Year: 2010 | drphilhammond.com

Archive - Year: 2010

September 1, 2010

Dr Phil’s Private Eye Column, Issue 1270 September 1

A solicitor writes…

MD has received a disturbing e mail Huw Morgan, a Medical Protection Society solicitor representing a pathologist who has given evidence to the University Hospitals Bristol (UHB) Pathology Inquiry: ‘It has been alleged that it was he who provided you and/or Private Eye with the information regarding such services which appeared in the 2009 issue(s) of that magazine, shortly before the Inquiry was set up. This is not the case; however he is concerned that such any such mistaken belief on the part of Panel members might be an adverse factor in their assessment of the evidence which he has given to them.’

MD has never had any contact with the pathologist, and the public money used to fund the Inquiry (£464,000 to the end of June 2010) would be better spent focusing on the specific allegations of misdiagnosis in specialist adult and paediatric pathology. Equally important is to ascertain whether appropriate action was taken to investigate the allegations. Concerns about the lack of specialist paediatric pathologists date back to 2001: ‘Over the next 2 years paediatric work was done by adult pathologists with disastrous results, particularly in the fields of childrens’ cancers and Hirschsprung disease.’ An overseas paediatric pathologist was appointed but he was reported to the GMC and removed his name form the medical register in 2004 to avoid investigation.

Allegations about the misreporting of specialist adult pathology were first raised in 2004, and NHS Bristol, the lead commissioner for UHB, has known about concerns at least since October 2007. Detailed allegations were put in writing ‘through the correct channels’ in 2007 and 2008, and the Royal College of Pathologists were aware of them long before the inquiry prompted by the Eye’s exposure in June 2009. UHB is a Foundation Trust, largely divorced from central control and supposedly accountable to its patients. It has ordered and paid for its own inquiry, agreed the terms and the statistical analysis and controls how much of the final report enters the public domain. This story is as much a failure of management as of pathology. In the 15 months since the first Eye column, UHB’s chief executive has resigned, the medical director and head of pathology have found jobs elsewhere and the report seems delayed by an ill-advised hunt for the Eye’s source.

Oxford critics beware…

In 2004, a public health specialist wrote a paper published in the British Medical Journal1 which suggested on the basis of an analysis of administrative data that Oxford had high mortality for paediatric cardiac surgery. Well before publication, two letters were sent to the Radcliffe Infirmary giving details of the results, and a reply from the Medical Director of the Trust did not dispute the figures. After publication, 16 doctors from the Oxford unit wrote to the GMC, disputing the figures and asking whether the author had ‘acted unprofessionally in bringing potentially very harmful information into the public domain in this manner.’ The author underwent a very stressful 4 month investigation, before the GMC decided that the publication of a scientific article in a major peer reviewed journal did not amount to a malicious or unfounded criticism of colleagues. Child heart surgery in Oxford is now suspended following the latest independent analysis which revealed long-standing cultural and management problems, and that ‘between 2000 and 2008, 9 deaths occurred in children undergoing less common procedures, 5.29 times the expected death rate.’ This was before a new surgeon arrived in 2009 and suffered four deaths in fifteen operations (4.8 times the expected death rate). (see Eye 1268) The authors are doubtless awaiting their letters from the GMC…..

1 BMJ 2004;329:825-9

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August 22, 2010

Dr Phil’s Private Eye Column Issue 1269 20.8.10

Filed under: Private Eye — Tags: Bolsin, Watkinson, Whistleblowing — Dr. Phil @ 1:01 pm

Rewarding Whistleblowers

Well done Channel 4 News and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism for their exposure of the widespread use of taxpayers’ money to silence NHS whistleblowers (Ch 4 news, 2.8.10). Many employment contracts still have gagging clauses and most doctors who invoke the Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA) to raise concerns about unsafe or fraudulent practice reach a settlement with their employer to prevent concerns being made public. Superficially, this smells of whistleblowers bottling it and taking the money, but when you look at the experience of those who refuse to be silenced, there’s no great incentive to do the right thing.

The NHS’s most famous whistleblower, Dr (now Professor) Stephen Bolsin, was praised in Parliament for raising concerns about standards of child heart surgery in Bristol nearly 20 years ago, and his actions were fully vindicated by a Public Inquiry. Yet he became unemployable in the NHS and relocated to Australia, where he continued his excellent work in monitoring clinical outcomes. Had Bolsin remained in the NHS, it is inconceivable that small units would have been allowed to continue operating and the Oxford heart scandal would have been avoided (Eye last).

If Andrew Lansley is genuine in his desire to support whistleblowers, he should consider formal recognition of Bolsin’s bravery1. The Mid Staffs inquiry will doubtless show that staff were either too afraid to blow the whistle, or too easily silenced, despite the many avoidable deaths occurring around them. NHS whistleblowers are vulnerable and isolated, and have few role models. The public recognition of Bolsin’s legacy would go some way to making it acceptable to speak up.
For whistleblowers who want to go the distance, the best chance of being heard is to go to court. In the UK, any payouts tend to be swallowed up by legal expenses and loss of earnings. But in the US, whistleblowers are rewarded handsomely if they help the government bring a successful case. In May, the New England Journal of Medicine followed up 26 successful whistleblowers from the pharmaceutical industry 2. On average each received $3 million for speaking up, with the range going from $100,000 to $42 million. Last September, Pfizer paid $2.3 billion to settle allegations that they illegally marketed a painkiller, Bextra, which has now been withdrawn. A proportion of the settlement was divided between the 6 whistleblowers.

Whistleblowers are rarely motivated by money, and nearly all try to ‘go through the correct channels’ first before going public. And even a large payout is scant consolation for the emotional exhaustion and stress of speaking out. In May, an employment tribunal found that John Watkinson, a former chief executive of the Royal Cornwall NHS Trust, was sacked for blowing the whistle on the failure of the Trust and Strategic Health Authority to consult the public adequately before moving cancer services. An independent review has now agreed that public consultation was inadequate, but the Trust is appealing against the tribunal findings. They accept that Watkinson was unfairly dismissed but challenge that he was a whistleblower, wary off the unlimited damages that are supposed to be awarded to sacked whistleblowers under PIDA. In the meantime, Watkinson remains unemployed – and like Bolsin, probably unemployable in the NHS.

As well as publically recognizing whistleblowers, Lansley needs to place a statutory duty on all NHS employers to report all serious concerns about patient safety or fraud to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Monitor for investigation and publication. Gagging clauses, and attempts to buy the silence of public sector workers raising genuine concerns in the public interest, must be outlawed. Whether the CQC and Monitor have the independence, expertise and resources to deal with all the NHS’s dirty secrets remains to be seen, but the practice of damage limitation, either by paying off staff or ordering secret ‘independent’ inquiries that never see the light of day, must end.

1 www.steve-bolsin.com/ 2 www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsr0912039

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August 1, 2010

Patient Involvement – Bristol Fashion

Filed under: Bristol Pathology Inquiry — Dr. Phil @ 2:51 pm

Bristol waits with interest for the report of the Histopathology Inquiry into allegations of misdiagnosis at University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust. Will whistleblowers be heroes or villains? Will the report say whether 26 specific allegations of misdiagnosis were upheld by external reviewing pathologists or not? Will any clinical and managerial failings have been fully investigated and reported? To quote a statement from the BRI Heart Inquiry,”the arguments will be lost if the story is focussed on personalities and not the issues”

Meanwhile the Primary Care Trusts of Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire are pressing ahead with a long overdue review of Bristol’s Pathology Services and have included Weston Super Mare as well.

Local patient groups support changes to Bristol’s Pathology services that will lead to safer, higher quality, more cost effective services. They were looking forward to involvement in a post-election style NHS Service Review – “no decision about me without me”.

But the PCTs don’t seem to have got the message. Without consulting any patient or public groups, they decided to recruit an Independent Lay Member, through an NHS recruitment process, to the Pathology Review Project Board. Although the role is to be “independent” of the NHS, the PCTs have indicated that former Non-Executive NHS Directors are especially welcome to apply.

The successful applicants have been shortlisted by an NHS panel and were to be interviewed by a panel made up entirely of NHS staff, until patients and members of the public objected.

The NHS has now unilaterally decided that two Lay Members of the Project Board will be appointed to be “independent” of the NHS by an interview Panel – where one interviewer is a representative of a Local Involvement Network (LINks) and the rest (three) are NHS staff. Patient and public members of the review will be permitted to elect two additional lay people to the Project Board.

The result of all this is that there will be four lay members of the Project Board – two appointed through an NHS appointments process (where the lay interviewer is outnumbered three to one by NHS staff), to be “independent” of the NHS, – and two elected by their peers.

The role of the NHS appointed Lay Members of the Project Board is to “ensure that the review is open and transparent”. Perhaps they could start with scrutinising the openness and transparency of their own appointment process?

It’s not clear what happens if the two NHS lay appointees disagree on any issue with the patient/public lay appointees.

NHS has the casting vote perhaps?

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July 30, 2010

Dr Phil’s Private Eye Column Issue 1269, August 4, 2010

Filed under: Private Eye — Tags: Oxford heart inquiry — Dr. Phil @ 8:00 am

Oxford Heart Inquiry

Ever since exposing the Bristol heart scandal in 1992, the Eye has argued that complex child heart surgery should concentrated in fewer, more specialized centres. Now, thanks to the rank amateurishness exposed in the Oxford heart inquiry, small units may finally have to merge. The report has many echoes of Bristol, where between 30 and 35 children less than one year died than might have been expected at a typical unit at the time. In Oxford, the numbers were smaller, because surgeon Caner Salih blew the whistle himself after four deaths in fifteen operations between December 2009 and February 2010 (4.8 times the expected death rate). But between 2000 and 2008, 9 deaths occurred in children undergoing less common procedures, 5.29 times the expected death rate. In a nutshell, such a small unit should have ceased doing complex paediatric cardiac surgery after the Bristol report a decade ago, and must never be allowed to again.

Prior to the arrival of Mr Salih in December 2009, the Oxford Radcliffe Infirmary had a single paediatric heart surgeon, Professor Steven Westaby, dividing his time between adult and paediatric work. For over four years, Oxford had the equivalent of half a child heart surgeon, on call twenty four hours a day, every day of the year. When Mr Salih arrived from Melbourne, Professor Westaby took a deserved three week holiday. So a new, relatively inexperienced surgeon started on the unit with inadequate induction, no on-site mentoring and no senior operating help for the more complex cases.

Professor Westaby told the inquiry ‘that he did not expect Mr Salih to operate during his absence. On learning from the panel that Mr Salih had operated during that time, he said that he did not expect that the operations were complex.’ Unfortunately, they were. Mr Salih told the inquiry he did not regard Professor Westaby’s absence as ‘relevant to what operations he carried out’, and it was clear that the two had ‘not satisfactorily discussed the matter.’ By the time Westaby returned, Salih had announce his intention to leave his job. Westaby presence didn’t improve matters, because he had an ‘idiosyncratic’ approach to operating and so they worked in isolation, rather than as a team.

Having been promised two operating lists at interview, Mr Salih wasn’t given any to start with, having to cram operations in whenever a slot arose. He was finally given one on a Friday morning, not enough to improve his skill levels, and intensive care was often full and monitoring of sick babies over the weekend harder. There was no dedicated paediatric perfusionist able to offer the life support back-up he was used to, and neither was the surgical equipment he needed available from the start of his appointment. He did manage to find a mentor, over the phone in London, but this was hardly ideal given the complexity of the operations he was attempting. The review concluded that ‘all the cases were complex and surgery was high risk. We found no errors of judgement that directly lead to any of the deaths…. we found no evidence of poor surgical practice… it was an error of judgement for him (Mr Salih) to undertake the fourth case.’

The review found plenty of evidence of the dismal monitoring of safety by the Trust. In December 2009, Mr Salih expressed concerns about the support he was receiving, but by February 2010 he still hadn’t met the Paediatric Directorate manager. On February 19, he informed colleagues that he was ceasing to operate because of the string of deaths, but no formal action was taken to suspend services on that day. Surgery was not officially ‘paused’ until February 24, but no-one considered this warranted reporting a ‘Significant Untoward Incident’ or telling the SHA. Only when a journalist threatened to leak the story was an SUI declared on March 3. Once the story broke, an extraordinary mortality meeting was held to discuss the four deaths, 21 days after the last had occurred. Prof. Westaby didn’t attend and neither did one of the paediatric anaesthetists. Most damning of all is that parents don’t appear to have been told the true, surgeon or unit specific risks of the operations their babies were undergoing but rather national average risks. It’s as if Bristol never happened. Labour ducked the opportunity to safely sort out child heart surgery. The coalition mustn’t make the same mistake.

Comments (1)

July 25, 2010

Hello

Filed under: News — Tags: DVDs, music group, News, polyoaks, tour — Dr. Phil @ 2:00 pm

I’m returning to the Edinburgh Fringe 2024, Aug 2-17, with two shows. “Fifty Minutes to Save the NHS” (with Dame Clare Gerada) and “The Ins and Outs of Pleasure”. Tickets on sale now…

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 two most comedy recent shows, Dr Hammond’s Covid Inquiry and How I Ruined Medicine are available for rental.

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

Trust Me, I’m a Doctor (1999, 2002)

Medicine Balls (2007, 2008)

Trust Me, I’m still a Doctor (2008, 2009)

Sex, Sleep or Scrabble? (2009, 2010)

What Doctors Really Think (2014)

Staying Alive (2015, 2019)

Dr Hammond’s Covid Casebook (2021)

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.

Dr Hammond’s Covid Casebook

and

Dr Phil’s Bedside Manner

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

August 2-25 The Great Health Con

6.05-7.05 PM, Symposium Hall, @theSpace Venue 43

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

August 2-24 Vote Dr Phil?

(not 6, 14, 15, 20)

21.30-22.55 PM, Fleming Theatre, @theSpace Venue 54

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

Comments (1)

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Archive - Year: 2010

September 1, 2010

August 22, 2010

August 1, 2010

July 30, 2010

July 25, 2010

I’m returning to the Edinburgh Fringe 2024, Aug 2-17, with two shows. “Fifty Minutes to Save the NHS” (with Dame Clare Gerada) and “The Ins and Outs of Pleasure”. Tickets on sale now…

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 two most comedy recent shows, Dr Hammond’s Covid Inquiry and How I Ruined Medicine are available for rental.

My previous Radio 4 series, Dr Phil’s Bedside Manner, is also available, as is my interview for The Confessional with Stephen Mangan.

I also have seven books in print or on Kindle

2022 Dates

Southwold Arts Festival June 28

Lymm Festival June 30

Tringe Comedy Festival July 20

Hen and Chicken, Bristol July 21

Widcombe Social Club, Bath July 22

Edinburgh Fringe 2022

August 2021

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

August 2-25 The Great Health Con

6.05-7.05 PM, Symposium Hall, @theSpace Venue 43

Prices: £12/ concessions £10. 2 for 1 Friends of Fringe

Venue BO: 0131 510 2385

Fringe BO: 0131 226 0000

Suitable for 14+

Description

Tickets on sale here

(not 6, 14, 15, 20)

21.30-22.55 PM, Fleming Theatre, @theSpace Venue 54

Prices: £12/ concessions £10. 2 for 1 Friends of Fringe

Venue BO: 0131 510 2384

Fringe BO: 0131 226 0000

Suitable for 14+

Description

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

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

©Phil Hammond 2024