Facebook
Twitter
Bookmark & shareKeyhole stomach repair › Day in the life
Surgeon Richard Hardwick
Mr Richard Hardwick is an upper gastrointestinal surgeon at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge. He specialises in gastrointestinal conditions and has a major interest in keyhole surgery. We spent a day with Richard to find what he does at the hospital when he's not operating.
06.55
Before the morning commute, Richard plans the day ahead.
'I check my diary and make sure there wasn't a meeting I had forgotten, or phone calls I was supposed to be making and just plan out the day in my mind before I set off from home.'
'I was thinking about the patient I operated on yesterday,' he says, 'and making sure that she was going to be OK.'
07.15
The first port of call for Richard is his office where he needs to check e-mails and make preparations for the day ahead. He has a few minutes to make a preliminary stab at his mountain of paperwork before heading out.
08.00
It's then time for a multi-disciplinary team meeting, where Richard and his colleagues can video conference with all the local hospitals to discuss cancer cases and how best to manage them.
'It's an hour and a half and we can discuss 40 patients and plan their care,' he says. 'The other hospitals can look at things that we've got, we can look at things they've got. It's a very good use of people's time.'
09.30
After the meeting, Richard starts his ward round with his consultant colleague, two specialist nurses, and three trainee doctors. It's very much a team effort,' says Richard.
Richard and the team have 38 patients to visit this morning, including planned and emergency cases.
09.40
Richard meets a patient who was on his mind earlier this morning. The previous day, she had half her stomach removed by Richard. He is pleased to find that her pain has reduced and she's feeling a little more comfortable.
Later that morning, Richard checks up on a patient who had fallen off a ladder and punctured his lung and so had to have a chest drain put in. Richard is pleased with his progress and is hopeful that he can leave later that day, or the following day.
11.30
With the ward rounds complete, Richard has a cup of coffee with his team and has a team audit session to look through all the discharges and make sure that follow-up appointments and bookings have been taken care of.
12.00
It's now lunchtime, but Richard has phone calls to make, and that paperwork still beckons.
13:30
At an X-ray meeting, Richard and his team take a look at patients' scans with a senior radiologist to make sure that they've chosen the right management plan for each patient.
14:00
On Wednesday afternoons, Richard sets aside some time to tackle his paperwork. He signs letters, answers e-mails and responds to queries about patient care. He also deals with requests for journals and papers to be reviewed.
'It's a real struggle for any busy professional trying to get that balance between home life and work life, and surgeons are notorious for being type A personalities who spend their lives in the hospital working and you do have to really make a big effort to get that balance right.'
18.30
It's been a long day, but for today at least, the work is over. Richard drives home to spend the evening with his family and walk the dogs.
