ScotGEM Stories recently interviewed Professor Chris Isles, the Director of Undergraduate Education for NHS Dumfries & Galloway. Prof. Isles contributes to ScotGEM’s teaching in Dumfries and is also the Hospital Sub-Dean for University of Glasgow students at Dumfries & Galloway Royal Infirmary.
We asked about his current work and memories of his medical career to date.
When did you first want to become a doctor and why?
A long time ago and to be honest I can’t remember exactly why. My grandfather and uncle were both doctors and that probably had something to do with it. There was never any ‘I want to save the world’ moment. I had of course wanted to be a train driver when I was very young and I was probably better at science than art subjects.
What was it like when you first started treating patients as a junior doctor? Are there any memories that really stand out?
My first job was as junior house officer to Sir Andrew Watt Kay in wards G6 and G7 of the old Western Infirmary in Glasgow. I remember organising a Burns Supper for the patients and working one in one for two weeks when my co-resident went on holiday, for which I was paid the princely sum of £11. I remember having to get up every two hours through the night to give IV antibiotics to a patient with meningitis and phoning the hospital matron every two hours to tell her what I was doing, on the grounds that this was a completely inappropriate use of my time when there were nurses on the ward who could just as easily have administered the drug. I’m delighted to be able to say this led to a change in the way overnight antibiotics were given!
Could you tell us a bit about what you currently do at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary?
I used to be a nephrologist until I retired in 2012 and now feel I have the best of all worlds working part-time, with two shifts a week on the Acute Medical Unit and five sessions divided between Hospital Sub-Dean, Undergraduate DME and ScotGEM.
What is currently your favourite part of the job?
Undoubtedly teaching, writing papers – and looking after ScotGEM students! I haven’t mentioned writing papers yet but I was lucky as a junior doctor to work for Drs Tony Lever, Ian Robertson and Jehoiada Brown who between them led the Blood Pressure Unit in Glasgow. Tony Lever was an inspirational figure who took me under his wing and taught me how to analyse data, undertake clinical research and write papers. I still remember the thrill of being given first author status on a BMJ paper called Excess Smoking in Malignant Hypertension in 1976 and vowed then that I would do the same for junior docs when I became a consultant.
We hear that you enjoy an adventure! Can you tell us a bit about where medicine has taken you around the world?
I had a hugely enjoyable and stimulating year in South Africa way back in 1983/84. When I was working in the Blood Pressure Unit a visiting professor from Johannesburg came to our Friday afternoon meeting and gave a talk on malignant hypertension in black South Africans. Malignant hypertension was my research interest at the time so I wrote to him and was delighted to be offered a post at the Non-European Hospital in Hillbrow, Johannesburg. The standard of medicine was extremely high and I learned loads that year while managing to fit in trips to Cape Town, Lesotho, the Drakensberg Mountains, the Kruger National Park and the Stellenbosch winelands. I even took part in the Soweto Fun Run and can claim the honour of being the first white runner home (there weren’t very many white faces in the race that day)! Highly recommended.
You often spend time working in the Shetland Islands, is that right?
I have been going to Shetland to work a weekend there once a month since 2013 and now regard these magical islands as my second home.
What is an average day working in Shetland like?
I do a three-day weekend from 8am on Friday morning through to lunchtime on Monday. Each day starts with a cappuccino (I have a coffee machine in every hospital). I enjoy the challenge of being slightly outside my comfort zone when it comes to looking after small children and I’m now pretty good at diagnosing croup which nearly always improves very quickly after a small dose of dexamethasone. Critically ill neonates are another matter altogether but fortunately Shetland always seems to have an anaesthetist on call who knows exactly what to do.
Do you have a favourite memory from your time there?
Several. The hospital is ‘small but perfectly formed’, there are always nurses on ward rounds and it is a huge pleasure working on wards that still have four-bedded patient bays instead of all single rooms. I even had a cameo role in three episodes of Island Medics! I have seen orcas and the Northern Lights. Shetland has some of the most wonderful coastal walks anywhere I have ever been and I will always try to fit in one if these during the summer months. St Ninian’s Isle, Hermaness, Eshaness, Hillswick, Banna Minn beach and the Kettla Ness peninsula have all been stunning. Uyea is next on my list once this blessed lockdown is over.
You spend most of your time engrossed in medicine but is there anything you like to do to unwind that is non-medical?
I used to enjoy running till my knees packed in and now devote most of my free time to working in a fabulous garden. Living in Dumfries and Galloway means being able to afford a home and garden you could only dream about if you chose instead to settle in the central belt. There are few things more pleasurable in life than the feeling of soil running through your fingers, the whoosh of a swan’s wings when it flies overhead and the trickle of water down the back of your neck when it rains – except perhaps a really good coffee!
If you could give any piece of advice to the ScotGEM students, what would it be?
Work hard, play hard. Don’t fret about choosing a particular specialty but go through whichever door opens for you. Make sure the team you end up in is one in which the doctors get on with each other. If you don’t wake up in the morning and feel good about going to work then you are in the wrong job.
Thanks Chris!