTORS REALLY THINK
AVAILABLE HERE
“This is a real find; funny, poignant, thoughtful, worrying, reassuring, and so good it should be on prescription.”
–Roy Lilley @RoyLilley
“Smart and funny, Phil Hammond is the perfect way to inoculate yourself against the nonsense which passes for most health commentary.”
–Alastair McLellan – Editor, Health Service Journal @HSJEditor
“A fascinating insider’s history of the past sixteen years of the NHS. This wise, witty and often moving diary reveals what really went on behind the political and managerial bluster. So well written it turned me into a compulsive page turner.”
–Dr Michael O’Donnell, author of The Barefaced Doctor, a Mischievous Medical Companion
With cartoons by Fran Orford
PREVIOUS TOURS
‘GAMES TO PLAY WITH YOUR DOCTOR’ CLIP
Phil Hammond is an NHS doctor, campaigner, health writer, investigative journalist, broadcaster, speaker and comedian. He has done all these jobs imperfectly and part-time since 1987, and was also a lecturer in medical communication at the Universities of Birmingham and Bristol. As a doctor, Phil worked part time in general practice for over 20 years, and has also worked in sexual health. He currently works in a specialist NHS team for young people with chronic fatigue syndrome/ME.
Phil presented five series of Trust Me, I’m a Doctor on BBC2, and has been a presenter for BBC Radio Bristol since 2007. He is Private Eye’s medical correspondent, broke the story of the Bristol heart scandal in 1992 and gave evidence to the subsequent Public Inquiry. In 2012, he was shortlisted with Andrew Bousfield for the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Investigative Journalism for ‘Shoot the Messenger,’ a Private Eye investigation into the shocking treatment of NHS whistle-blowers. In 2014 and 2015, he was voted a Top 100 NHS Clinical Leader by the Health Service Journal. He has fiercely supported NHS junior doctors in their battle with the government against an imposed, untested and potentially unsafe new job contract.
As a comedian, Phil was half of the award winning double-act Struck Off and Die, with Tony Gardner. He has done three solo UK tours and is returning to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2016 with two shows – Life and Death (But Mainly Death) and Dr Phil’s NHS Revolution. Phil has appeared many times on Have I Got News for You and Countdown. His NHS comedy, Polyoaks, is written with David Spicer and has had three series on BBC Radio 4. He is a columnist for Telegraph Men and Reveal, and writes comment pieces for the Times. Phil is a patron of Meningitis UK, the Doctors’ Support Network, the Herpes Viruses Association, PoTS, the NET Patient Foundation and Kissing It Better.
Phil has never belonged to any political party but was highly critical of the Health and Social Care Bill (now Act) in a BBC1 Question Time debate with then health secretary Andrew Lansley. He said the reforms were ‘wonk’, there was no convincing narrative explaining the reasons for the changes and that the focus on competition rather than the collaboration and co-operation needed for an integrated service.
Phil has written five books – Medicine Balls, Trust Me, I’m (Still) a Doctor and Sex, Sleep or Scrabble? ‘What do Doctors Really Think?’ and ‘Staying Alive – How to Get the Best from the NHS’.
Phil was revalidated by the GMC in September 2013. Below is the feedback from his colleagues and patients for my revalidation 360_feedback_Dr_Philip_Hammond[1]
Real time reviews of my consultations from patients and parents can be found here
My NHS work is as part of a specialist NHS team in Bath, treating young people with severe fatigue, based at the Royal United Hospital in Bath. Details of the service we offer are here. Good advice on accessing specialist CFS/ME services and treatments available can be found via the the Action for ME website
I can’t give any personal medical advice via this site, and I don’t do any private practice.
Praise for Dr Phil’s comedy
“One of the most entertainingly subversive people on the planet.” The Guardian
“Tough on doctors, patients and politicians. And he’s funny.” The Telegraph
“Sceptical, irreverent, very funny and like a mighty gush of fresh air in a field that’s bedevilled with cover ups and cloaked in a vow of silence” Time Out
“Generates dozens of laughs and more ire than any amount of tentative taboo-breaching” The Financial Times
‘If Dr Phil were a medicine, you should swig him by the litre’ **** The Times
‘Consistently funny’ ***** The Sunday Telegraph
“You’ll never see a doctor in quite the same way again.” ***** The Scotsman
To read Phil’s Private Eye columns, written under the pseudonym MD, click on… er… Private Eye.
These action shots were taken in 1988, by photographer Homer Sykes, when glasses were riduclously big and babies were ridiculously slippery.
Dr Phil and Dr Tony, then and now
Struck Off and Die’s first ever performance, Bristol, 1990
Dr Tony’s Braineater, Berkley Brasserie Bristol 1990
Dr Phil’s First Stand-Up, Berkley Brasserie, Bristol 1990
