1 00:00:02,850 --> 00:00:16,410 This is Professor Piaffe were being interviewed by Derek Hockaday, 21st of November 18 up here, I think you were elected to the chair in 91. 2 00:00:16,410 --> 00:00:23,710 And how long had you been in Oxford before that, Derek? I came on the 5th of January, 1970. 3 00:00:23,710 --> 00:00:36,960 Right. And I came for one year to do research in intensive care because I was fed up of running an intensive care unit in Geneva using cookie recipes. 4 00:00:36,960 --> 00:00:48,510 And I thought I should train in research and then be able to work in intensive care and develop some things, not simply apply cooking recipes. 5 00:00:48,510 --> 00:00:55,800 And I very much enjoyed the work in Oxford on the intensive care unit and in 6 00:00:55,800 --> 00:01:02,130 the department and realise that one year wouldn't give me research training. 7 00:01:02,130 --> 00:01:08,460 It wouldn't be credible. So I had to do something like a day field. 8 00:01:08,460 --> 00:01:16,200 So I registered for a day fill and spend the next two and a half years doing my day field. 9 00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:21,210 And that was experimental hemodynamics. 10 00:01:21,210 --> 00:01:30,870 We use the canine model with fairly sophisticated means of measurements to look at the effect of anaesthetics on the heart. 11 00:01:30,870 --> 00:01:36,280 At the time, not all that much was known of these mechanisms. 12 00:01:36,280 --> 00:01:42,420 So I did that with somebody who became very well-known, Sedrick Chris Roberts, 13 00:01:42,420 --> 00:01:48,870 who later became president of the Royal College of Anaesthetist and Professor in Bristol. 14 00:01:48,870 --> 00:02:03,240 And that's what I did. And because Cedric Chris Roberts went to Bristol, when I finished my degree, there was a job to do. 15 00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:08,970 There were researchers to pick up and continue to help with the higher degree. 16 00:02:08,970 --> 00:02:19,560 So from being a student, I suddenly was supervisor of several researchers in the same field of cardiac dynamics. 17 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:27,180 And by the time I had my first real interaction with the clinical school, 18 00:02:27,180 --> 00:02:35,220 being a clinical lecturer appointed under the old Nuffield benefaction rules, 19 00:02:35,220 --> 00:02:43,200 and this continued to US clinical lecturer, then university lecturer, 20 00:02:43,200 --> 00:02:52,050 and eventually in seventy six, I became Reider in the department whose department and you join me. 21 00:02:52,050 --> 00:02:59,850 That was the department with Alex Campton Smith as the Neville depart as the Nuffield Professor of Anaesthetics. 22 00:02:59,850 --> 00:03:08,400 And of course the reason is that in those days, intensive care, particularly the respiration unit at the Churchill, 23 00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:16,860 were very much as the adult intensive care, fairly limited as I did in Germany, 24 00:03:16,860 --> 00:03:24,210 run by anaesthetist, because these these were the ways in the early 70s and even later, 25 00:03:24,210 --> 00:03:31,830 the majority of staff in intensive care were anaesthetist and therefore belong to a department of anaesthetics. 26 00:03:31,830 --> 00:03:36,380 And if you wanted to do research in this field, you would join anaesthetics. 27 00:03:36,380 --> 00:03:48,930 And this is what happened and why I was in the department and had a succession of jobs, including in nineteen ninety 1991. 28 00:03:48,930 --> 00:03:57,420 And the Fed chair. Yes. And but now the base of the department is worth the Churchill I associate with 29 00:03:57,420 --> 00:04:04,710 respiration and fatness and so and was also the department where it ended as it were, 30 00:04:04,710 --> 00:04:12,840 in that building just by the Radcliffe Infirmary. I mean it's in the regular infirmary but you know, it was joined on by a funny corridor. 31 00:04:12,840 --> 00:04:19,590 Yeah. The respiration unit was run jointly by Alex Consensuses and John Spaulding. 32 00:04:19,590 --> 00:04:29,820 Yeah, that was John's body. And my research should or could have been in the respiration unit on tetanus. 33 00:04:29,820 --> 00:04:33,630 This is the work that Cedric Chris Roberts and John Kerr, 34 00:04:33,630 --> 00:04:46,820 plus two research fellows from New Zealand and Australia, we are neurologist had done but in total in 1970. 35 00:04:46,820 --> 00:04:54,210 To understand it, there was no case for nine months, so no possibility of doing any study. 36 00:04:54,210 --> 00:05:01,070 And even then, the case in August 1970 was Rosada. 37 00:05:01,070 --> 00:05:02,600 Tetanus. 38 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:12,170 We didn't study anyway, but the whole thing had disintegrated and indeed there were no longer tetanus patients admitted to the respiration unit. 39 00:05:12,170 --> 00:05:21,600 So I had to convert. And that's why I did experiments that were mostly on the effect of anaesthetics on the heart and its performance just to go back. 40 00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:25,700 No polio, no tetanus. A bit of Gambhir, Barry. 41 00:05:25,700 --> 00:05:28,520 Yes, there was guayabera. 42 00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:42,770 And this is one condition I was particularly interested in, because in Geneva I looked after patients with Jabbari and one of the patients. 43 00:05:42,770 --> 00:05:50,720 A fateful day of the week when I was on call, had a cardiac arrest at about nine o'clock, 44 00:05:50,720 --> 00:05:56,630 a second cardiac arrest at about 11 o'clock, and it said one at 12:00 noon. 45 00:05:56,630 --> 00:06:00,860 And I must admit that I got a little concerned about that. 46 00:06:00,860 --> 00:06:10,890 And this is the first patient ever to have been given a temporary pacemaker and it worked for the next three weeks. 47 00:06:10,890 --> 00:06:14,510 You are on enough pace or not pace. 48 00:06:14,510 --> 00:06:22,520 It was the first time in Ajilon Barry the autonomic dysfunction had been on the 49 00:06:22,520 --> 00:06:29,690 side of cardiac arrest or severe bradycardia and had been treated by insertion, 50 00:06:29,690 --> 00:06:37,160 insertion of a temporary pacemaker that were fairly old fashioned but worked. 51 00:06:37,160 --> 00:06:40,460 And my interest continued. 52 00:06:40,460 --> 00:06:54,560 And a few years ago, and a few years later, there was a case report of a review by the Mayo Clinic, and they had treated 30 patients with pacemakers. 53 00:06:54,560 --> 00:07:06,080 But mine was still the first case ever. And they quoted from The Lancet the first case, that uncertainty and it had become routine to say, 54 00:07:06,080 --> 00:07:11,990 Guillain Barre, you monitor ECG because it may be absolutely fine. 55 00:07:11,990 --> 00:07:17,870 And one day a problem occurs and that's it. 56 00:07:17,870 --> 00:07:23,360 It could be the end of the patient and it really was. But the pacemaker saved the day. 57 00:07:23,360 --> 00:07:29,510 What was the title of your thesis that was totally different. 58 00:07:29,510 --> 00:07:38,150 It was essentially the effect of carbon dioxide on the heart and the circulation, systemic pulmonary. 59 00:07:38,150 --> 00:07:44,480 And that was part of the studies we wanted to do on what can happen during anaesthesia. 60 00:07:44,480 --> 00:07:55,130 Hyper carb. If you hyperventilate hyperkalemia, if patients are breathing spontaneously, what are the effects on the heart and the circulation? 61 00:07:55,130 --> 00:08:07,230 Looking at contractility as well, we really wanted to know exactly the pathophysiology of the physiology of hypo and hyperkalemia. 62 00:08:07,230 --> 00:08:15,860 Yeah, we did the same later with hypoxia and we branched a lot into the effect of anaesthetic 63 00:08:15,860 --> 00:08:25,790 agents because the effect on cardiac performance was fairly often misunderstood. 64 00:08:25,790 --> 00:08:33,720 People thought that halothane cause hypertension by vasodilation dilatation because the veins became 65 00:08:33,720 --> 00:08:40,850 more obvious that when you look at it in an experimental model and do those response curves, 66 00:08:40,850 --> 00:08:51,590 you realise that the reduction in cardiac output is due to contractility of the myocardium falling over failure. 67 00:08:51,590 --> 00:08:55,250 So this is the sort of work that got me interested. 68 00:08:55,250 --> 00:09:11,180 And also in those days, and you may remember those days, it was so received wisdom to stop antihypertensive agents before surgery. 69 00:09:11,180 --> 00:09:18,860 That was the received wisdom. We didn't believe it was other than anecdotal evidence. 70 00:09:18,860 --> 00:09:25,130 And we said Sediq prescribe. It started and I joined when had studied one or two patients. 71 00:09:25,130 --> 00:09:33,380 We decided to do data and hemodynamic studies of patients in whom we had permission 72 00:09:33,380 --> 00:09:39,290 from the Ethics Committee to maintain their treatment and we would compare them. 73 00:09:39,290 --> 00:09:42,290 And it wasn't randomised because it couldn't be randomised. 74 00:09:42,290 --> 00:09:50,870 We compared them with people who were severely hypertensive but were on a new medication and this is what was recommended. 75 00:09:50,870 --> 00:09:58,220 Leave them alone. So those on treatment, we maintain it, not on treatment we left alone. 76 00:09:58,220 --> 00:09:59,420 And what happened? 77 00:09:59,420 --> 00:10:11,540 Is that we could see with documented evidence of cardiac output, vascular resistance or the hemodynamics you could measure in patients, 78 00:10:11,540 --> 00:10:16,850 we could demonstrate that certainly those maintained on treatment, if anything, 79 00:10:16,850 --> 00:10:22,640 were slightly more stable, but certainly not at risk of cardiovascular collapse. 80 00:10:22,640 --> 00:10:24,590 And that was the received wisdom. 81 00:10:24,590 --> 00:10:34,370 These drugs antihypertensive Agents Koo's interfere with the control of the circulation and that caused cardiovascular collapse. 82 00:10:34,370 --> 00:10:40,790 But it had never been documented. So we did document that and then we did more. 83 00:10:40,790 --> 00:10:50,390 We decided one class of drug becoming very frequently used in hypertension, beta blockers. 84 00:10:50,390 --> 00:10:57,020 Now, beta blockers were taboo in anaesthesia. Absolutely not under no circumstances. 85 00:10:57,020 --> 00:11:01,400 And we thought, gee whiz, why is it? 86 00:11:01,400 --> 00:11:07,470 And we started studies where we either gave an intravenous beta blocker before 87 00:11:07,470 --> 00:11:13,880 anaesthesia or an oral beta blockers for three days before anaesthesia and surgery. 88 00:11:13,880 --> 00:11:20,240 And all we could see is that these patients were much more stable, no detriment, 89 00:11:20,240 --> 00:11:25,400 good cardiac function, good cardiac output, absolutely fine, but more stable. 90 00:11:25,400 --> 00:11:32,480 And that made really people think treatment of hypertension should be maintained. 91 00:11:32,480 --> 00:11:38,390 And that is even true of beta blockers. And so it was a complete revolution. 92 00:11:38,390 --> 00:11:47,210 And it it went to some extremes because in those days, a hypertensive allergist in London, 93 00:11:47,210 --> 00:11:56,540 Richard, is you probably knew him, was very keen on propranolol, 94 00:11:56,540 --> 00:12:12,140 does then most use beta blocker and you was treating hypertensive patients with up to two grams a day, 40 milligrams, two cups a day. 95 00:12:12,140 --> 00:12:21,590 And we saw that is pushing our luck because we had some hypertensive patients on two grams of fat and we thought this is pushing our luck, 96 00:12:21,590 --> 00:12:26,990 but are we going to stop? We didn't think it was a good idea. 97 00:12:26,990 --> 00:12:31,760 So let's document what is happening. And yes, that is true. 98 00:12:31,760 --> 00:12:34,310 A heart rate, surprise, surprise. 99 00:12:34,310 --> 00:12:49,820 But that withstood the whole anaesthetic process from induction, intraoperative phase recovery without any signs that the circulation was failing. 100 00:12:49,820 --> 00:12:54,650 So it caused a complete U-turn in the way of thinking. 101 00:12:54,650 --> 00:13:03,770 And that got me really interested. But you were asking my relationship with sort of university. 102 00:13:03,770 --> 00:13:07,490 So, number one, I became a fellow of the college. Yes. 103 00:13:07,490 --> 00:13:12,410 As a reader, roughly. When in seventy six, 76, 76. 104 00:13:12,410 --> 00:13:16,850 That is when I said a piece of it went to Bristol. 105 00:13:16,850 --> 00:13:21,620 I was elected to the fellowship at Worcester. 106 00:13:21,620 --> 00:13:26,810 And in those days I was already starting to teach medical students. 107 00:13:26,810 --> 00:13:31,010 Now, whatever the arrangements were, I cannot remember. 108 00:13:31,010 --> 00:13:41,000 But there was a sort of anaesthetic module of some kind and I was teaching and that has been the case ever since. 109 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:44,810 And I was teaching medical students this morning and yesterday. 110 00:13:44,810 --> 00:13:50,030 Right. So it's a few years later. I think it's about 42 years later. 111 00:13:50,030 --> 00:13:59,600 I'm still teaching medical students and I I never stopped, but it was becoming more formal as years went by. 112 00:13:59,600 --> 00:14:08,810 But the last 30 years, they were a specialist study module, probably about 20, 30 years and afterwards on these modules. 113 00:14:08,810 --> 00:14:14,090 But I was already teaching the previous scheme for quite a while. 114 00:14:14,090 --> 00:14:18,760 So that was my role within the medical school. 115 00:14:18,760 --> 00:14:26,760 I was teaching medical students within the faculty more than medical school supervising research fellow. 116 00:14:26,760 --> 00:14:32,570 I was doing a higher degree myself or jointly with pharmacology. 117 00:14:32,570 --> 00:14:44,960 We had a lot of different students jointly with Derek, one of the lecture later Reede in pharmacology, and that was very productive. 118 00:14:44,960 --> 00:14:49,820 What was the name, sir? Derek there. All right. Very well. 119 00:14:49,820 --> 00:14:59,760 We really did a lot of work and the students like that because they were doing part of their work in his lab on cells. 120 00:14:59,760 --> 00:15:15,030 And part in my lab on the canine model, so there was a good spectrum of studies done with the scene and that resulted in the higher degree. 121 00:15:15,030 --> 00:15:23,070 Yes, that was that was fun. That was another part of my activity, was supervising teaching medical students. 122 00:15:23,070 --> 00:15:28,500 And this is at the university where the teaching trainees in anaesthetics. 123 00:15:28,500 --> 00:15:36,490 Yes. I mean, in a sense, it all with the university. But just to go back to your higher degree, who we are. 124 00:15:36,490 --> 00:15:40,500 Did you enjoy your. Yes. Yeah. 125 00:15:40,500 --> 00:15:47,840 Who were the examiners? They worry, quite honestly, 126 00:15:47,840 --> 00:15:56,630 I've completely forgotten that presumably it was a pretty good thesis because then you were promoted to be look after the others, don't you? 127 00:15:56,630 --> 00:16:06,770 Oh, yes, no. Things went very well. And I say there was there were a few corrections, as always, and that was that was done. 128 00:16:06,770 --> 00:16:10,160 Now, I was just thinking, you know, when I was a clinical student, 129 00:16:10,160 --> 00:16:20,260 when Game seven and Unanesthetized one or two patients oneself, would that ever happen nowadays with a qualified student? 130 00:16:20,260 --> 00:16:33,440 No, no help. And what they enjoy most medical students, when I often I teach them at the end of their attachment to anaesthetics. 131 00:16:33,440 --> 00:16:45,410 And what they enjoy most is they gain confidence in sticking needles in veins that maintain airways, which is important. 132 00:16:45,410 --> 00:16:49,100 And a good many do a fair amount of intubation. Right. 133 00:16:49,100 --> 00:16:53,910 And they love that. They love that. But. 134 00:16:53,910 --> 00:17:04,590 Anaesthetic itself, Zelzal and the Halpern's see, I don't I cannot guarantee, but I very much doubt that they would do more than that. 135 00:17:04,590 --> 00:17:12,510 But to intubate and Zengerle is that that's what we hear again and again. 136 00:17:12,510 --> 00:17:18,870 They find the attachment to anaesthetics quite unique because and maybe I'm wrong, 137 00:17:18,870 --> 00:17:26,760 but they have a greater opportunity in the theatre to be one to one with a consultant. 138 00:17:26,760 --> 00:17:30,900 That is nobody else. That's what they enjoy that they enjoy that a lot. 139 00:17:30,900 --> 00:17:42,000 They get a lot of teaching. And we have a form of teaching tutorials with groups of eight of turns, only six, seven, eight. 140 00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:51,690 And I think they have now 14 topics. So it's a fair amount of standardised teaching so that they will have covered. 141 00:17:51,690 --> 00:17:55,140 For example, this morning I did fluid balance. 142 00:17:55,140 --> 00:18:04,110 Yesterday, I talked about cardiac problems in surgical patients and also I talk about acid base balance. 143 00:18:04,110 --> 00:18:06,480 But no, that's very interesting because in a sense, 144 00:18:06,480 --> 00:18:14,500 that pathophysiology when you teach them which anaesthetic agent is the right one for which operation. 145 00:18:14,500 --> 00:18:18,390 No, that's I don't talk about never. Does anybody talk about. 146 00:18:18,390 --> 00:18:30,780 Oh, yes. Oh, yes. They have tutorials on regional anaesthesia, the principle of general anaesthesia and pain relief, pain management. 147 00:18:30,780 --> 00:18:36,360 They have a day of emergencies in the simulator and they absolutely love it. 148 00:18:36,360 --> 00:18:49,440 That is for them. It's fantastic. And so they generally are very, very happy days when somebody is talking about blood transfusion and pitfalls. 149 00:18:49,440 --> 00:18:56,040 And so it's it's a fairly well balanced programme and airway management, of course. 150 00:18:56,040 --> 00:18:58,440 So they do intubate in theatre, 151 00:18:58,440 --> 00:19:06,360 but they also have a session on airway management so that they learn more about different types of equipment that may come across. 152 00:19:06,360 --> 00:19:12,450 So they enjoy what they are doing with us. Were you involved with the pain clinic at all? 153 00:19:12,450 --> 00:19:24,090 Not really know. Very little. And it was before an acute pain management was organised. 154 00:19:24,090 --> 00:19:26,940 We have a team now, acute pain management, 155 00:19:26,940 --> 00:19:42,720 and the pain management was as such was really Henry Makuei and at the Churchill or before Dr Lloyd Addington, John Lewis. 156 00:19:42,720 --> 00:19:47,520 And then he came to the John and to the Churchill, 157 00:19:47,520 --> 00:19:55,140 and it was the first chronic pain management unit having Bense that was unique so they could 158 00:19:55,140 --> 00:20:01,530 do interventions and people could stay overnight if that was justified by the intervention. 159 00:20:01,530 --> 00:20:09,480 And that was a great novelty. So there is still a group doing mostly chronic pain. 160 00:20:09,480 --> 00:20:15,810 There is a group doing acute pain and it's it has grown considerably. 161 00:20:15,810 --> 00:20:24,240 And now there's a great deal more integration between those who do mostly chronic chronic pain and those who do acute pain. 162 00:20:24,240 --> 00:20:30,330 They are much more joined up. But the acute pain management team is much more recent. 163 00:20:30,330 --> 00:20:39,540 It took a long time. We were I think we were a good deal behind other centres having an acute pain team, 164 00:20:39,540 --> 00:20:46,020 which has made an enormous difference to what you can or can do on the ward. 165 00:20:46,020 --> 00:20:57,840 You couldn't not have an epidural without a pain team available and checking that everything is working and is all right, you couldn't do it. 166 00:20:57,840 --> 00:21:06,390 How many advanced students would you have, you know, reading, working for degrees that was for or generally, 167 00:21:06,390 --> 00:21:14,340 I would say three years, three, four is too much shows too many when the year is in a sense. 168 00:21:14,340 --> 00:21:19,140 Yeah exactly. So you have one finishing one starting one maybe in the middle. 169 00:21:19,140 --> 00:21:23,100 But it's seldom being more than that though. 170 00:21:23,100 --> 00:21:31,350 There have been times with more with people are coming from abroad to do just one year and not necessarily a higher degree. 171 00:21:31,350 --> 00:21:41,160 But they were sort of then joining somebody was working on a higher degree so they would benefit and help. 172 00:21:41,160 --> 00:21:45,190 So is the numbers. But I don't think I ever had four. 173 00:21:45,190 --> 00:21:52,780 I saw from the nineteen thirties and a physicist in Germany, Krebs had the story and. 174 00:21:52,780 --> 00:22:00,530 He had the slogan, If I can understand why these students, none of them are any good. 175 00:22:00,530 --> 00:22:05,890 I mean, it does. And I said, move that first. 176 00:22:05,890 --> 00:22:10,240 I mean, do you find that they're introducing nobody's students? 177 00:22:10,240 --> 00:22:16,750 Well, they're doing what they're told. Oh, no, they do. They do introduce nobody said do develop. 178 00:22:16,750 --> 00:22:30,850 And we had several examples of the students who managed to refine the approach to problems of hemodynamics and extend Scilab, 179 00:22:30,850 --> 00:22:34,810 develop new technologies and make them work. 180 00:22:34,810 --> 00:22:41,530 And one, for example, at the time the canine model was becoming far too expensive, 181 00:22:41,530 --> 00:22:53,260 came from France and developed a rabbit model that quite honestly, I we discussed what he could do, how it could be done. 182 00:22:53,260 --> 00:23:05,860 But it got the model going at was that and he did this higher degree in Lille is university and he's now head of department at many years grades. 183 00:23:05,860 --> 00:23:15,580 And he did very well. But he really made the model stick and we did a lot of interesting studies and it worked. 184 00:23:15,580 --> 00:23:22,120 And another one, uh, developed a long kind of preparation that's not as original. 185 00:23:22,120 --> 00:23:28,210 But we didn't have it and it got it off the ground and it worked. 186 00:23:28,210 --> 00:24:44,600 So, yes, students do contribute a lot. It is the land of what I call the heartland preparation, 187 00:24:44,600 --> 00:24:52,180 let me know it's it's heart just for her is right, but it for some of the things we wanted to do. 188 00:24:52,180 --> 00:24:56,410 It serves a purpose as well. And so that's why we used it. 189 00:24:56,410 --> 00:25:00,880 And the last day feel I supervised, I formerly supervised. 190 00:25:00,880 --> 00:25:11,140 Did the work on using the land and off. Do you work or talk to Peter in Merton? 191 00:25:11,140 --> 00:25:14,020 Peter not Sinclair. But it's a name like that. 192 00:25:14,020 --> 00:25:22,750 He's a professor of cardiology and he's interested in nitric oxide and beta blockers because the question would be, 193 00:25:22,750 --> 00:25:37,450 does anaesthesia affect nitric oxide levels? I cannot answer that in a scientific manner because it's not an area I have necessarily a research much, 194 00:25:37,450 --> 00:25:41,680 but it's quite possible because he's working on that. 195 00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:47,720 So you should talk to him. Really, the interaction of nitric oxide with beta blockers? 196 00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:53,620 Yeah, that's yes. It's I'm not aware of that. 197 00:25:53,620 --> 00:25:59,730 And he runs the Burden Saunderson Institute in Physiology, Deepak, you know that. 198 00:25:59,730 --> 00:26:05,260 Yeah. And Peter, I've forgotten his name just for a minute, anyhow. 199 00:26:05,260 --> 00:26:20,900 Now, did your views of the university change as you went to being a to a professor, a retired professor? 200 00:26:20,900 --> 00:26:30,230 Yes, what I don't think it's my view changed it, the university changed profoundly because when I came, 201 00:26:30,230 --> 00:26:38,300 there were still the benefaction and the NAAFI benefaction hired people. 202 00:26:38,300 --> 00:26:42,110 Lecture's that was my post was and does not feel benefaction. 203 00:26:42,110 --> 00:26:56,710 This was absorbed with within the general board because clearly the benefaction could not support it in its own everleigh, 204 00:26:56,710 --> 00:27:03,800 a vastly expanded medical school that wasn't possible, but for a long period, 205 00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:19,580 and it was still true in 1992 1990 that were established posts in departments and the description, 206 00:27:19,580 --> 00:27:33,830 the particular of the chair indicated what staff was established and therefore if people moved, they could be replaced. 207 00:27:33,830 --> 00:27:39,350 And that was not questioned in 1990, 1991. 208 00:27:39,350 --> 00:27:46,010 And the chair had a budget and the chair also had for the new incumbent, 209 00:27:46,010 --> 00:27:55,610 a sum of money available to the new head of department to develop something if he or she wanted it. 210 00:27:55,610 --> 00:28:04,850 And that was really extremely helpful. And it helped me in a way, because until I retired, 211 00:28:04,850 --> 00:28:11,140 it would have been very difficult to remove posts from the department because that would have been a breach of contract. 212 00:28:11,140 --> 00:28:20,390 And but now that has disappeared in my understanding is that doesn't exist anymore. 213 00:28:20,390 --> 00:28:27,800 Established post, don't I believe I may be wrong but don't exist in the ways I did. 214 00:28:27,800 --> 00:28:40,460 And my understanding, again, is that most of the researchers have to fund at least a substantial part of their salary out of grants. 215 00:28:40,460 --> 00:28:52,880 So the number of established posts that was reasonably large as decreased was a number of people doing research has increased, 216 00:28:52,880 --> 00:28:57,350 but it has increased on the strength of grants. 217 00:28:57,350 --> 00:29:05,960 And again, in the field of grants, views have changed. 218 00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:13,790 When I submitted grants to MRC, a British Heart Foundation, for example, 219 00:29:13,790 --> 00:29:28,850 it was assumed that the department was offering the new researchers on the grant project or programme would offer support is technical, 220 00:29:28,850 --> 00:29:33,440 secretarial and otherwise. No, it's not right. 221 00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:41,020 All these costs have to be costed in the grant, even the heating and the lighting. 222 00:29:41,020 --> 00:29:47,270 Yeah, right. Okay, I believe so. And so it has changed completely. 223 00:29:47,270 --> 00:29:58,940 And therefore now is the sums involved in grants have been increased enormously because it's not only the fellow salary, 224 00:29:58,940 --> 00:30:04,790 but all the ancillary support, because the funding is different. 225 00:30:04,790 --> 00:30:17,750 Instead of coming centrally from the university to the department to have the corps that was regarded as essential in the 80s 90s, 226 00:30:17,750 --> 00:30:26,960 you wouldn't get a grant if you didn't have the support for a study that was just now. 227 00:30:26,960 --> 00:30:35,630 It's different. You have to cost everything. And so the grants, I cannot remember what sort of figure it is, 228 00:30:35,630 --> 00:30:46,070 but I think it's probably sixty or seventy percent of at least 50 percent more because of overheads that has to be there. 229 00:30:46,070 --> 00:30:52,880 So you have to spend as head of a department, has to spend all of his time writing grants. 230 00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:58,880 I'm sure a lot more because I believe but I'm no longer head of department. 231 00:30:58,880 --> 00:31:04,880 But I believe that things have changed mostly along those lines. 232 00:31:04,880 --> 00:31:10,490 The support that existed and was implied is no longer employed. 233 00:31:10,490 --> 00:31:18,980 You have to compete. You have to justify and you have essentially to find the funding that has changed. 234 00:31:18,980 --> 00:31:28,400 Quite dramatic. No, anaesthetists wouldn't function without surgeons, so relationships with surgeons were very important. 235 00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:38,960 Yeah, now I must admit that I have been extraordinarily fortunate because in 1974, 236 00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:46,550 Peter Morris was appointed Nuffield professor of surgery and Alex Campton Smith in his wisdom. 237 00:31:46,550 --> 00:31:50,930 So we have a new Nuffield professor of surgery. 238 00:31:50,930 --> 00:32:02,030 We should offer support for his clinical activities and the support us in under two headings. 239 00:32:02,030 --> 00:32:07,910 One is weekly operating list. 240 00:32:07,910 --> 00:32:13,520 It would be run by Zionistic department, but was added before. 241 00:32:13,520 --> 00:32:22,250 Wouldn't it always have been? Not sure, because I don't think Àlex was much involved with Professor Alyson's no operate, 242 00:32:22,250 --> 00:32:29,750 whether it be an NHS anaesthetist separate from the department or the anaesthetists in the department. 243 00:32:29,750 --> 00:32:38,060 All in all, it was always integrated. But I mean, somebody must have been anaesthetising rather than whenever you can't operate. 244 00:32:38,060 --> 00:32:40,670 I don't know that it was before my time. 245 00:32:40,670 --> 00:32:50,220 He was he was no longer I think he may still be alive when I came, but the first three years it was higher, my higher degree in the lab. 246 00:32:50,220 --> 00:32:57,770 So I didn't know. When Peter Morris started, Alex decided we should run this list. 247 00:32:57,770 --> 00:33:09,200 And I was doing it essentially from day one and have done it all the way throughout his career when he stood down in 2001. 248 00:33:09,200 --> 00:33:14,480 And there was something more to it with. 249 00:33:14,480 --> 00:33:30,740 And we also, as Cedric Roberts, Alan Noge myself took charge of anaesthesia for renal transplant when Peter started a real transplant programme. 250 00:33:30,740 --> 00:33:34,970 And we did the first cert, which took quite a while in those days. 251 00:33:34,970 --> 00:33:41,390 So we established a routine, what could be done successfully, repeated successfully. 252 00:33:41,390 --> 00:33:54,830 And that was another interaction. But what was most important is that Peter Morris relied to a significant extent on me in the preoperative assessment 253 00:33:54,830 --> 00:34:02,780 of these vascular patients who by definition have coronary artery disease and goodness knows what diabetes is alive. 254 00:34:02,780 --> 00:34:09,680 And so I was much more involved in the preop assessment then. 255 00:34:09,680 --> 00:34:16,190 I was involved in giving the anaesthetic and then I was involved on ICU because all the 256 00:34:16,190 --> 00:34:21,800 abdominal aortic aneurysm repairs went to ICU and that was one of the ICU consultive. 257 00:34:21,800 --> 00:34:27,140 So I would see them essentially Tuesday, Wednesday in theatre. 258 00:34:27,140 --> 00:34:36,200 I would look in Thursday morning on ICU and Friday was my day on ICU. 259 00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:45,290 So from 1979, certainly I had this really rule of pay of active physician. 260 00:34:45,290 --> 00:34:47,420 As soon as the leave open, 261 00:34:47,420 --> 00:34:58,250 I started to be involved regularly on Friday with ICU at the John Rateliff and this was really perioperative medicine before the word was invented. 262 00:34:58,250 --> 00:35:04,790 And of course, the reason it worked and I think for me it worked extremely well. 263 00:35:04,790 --> 00:35:15,260 I hope it worked for my patients is that before coming to Oxford had done nine years of what we call in Switzerland internal medicine. 264 00:35:15,260 --> 00:35:18,500 I was in there fully trained physician. Right. 265 00:35:18,500 --> 00:35:27,920 Okay, I did having done three years of this or two and a half in medical intensive care, but I had done nine years of medicine. 266 00:35:27,920 --> 00:35:35,420 So doing that using the sort of skill I had acquired there, 267 00:35:35,420 --> 00:35:44,930 plus limited anaesthetic skills because I didn't have the sort of normal training anaesthetics, 268 00:35:44,930 --> 00:35:49,220 but being involved in intensive care, it worked extremely well. 269 00:35:49,220 --> 00:35:54,590 And I did that with Peter certainly from 79 until 2001. 270 00:35:54,590 --> 00:36:00,590 We were doing I was doing on Tuesday I would run with the vascular surgeons. 271 00:36:00,590 --> 00:36:14,870 And so that was pretty unique. And I enjoyed that because it was in a way, patients I was anaesthetising were really also my patients. 272 00:36:14,870 --> 00:36:19,660 And with Peter, we really conceived our work like. 273 00:36:19,660 --> 00:36:30,280 They were our patient was very, you know, terrific and for a number of years, in the early days of surgery of the abdominal aorta, 274 00:36:30,280 --> 00:36:41,410 we were opening not only the aorta, but sort of carving later a change, but there was often bleeding. 275 00:36:41,410 --> 00:36:48,760 At 10:00 on a Wednesday evening, I would go to surgeon Latif, see the patient on ICU. 276 00:36:48,760 --> 00:36:55,090 And from time to time, I would call Peter and say, look, Peter, I'm unhappy with your patient. 277 00:36:55,090 --> 00:37:04,210 There is, I think, a degree of bleeding, which is a bit worrying, is I've booked a theatre and you would come and operate. 278 00:37:04,210 --> 00:37:14,360 So it was a sort of collaboration we established. And I think it was it was really very interesting and important. 279 00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:24,190 And one thing I will never forget, a senior registrar in surgery wasn't quite sure what I was doing, doing the wardrobe. 280 00:37:24,190 --> 00:37:30,200 We with this anaesthetist come into the ward round once and and commenting. 281 00:37:30,200 --> 00:37:35,050 That was strange. And so he was quite upset about it. 282 00:37:35,050 --> 00:37:45,910 And one morning before the ward and Peter came and said, You remember do you remember this private patient of mine we discussed two weeks ago? 283 00:37:45,910 --> 00:37:49,410 What do you think we should do? And the penny dropped a lot. 284 00:37:49,410 --> 00:37:57,250 And maybe maybe there was some things of collaboration that was maybe not all that usual. 285 00:37:57,250 --> 00:38:04,660 But for me, it was fantastic. And it continued not only with Peter, but the other vascular surgeons. 286 00:38:04,660 --> 00:38:13,990 We really formed a team with David Tibs. No, David was we we I never anaesthetize for him. 287 00:38:13,990 --> 00:38:20,230 And he was not all that active anymore. 288 00:38:20,230 --> 00:38:24,070 And but Valerie Good was anaesthetising for him, for example. 289 00:38:24,070 --> 00:38:29,170 But no, it was really more the academic team with Linda Hunt's. 290 00:38:29,170 --> 00:38:38,020 Yes. And others. And really it was the group doing their vascular training and they were doing mostly which Peter Morris. 291 00:38:38,020 --> 00:38:48,910 So I knew them very well. And I really enjoyed working as part of a team and doing palliative medicine before it was invented more generally. 292 00:38:48,910 --> 00:38:56,230 Were there ever any, as it were, systemic problems between the surgeons and many suggests? 293 00:38:56,230 --> 00:39:06,130 I'll tell you, I'm thinking about that. There was a chap I knew who he did medicine and got his membership and then he got bored with that. 294 00:39:06,130 --> 00:39:10,150 He was the sort of bloke who got bored. He was highly intelligent and he got bored. 295 00:39:10,150 --> 00:39:19,750 And then he took to surgery and was doing very well in that. And as a sort of senior registrar, he said, I can't stand it waiting around, 296 00:39:19,750 --> 00:39:26,440 you know, and for the anaesthetist to arrive at night, there's no work to come in. 297 00:39:26,440 --> 00:39:32,170 I think I will take the Fifth Amendment. No, I think it does happen. 298 00:39:32,170 --> 00:39:42,250 But on the whole, I think people start to realise that anaesthesia is not always as simple as all that, 299 00:39:42,250 --> 00:39:53,590 and that on occasion things take longer than they could, is that there is something going wrong and you couldn't necessarily predict it. 300 00:39:53,590 --> 00:40:01,840 Now, whether people are late arriving, that is a matter I'm not going to comment on because I had a strict rule, 301 00:40:01,840 --> 00:40:06,190 I would say at least was due to start at eight thirty. 302 00:40:06,190 --> 00:40:12,970 I did not leave and I would be in Zionistic room at quarter to quarter to eight so that the lines 303 00:40:12,970 --> 00:40:18,820 would be in and we would really have the patient on the table within five minutes of eight thirty. 304 00:40:18,820 --> 00:40:20,380 So it was never an issue. 305 00:40:20,380 --> 00:40:32,170 But in a way I had the luxury of doing one full day a week since the days I was in the lab of running the department own ICU. 306 00:40:32,170 --> 00:40:36,730 So for me, coming home that way, it was no problem. 307 00:40:36,730 --> 00:40:43,510 And I had always seen my patients the night before because that is when we were doing The Woodlands so I would know them. 308 00:40:43,510 --> 00:40:47,800 So everything was prepared and coming at quarter to eight. 309 00:40:47,800 --> 00:40:55,210 On the whole, we could start on time. Now, you must have had to work with the nurses very closely. 310 00:40:55,210 --> 00:40:59,590 And how did they feed you? Because that must be very important. 311 00:40:59,590 --> 00:41:14,920 Yeah, they are. And we were lucky in the department to have lots of very well trained anaesthetic nurses and they were excellent, but we trained them. 312 00:41:14,920 --> 00:41:19,480 And that was, I think, started by John Lloyd Wright, I'm pretty sure. 313 00:41:19,480 --> 00:41:27,820 And so there was a training scheme and I found that they were really very, very, 314 00:41:27,820 --> 00:41:34,450 very good and got really full support and that is on occasion absolutely essential. 315 00:41:34,450 --> 00:41:41,620 When the chips are down, you need to have somebody competent and prepared to walk the extra mile. 316 00:41:41,620 --> 00:41:49,330 And that was never a question. And it's this is something which is not university, but maybe a hospital. 317 00:41:49,330 --> 00:41:55,660 There was a flexibility in working that may or may not exist anymore. 318 00:41:55,660 --> 00:42:01,720 But for example, if the list was difficult, 319 00:42:01,720 --> 00:42:12,580 nobody would bat an eyelid and you would finish at seven o'clock in the evening is when we were still at Zerai and Peter Morris was doing carotids. 320 00:42:12,580 --> 00:42:16,510 That was seventy four. Seventy nine, OK. 321 00:42:16,510 --> 00:42:27,220 He and I were only carotids were only done if Peter and I were in town and on occasion there were problems 322 00:42:27,220 --> 00:42:34,570 because they were operations to be done and there was no space on the Wednesday list or the says there is data. 323 00:42:34,570 --> 00:42:42,040 So we would book a theatre for Saturday morning and do a couple of cat cartoons on a Saturday morning. 324 00:42:42,040 --> 00:42:46,150 And that was in the operating theatre. 325 00:42:46,150 --> 00:42:52,240 Does the theatre sister, but does the anaesthetist have a designated nurse? 326 00:42:52,240 --> 00:42:56,020 The same. Yeah, yes. Yeah. And he said, oh yes. 327 00:42:56,020 --> 00:43:01,000 I said it's one days and then I you the nursing must've been very important. 328 00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:04,900 Oh that is absolutely essential. 329 00:43:04,900 --> 00:43:12,610 And again we were lucky to have very, very, very good nurses on ICU. 330 00:43:12,610 --> 00:43:17,800 Very good, very competent. And that makes life possible. 331 00:43:17,800 --> 00:43:24,310 But of course in those days, ICU was a lot smaller, did not live. 332 00:43:24,310 --> 00:43:29,920 There was the potential for 12 or 14 beds in practise. 333 00:43:29,920 --> 00:43:38,320 Very often we had only. Six beds open because we didn't have the nursing staff, not enough, 334 00:43:38,320 --> 00:43:45,840 but gradually we opened and then an extra unit was built so that now we have 18 beds, if I'm not mistaken. 335 00:43:45,840 --> 00:43:54,990 So it's much bigger, but it was small, two units with 12 beds total, but 12 when seldom. 336 00:43:54,990 --> 00:44:02,530 And you can still get the serve because you hear about stuff, nursing shortages. 337 00:44:02,530 --> 00:44:13,440 But is there a problem now? No, I hear on the grapevine that certainly at the Churchill they've had problems with, 338 00:44:13,440 --> 00:44:20,870 uh, nurses going back to where they spend and they have great difficulties. 339 00:44:20,870 --> 00:44:23,520 And that's what I've heard from the church. 340 00:44:23,520 --> 00:44:36,840 Well, of course, now is a full fledged ICU and under what is called a post-operative acute care unit next to it. 341 00:44:36,840 --> 00:44:42,150 And that is where I think they have problems in having enough staff, 342 00:44:42,150 --> 00:44:52,440 because some people go and I think it's the political situation is such that they don't feel safe in staying. 343 00:44:52,440 --> 00:45:04,290 So they some go home. Have you seen real changes in fluid balance management, asset base management in your career? 344 00:45:04,290 --> 00:45:11,970 Oh, yes. And I will tell you, because that is right in your field of interest. 345 00:45:11,970 --> 00:45:22,890 When I first got involved with managing patients with diabetic ketoacidosis, that is in 1960, 346 00:45:22,890 --> 00:45:33,180 the received wisdom was to give fluids, but also to give 100 units an IV and 100 units. 347 00:45:33,180 --> 00:45:41,490 And that that was the received wisdom that I think it has changed a little since. 348 00:45:41,490 --> 00:45:47,610 But am I right in saying that it's really an Oxford change? 349 00:45:47,610 --> 00:45:56,610 Absolutely. Insulin in a drip as opposed to, you know, reinjected. 350 00:45:56,610 --> 00:46:01,320 The real Oxford thing is a small dose. Yes. No regular smoulders. 351 00:46:01,320 --> 00:46:09,090 Yeah. Rather, a few people were giving it intravenous before that either blank for the name of the guy was a research fellow. 352 00:46:09,090 --> 00:46:18,510 Did develop this technique of having insulin in the deep Albertus George Albert is is OK, I'll tell you about that. 353 00:46:18,510 --> 00:46:23,130 That's George Albert IV. And that for me it's a great it was a great novelty. 354 00:46:23,130 --> 00:46:28,290 I must admit that between 60 and 69 we had we used to do this a bit. 355 00:46:28,290 --> 00:46:35,190 Yes. But a hundred units I, I was standard practise. 356 00:46:35,190 --> 00:46:42,240 And what about Lactaid? Do you ever give Lactaid intravenous sodium Lactaid. 357 00:46:42,240 --> 00:46:49,200 No, no. Because way back way way back when used to give people used to give like they know what was 358 00:46:49,200 --> 00:46:58,450 done and shown later not to be the best thing was to use bicarbonate in diabetic ketoacidosis. 359 00:46:58,450 --> 00:47:09,030 And we know it's not necessarily the best thing unless unless academia is such that the patient perish unless you give it. 360 00:47:09,030 --> 00:47:21,000 And we had one case, a determinative to whom I gave more by carbonates and I'd given to all of the other patients and she survived. 361 00:47:21,000 --> 00:47:25,980 But it was the most fierce diabetic ketoacidosis I've ever seen. 362 00:47:25,980 --> 00:47:29,580 And every time we decided, no, 363 00:47:29,580 --> 00:47:40,050 we should stop by carbonate apage at six point eight would start to go down and it becomes I'm fairly laid back, but it's a bit frightening. 364 00:47:40,050 --> 00:47:50,850 And the potassium is difficult to do now. But I'm fascinated because what when with that have been that you were looking after a diabetic cagers. 365 00:47:50,850 --> 00:48:00,360 That equation is that someone who needed surgery done as I was in Geneva sorry, in Geneva, then I was involved with medical intensive care. 366 00:48:00,360 --> 00:48:09,000 He was nineteen sixty one. Yeah. But then you were talking about giving a lot of bicarbonate with that in Oxford that this patient was. 367 00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:15,990 Yes. Was nothing to do with surgery. She was on ICU on a fateful Friday where I was the ICU concerned. 368 00:48:15,990 --> 00:48:23,620 And roughly what, at what date was that because I thought the physicians would have been doing that. 369 00:48:23,620 --> 00:48:27,810 We see that as well if they were up in arms. I did that. 370 00:48:27,810 --> 00:48:32,800 We are given by cabinet. No good for you. I mean, I'd thought the physicians. 371 00:48:32,800 --> 00:48:37,680 Looking after the patient on their own would rather than I don't know, with this one, 372 00:48:37,680 --> 00:48:49,140 she was admitted she was intubated because she had AIDS, right, because of the super acute Accademia. 373 00:48:49,140 --> 00:48:56,790 She had developed AIDS. She was hypoxic, ventilated on ICU, took her three days to get a. 374 00:48:56,790 --> 00:49:04,290 I've never seen a case like that. And I don't wish to see you there. 375 00:49:04,290 --> 00:49:07,860 And I mean, it's a silly question in a way. 376 00:49:07,860 --> 00:49:15,150 Would you say there was much difference between nursing in Geneva and in Oxford or about the same? 377 00:49:15,150 --> 00:49:30,150 The difference is that our small intensive care unit in Geneva had essentially 10 beds and there were relatively few nurses, 378 00:49:30,150 --> 00:49:37,080 but they were doing that for years and they were absolutely superb. 379 00:49:37,080 --> 00:49:42,810 Now, when I came in 1970, we had it was Nuffield three. 380 00:49:42,810 --> 00:49:50,340 There were four beds and there were more there were more nurses, but in between 70 and 74, 381 00:49:50,340 --> 00:49:57,720 75, I wasn't much involved with that until we opened ICU and the tower block. 382 00:49:57,720 --> 00:50:01,500 Before that, I wasn't much involved, but they were very good. 383 00:50:01,500 --> 00:50:13,320 But I think the ones I have been working with had been all working very for a very long period, say 10 years when I was in charge. 384 00:50:13,320 --> 00:50:21,750 They'd been working for 10 years. But I've I can't really compare because I wasn't much involved with Nuffield three. 385 00:50:21,750 --> 00:50:31,590 John Lloyd was running it that when we moved to the John leave in 79, which is a long time later, there were very, very good. 386 00:50:31,590 --> 00:50:41,490 And in the tower block as well, they were very good. But that was less I was helping them mostly to help when the consultant couldn't do the wards. 387 00:50:41,490 --> 00:50:50,740 And so I would go in and help. But it's only after 79 that I was involved regularly every week. 388 00:50:50,740 --> 00:50:54,390 So then all this time, your writing papers? Yeah. 389 00:50:54,390 --> 00:51:00,210 Giving lectures? Yes. To London committees. Yes. 390 00:51:00,210 --> 00:51:07,890 So how did your faith go ahead and did you work in the evenings writing your papers? 391 00:51:07,890 --> 00:51:21,900 Yes. Yes, I think it is you you should ask and she would tell you and to be entirely correct, I never told Andy that I was going to retire. 392 00:51:21,900 --> 00:51:25,620 And she doesn't know yet. She doesn't really know. 393 00:51:25,620 --> 00:51:30,390 And so mum's the word. 394 00:51:30,390 --> 00:51:34,300 No, don't don't spill the beans. No, I've yes. 395 00:51:34,300 --> 00:51:42,420 You had I had to work in the evenings and the Saturday and but what I must admit I also enjoyed 396 00:51:42,420 --> 00:51:48,960 is to be involved on the national scene as a member of Council of the College of Anaesthetists, 397 00:51:48,960 --> 00:51:58,770 because that gave me a different perspective on, uh, Anastasiya Countrywide. 398 00:51:58,770 --> 00:52:08,460 And also I was much involved being on the university representative on the Oxford Anti Trust Board, um, 399 00:52:08,460 --> 00:52:17,100 when we became a trust, I was one of the non-executive director right from the start for seven years or so. 400 00:52:17,100 --> 00:52:23,790 Yeah. And that was very interesting. At the same time, I was on Council of the College, 401 00:52:23,790 --> 00:52:35,280 so my activity on intensive care decreased because I couldn't do everything runs the department council of the College Trust Board, 402 00:52:35,280 --> 00:52:44,340 and that was a bit much. So I distance myself from intensive care and that was much less needed because there were more people. 403 00:52:44,340 --> 00:52:52,320 So they didn't need early on. They were full and they needed to be free on Friday to have had a break during the week. 404 00:52:52,320 --> 00:52:55,920 And that is what I provided is a break during the week. 405 00:52:55,920 --> 00:53:05,680 That Wednesday, we are more consultants. It wasn't really terribly helpful, but it was helpful for me to get the Friday. 406 00:53:05,680 --> 00:53:11,340 It was, it seems the I mean, taking the university and the NHS together. 407 00:53:11,340 --> 00:53:17,220 How much of the number of anaesthetists increased over you during your time? 408 00:53:17,220 --> 00:53:24,630 When I came in nineteen seventy. They were searchin consultant anaesthetist. 409 00:53:24,630 --> 00:53:32,750 Now I hesitate, but the number is probably one hundred and twenty. 410 00:53:32,750 --> 00:53:37,190 Probably they're going to give and take a few. 411 00:53:37,190 --> 00:53:42,150 So almost tenfold, almost tenfold. That happened everywhere. 412 00:53:42,150 --> 00:53:51,800 Yeah. Oh, yes. I mean, take cardiology the same when I came, there were four cardiologists for the whole region. 413 00:53:51,800 --> 00:54:02,840 And when they were on the trust board, there wasn't much conflict between the trust and the university. 414 00:54:02,840 --> 00:54:07,490 No, I don't I don't think there was no good. I don't think there was. 415 00:54:07,490 --> 00:54:17,330 But certainly once I had served my time, Ken Fleming became the non-executive director, replacing me. 416 00:54:17,330 --> 00:54:35,030 And I think I don't think there was conflict, but maybe it was a bit more assertive of university role in the trust. 417 00:54:35,030 --> 00:54:37,880 So I think he did an awful lot of good. 418 00:54:37,880 --> 00:54:47,340 I think he was very good at what I did was to make sure that things were running properly in a new newly developed trust as much as I could, 419 00:54:47,340 --> 00:54:51,290 that it wouldn't interfere with teaching and research. 420 00:54:51,290 --> 00:54:57,920 But I think can push things a bit more forward, including some change of the name. 421 00:54:57,920 --> 00:55:02,540 Yes. Which I think was is a good idea. 422 00:55:02,540 --> 00:55:06,620 Right. And you think that helped change the name? I think he did. 423 00:55:06,620 --> 00:55:13,280 And I think it was. It was. But at the time I was there, it would have been impossible. 424 00:55:13,280 --> 00:55:20,120 David Weatherall and tried. Right. And after all, he carried a lot of weight. 425 00:55:20,120 --> 00:55:23,210 So who would have stopped him, as it were? I don't know. 426 00:55:23,210 --> 00:55:36,140 I think in general, in general, I think a lot of NHS consultants were not keen to see the university taking a greater role. 427 00:55:36,140 --> 00:56:19,400 But that's what what my perception is, which may or may not be correct. 428 00:56:19,400 --> 00:56:27,350 But my successor, after I stood down from the chair, the next person to be head of department was right behind me, you remember? 429 00:56:27,350 --> 00:56:34,460 I do, because the chair should have been refilled a appointment. 430 00:56:34,460 --> 00:56:40,880 An election was made and the person took 18 months to finally say, no, I'm not coming. 431 00:56:40,880 --> 00:56:53,590 And then you can imagine that those who had gone out of their way to get this appointment or this election working were a bit miffed. 432 00:56:53,590 --> 00:57:03,140 Yeah, to say the least. So there was a bit more time before an election was made. 433 00:57:03,140 --> 00:57:14,960 And then was Irene Tracy as professor of Anaesthetics Science and Henry Makuei of Professor of clinical anaesthesia or clinical anaesthetics. 434 00:57:14,960 --> 00:57:27,620 So they were to two people. Now, I don't know how they have perceived university and running a department, 435 00:57:27,620 --> 00:57:39,800 but I think Irene must have been fairly successful and likely to become head of the Department of Neurosciences Clinical Neurosciences. 436 00:57:39,800 --> 00:57:50,390 So if she must have liked this stories if and Henry, I don't know, because we we didn't discuss that really. 437 00:57:50,390 --> 00:57:58,430 And we only stayed as young as three years instead of I think it was sort of five years would have been reasonable. 438 00:57:58,430 --> 01:00:24,820 But I think after three years, she decided to turn down from the chair and. 439 01:00:24,820 --> 01:00:28,540 Now, what happened, I asked you that I should have asked you, 440 01:00:28,540 --> 01:00:39,460 what would you what other aspects of what you've done and interactions with the Oxford that you like to mention that I haven't asked about yet. 441 01:00:39,460 --> 01:00:56,860 What really interested me the most in terms of interaction is that Alex Clinton's speech was really wanting a NHS university 442 01:00:56,860 --> 01:01:06,910 department to work as a unit so great that you wanted the academic department and the NHS department to work together. 443 01:01:06,910 --> 01:01:15,580 That's absolutely Pickering. Pickering wanted that. Yeah. And that was also my view, very good to us. 444 01:01:15,580 --> 01:01:27,340 There was maybe a little less of that while Keith Sykes was in the chair, but it wasn't a split. 445 01:01:27,340 --> 01:01:39,580 But maybe the interaction was a bit less. And I was very keen to have profound interaction between academic staff and NHS. 446 01:01:39,580 --> 01:01:47,290 And it had to be a department, just one department that I thought was very, very, very well. 447 01:01:47,290 --> 01:01:56,020 And in a way, I had also some views about appointment to consultants, because, of course, 448 01:01:56,020 --> 01:02:03,010 as head of department, you were automatically a member of all appointment committees for consultants. 449 01:02:03,010 --> 01:02:17,950 And my view was that there is a range of talents we need in the department and amongst the people we appoint. 450 01:02:17,950 --> 01:02:29,740 We should on occasion say we are not interested in how many papers they may have written, but do they have a skill they can impart and teach? 451 01:02:29,740 --> 01:02:34,870 And I was very aware of this need of diversity. 452 01:02:34,870 --> 01:02:40,870 So in a large department, not everybody has to be academically interested. 453 01:02:40,870 --> 01:02:48,580 But what is essential is that those who are appointed contribute something 454 01:02:48,580 --> 01:02:54,490 unique or more or less unique and therefore will contribute to the teaching, 455 01:02:54,490 --> 01:03:00,520 the training of trainees in anaesthetics, because afterwards that's what we have to do. 456 01:03:00,520 --> 01:03:09,220 And I thought that was very important to accept that you shouldn't simply look at the CV and say, oh, this guy hasn't published much. 457 01:03:09,220 --> 01:03:14,230 I'm not going to shortlist. You really should say now what has he done? 458 01:03:14,230 --> 01:03:23,110 And you discover when you read more, this guy is really an expert at regional anaesthesia. 459 01:03:23,110 --> 01:03:28,480 You know, we need such expertise because we want these skills to be passed on. 460 01:03:28,480 --> 01:03:32,440 And that was my view. And on appointment committees, 461 01:03:32,440 --> 01:03:47,710 I would I would really try to make sure that we maintain a wide range of subspecialty interest to impart to the future trainees. 462 01:03:47,710 --> 01:03:54,610 And I think it has served and I think see an example of the integration. 463 01:03:54,610 --> 01:04:08,440 Shortly after I was elected to the chair, there was a big hoo ha because some lists had been cancelled and there was a big discussion. 464 01:04:08,440 --> 01:04:11,290 And what the chairman of the department, 465 01:04:11,290 --> 01:04:20,950 because a clinical department always had a consultant chairman and there was a consultant committee for really the running of the department, 466 01:04:20,950 --> 01:04:22,370 the chairman of the department. 467 01:04:22,370 --> 01:04:30,970 The first thing he did was to say, look, we are going to create a small group to try to progress this problem because there is a problem. 468 01:04:30,970 --> 01:04:36,310 We have to deal with it. And the first thing he did was to ask me to join, which was, I think, 469 01:04:36,310 --> 01:04:49,490 an indication that consultants appreciated the idea of having a unified department where we would all pull our weight in in a different way, 470 01:04:49,490 --> 01:04:53,470 but we would pull our weight and put it in the same direction. That was good. 471 01:04:53,470 --> 01:04:57,730 And if they want to and they just could still do research. 472 01:04:57,730 --> 01:05:07,750 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Me. Did you have any what used to be good and B appointments that say seven NHS four. 473 01:05:07,750 --> 01:05:16,690 Oh yes. Oh yes it has. This has. But there were really as many university sessions. 474 01:05:16,690 --> 01:05:21,980 It was mostly a day. Right. But yes we've had that, we, we had them and. 475 01:05:21,980 --> 01:05:30,610 Yeah. And they were used. That's been true and that you'd like to say. 476 01:05:30,610 --> 01:05:42,250 Yeah, what I have to say is that I've immensely enjoyed being in Oxford in this very exciting environment because it is. 477 01:05:42,250 --> 01:05:50,110 And you've seen yourself. We were at the time developments took place or at a very fast rate. 478 01:05:50,110 --> 01:05:58,030 And some of the developments were pretty unique. So be there, I think is was fantastic. 479 01:05:58,030 --> 01:06:09,130 And the reason I'm still teaching and doing I still have an office in the department and I go every day is that when I was in the chair, 480 01:06:09,130 --> 01:06:17,860 I really received a lot of support from my consultant colleagues because you kind of do a resume and never, 481 01:06:17,860 --> 01:06:26,950 ever did anybody questions the fact that I was on college council and therefore couldn't do my Wednesday at least once a month or whatever. 482 01:06:26,950 --> 01:06:31,930 And in a way, I enjoyed teaching and I enjoyed doing research. 483 01:06:31,930 --> 01:06:36,130 I enjoy mentoring or supervising research fellows. 484 01:06:36,130 --> 01:06:41,860 And I could see no reason to stop. And at the same time, it's sort of payback to the department. 485 01:06:41,860 --> 01:06:51,010 You've given me a lot of support now. I give a bit of support in in teaching and continuing to contribute directly to the department, 486 01:06:51,010 --> 01:06:56,200 mostly teaching medical students, but also teaching our trainees. 487 01:06:56,200 --> 01:07:04,660 I had a session two weeks ago. I have one session tomorrow and on Friday of those are the trainees taking the exam. 488 01:07:04,660 --> 01:07:12,640 And I'm taking an active role in mock vivo exams for trainees. 489 01:07:12,640 --> 01:07:19,850 And I do that regularly and I enjoy it. And in a way, it's also I feel it's sort of payback. 490 01:07:19,850 --> 01:07:24,190 I've got a lot of support now. Time has come to do it. 491 01:07:24,190 --> 01:07:29,470 I've been an examiner at the college, so I've seen the real thing. 492 01:07:29,470 --> 01:07:39,850 So it's useful for me to be involved and it's useful for those who run it to have me involved and talking and saying, oh, we could do this or that. 493 01:07:39,850 --> 01:07:44,770 And it's I enjoy that. That's very valuable and enjoy that immensely. 494 01:07:44,770 --> 01:07:56,590 I enjoy that absolutely immensely. And today I was teaching and after my teaching I went to a small meeting. 495 01:07:56,590 --> 01:08:01,370 It's exactly 10 years ago that in the department, 496 01:08:01,370 --> 01:08:15,340 the simulation centre started that it has broadened enormously and into a lot of simulation, but also other courses on leadership. 497 01:08:15,340 --> 01:08:17,920 And so, like, it's been a huge success. 498 01:08:17,920 --> 01:08:29,440 And the person who runs it, Helen Hiyam was my research fellow, attracted her from London and she worked with me not on simulation, 499 01:08:29,440 --> 01:08:38,410 but cardiovascular and cardiovascular research, and then became a consultant and took that on the road. 500 01:08:38,410 --> 01:08:55,000 And the impact of this simulation centre on the job, not leave academic and clinical, is just amazing because all the students go through that. 501 01:08:55,000 --> 01:09:08,740 Most of the trainees, you know, especially spend time on the simulator and lots of people to take part in leadership and leadership courses. 502 01:09:08,740 --> 01:09:20,350 And this afternoon, they are they have discussions on different aspects, which is quite amazing what they're what they are going to discuss. 503 01:09:20,350 --> 01:09:22,750 So as I was simulation, 504 01:09:22,750 --> 01:09:36,910 there are courses on human factors and patient safety leadership that is under the Oxford Centre for Simulation led by Alan Home. 505 01:09:36,910 --> 01:09:47,290 And I must admit that I made two really fantastic appointments. 506 01:09:47,290 --> 01:09:58,810 I was lucky, Duncan Young and Helen, and these are the ones that have done the most in the department, know lots of others. 507 01:09:58,810 --> 01:10:06,700 I've done very well. But elsewhere, a number of heads of departments that have done very well. 508 01:10:06,700 --> 01:10:09,670 But and I trained them and that's great. 509 01:10:09,670 --> 01:10:19,720 But in a way, in Oxford, those are the two appointments that have made a difference to the way things are done. 510 01:10:19,720 --> 01:10:25,040 And Helen is a case in point and I really enjoy. 511 01:10:25,040 --> 01:10:29,180 Seeing how she has developed that she she is brilliant. 512 01:10:29,180 --> 01:10:37,520 So that is the sort of things that have been very interesting and supportive of in in a small way. 513 01:10:37,520 --> 01:10:46,370 And, yeah, I I've enjoyed the why we came for one year and now we are quite a long time. 514 01:10:46,370 --> 01:10:50,420 Where did you live? One year. So the first year. 515 01:10:50,420 --> 01:11:00,770 Where did you live. Oh we rented a house on the Amazon road and after a few years we decided to buy. 516 01:11:00,770 --> 01:11:05,420 So we bought a house on Headly Way right by the bus stop. 517 01:11:05,420 --> 01:11:14,120 And while we were there and it was fine and this house came on the market and we bought it 25 years ago. 518 01:11:14,120 --> 01:11:23,030 So we've never moved on three sides of a triangle and all within walking distance of the journey, 519 01:11:23,030 --> 01:11:28,640 which I moved to, you know, when I was working with Peter Morris. 520 01:11:28,640 --> 01:11:40,040 It was fantastic because he clearly accepted that as I was near and I wanted to do it, I could see the patients. 521 01:11:40,040 --> 01:11:44,120 And you relied on me to say, I smell a rat. 522 01:11:44,120 --> 01:11:55,250 There is something wrong. So he really felt I could I could help and spot problems in his patients. 523 01:11:55,250 --> 01:12:00,440 And it was great to to have work with a superb surgeon. 524 01:12:00,440 --> 01:12:05,840 And he's a superb dancer. He really have a lot of time. 525 01:12:05,840 --> 01:12:12,740 And we worked together for such a long time and felt that really we were a team. 526 01:12:12,740 --> 01:12:17,200 And that was I mean, all the time as a physician must have helped tremendously. 527 01:12:17,200 --> 01:12:25,820 Yeah. Because he you wanted me to to see patients that that was that was never a question. 528 01:12:25,820 --> 01:12:37,220 You wanted me to do as much. And I was also helped in a way, because in Geneva I was doing intensive care, 529 01:12:37,220 --> 01:12:51,500 but I created the care section and therefore I done more along the line of cardiology than other people in internal medicine would have done. 530 01:12:51,500 --> 01:12:56,750 And in a way, I think I spoke probably a bit more the same language, 531 01:12:56,750 --> 01:13:06,140 which helped a lot with this vascular patient, cardiac problems, people like Colleen ForFour, Oliver Omron. 532 01:13:06,140 --> 01:13:18,080 I could knock on their door and they knew that if I knocked on their door is that I really needed a second opinion or investigations. 533 01:13:18,080 --> 01:13:21,800 It was not just to cover myself. It was it. 534 01:13:21,800 --> 01:13:28,410 It really did matter. And I needed their views as to whether really. 535 01:13:28,410 --> 01:13:39,590 Yes, you are right. This is a problem. But I think treating the problem may cause more harm than good, which I couldn't always be sure of. 536 01:13:39,590 --> 01:13:48,980 And that was really also fantastic to be involved directly with cardiologist any any time, day or night. 537 01:13:48,980 --> 01:13:59,180 I could get one to see a patient. And Brian Cribben also collaborated with but mostly Oliver Ormerod and calling for far. 538 01:13:59,180 --> 01:14:06,530 And it was easy access because I had the background of having run in the day. 539 01:14:06,530 --> 01:14:16,130 We couldn't do very much, but still on my I infarctions spoke to me, so to speak, and it was great to have this collaboration. 540 01:14:16,130 --> 01:14:29,270 And what is amusing in a way, he said over the past several years now there is a multidisciplinary team 541 01:14:29,270 --> 01:14:36,830 meeting for patients having kidney pancreas transplant and it is the cardiology 542 01:14:36,830 --> 01:14:47,210 aspect of it and have been co-opted to it because the way we investigate these patients is the way we investigated the abdominal aortic aneurysm. 543 01:14:47,210 --> 01:15:00,650 And that was. Done by Oliver Cromwell and myself in the 80s, and we use the same scheme and it has served us very well and they wanted me to join. 544 01:15:00,650 --> 01:15:06,740 So I go in there and we discuss three, four or five pages and see all the angles. 545 01:15:06,740 --> 01:15:10,820 And that makes life really interesting and rewarding. 546 01:15:10,820 --> 01:15:20,360 Do you still use exercise judgement? They are used yet, but for these patients, it's mostly myocardial cinematography. 547 01:15:20,360 --> 01:15:29,820 Yes. And also exercise. Yes. And the cardiopulmonary exercise test, which is now used a lot. 548 01:15:29,820 --> 01:15:31,580 And fortunately, 549 01:15:31,580 --> 01:15:46,400 and it's really extremely helpful because the new ways in which EKG's are recorded and data analysed makes it easier to spot myocardial ischaemia. 550 01:15:46,400 --> 01:15:51,650 Early on, I was concerned that it wasn't very good at that. 551 01:15:51,650 --> 01:16:04,610 So an exercise test, which would be useful purely Ziggs exchange with limited DCG didn't appeal to me very much, 552 01:16:04,610 --> 01:16:11,720 but now it's done far better and it's maybe it will replace. 553 01:16:11,720 --> 01:16:16,100 But I think we still will continue to do myocardial cinematograph, 554 01:16:16,100 --> 01:16:21,890 which is something we started to do with Oliver as multi get blood to scan in 555 01:16:21,890 --> 01:16:26,870 the first place before Myocardial Centigrams became the most popular test. 556 01:16:26,870 --> 01:16:31,250 And it served our vascular surgical patients very well. 557 01:16:31,250 --> 01:16:36,260 It did. So it's been exciting and that's why I'm still alive. 558 01:16:36,260 --> 01:16:39,560 Well, that's a lovely interview. I really enjoyed that. 559 01:16:39,560 --> 01:16:43,120 Sanjay, thank you very much. You are welcome. It was great. 560 01:16:43,120 --> 01:16:47,870 I pulled the plug, Angela, and it was great. 561 01:16:47,870 --> 01:16:49,254 Thank you very much.