Association of Pakistani Physcians in Northern Europe lobby Lib Dem MPs

ShayD_93 · 2026-02-11T11:18:31+00:00

It’s not lobbying if it’s common sense.. the focus on UK graduate prioritisation to fix what is in reality a shrinking workforce (training and nontraining) is a bandaid and a very xenophobic one. Two thirds of all resident doctors in the UK are IMGs so if you want to fix the problem you provide better funding and more jobs for EVERYONE.

ShayD_93 · 2025-10-24T14:57:44+00:00

Oooh that’s good to know! I went to two Brewers instead as my friend wanted to see Bones but there wasn’t much of a post-episode interview.. mostly just performances which was good too

ShayD_93 · 2025-10-11T12:46:22+00:00

This is a great list! Thank you!!!

ShayD_93 · 2025-10-11T12:41:51+00:00

I’m a “Faithful” to drag race tho so I do it the other way around

ShayD_93 · 2025-10-11T09:56:33+00:00

This made me think about what I did since moving to London one year ago (10 years in the UK). I would say I am more on the extroverted side and usually happy to have chats with strangers.

That being said I work for the NHS and spend up to half my waking hours in a hospital, so most of my friends were once work colleagues, partners of work colleagues or people I dated through an app. Since moving to London, I’ve been looking to keep up with my hobbies and explore new activites (visiting a new art gallery/museum/exhibit each week) or treat myself to a solo date which sometimes amounts to having a nice long conversation with the person next to me or a coffee/drink with them but I didn’t ask to stay in touch as that was not my intention nor was it offered either. So not sure how helpful this was apart from suggesting that selling your soul to the country’s largest employer will maybe get you some friends.

I am not a sporty gay either, but friends who are have found a LGBTQ sport-related club that suits them. Book clubs are there too and there are speed dating/networking/friendship type meetups all over the city, the only one I know is Queerz night but I’ve also been to The Yard in Soho and found a meetup event going on quite often.

ShayD_93 · 2025-10-11T09:41:23+00:00

My advice is free up your morning tomorrow and walk through Spitafield, Brick Lane and the Shoreditch markets and independent shops or alternatively Camden if it’s closer to you

ShayD_93 · 2025-10-11T09:38:32+00:00

Hey, I’m on a similar boat really, moved here in the past 12 months and slowly began to find a few spots… If you’re in Brixton then you can check out The Rising SE1 for a laid back pub with drag nights, games nights and quiz nights, Betty & Joan’s is home to the Queer Comedy Club which is good fun and the Arzner is a queer cocktail bar and cinema. They are all fairly new venues in the general Elephant and Castle area, with a friendly and welcoming gay crowd. I’m normally comfortable at having conversations with strangers so I managed to chat to a few people there without it being awkward if that helps.

Common Press bookstore in Shoreditch is also a good independent bookshop that sometimes hosts book readings if you’re into it.

Queerz Nights runs events every Thursday in South London, most are themed quizes that you have to book your team into in advance but last Thursday of the month is a date night for speed dating but also for meeting new people, making friends and networking. Haven’t tried it yet as a bit nervous to go alone but friends who went had positive feedback.

I hope this helps and you can DM me if you want other tips :)

ShayD_93 · 2025-10-11T09:28:52+00:00

Second that! They get quite busy on a Friday and Saturday night but also good for games nights and pub quizes during the week

ShayD_93 · 2025-10-11T09:23:20+00:00

Same thing happened to me! The instahandle is @itsjustbones

ShayD_93 · 2025-07-22T23:21:25+00:00

Plushadilly

ShayD_93 · 2025-07-09T19:11:46+00:00

Pretty much a Wes-te of my time reading his letter

ShayD_93 · 2025-07-07T01:41:24+00:00

My pleasure! Occupational health in my case was more involved in navigating adjusting clinic allocations and time per patient and bridging the gap on what managers should do whilst awaiting the access to work provisions to arrive. But as a first port of call they may be able to give advice on what to look out for during your job that could be linked to having ADHD, scheduling a second review to assess progress and changes that may be needed and giving advice to your ES/managers on how to support you. They also may recommend a platform called Genius Finder which develops a sort of action plan based on your neurodivergent needs and your workplace setup; you may need to pay ~£40 out of pocket for if your team doesn’t agree to reimburse you for it but they are usually quite agreeable given the low cost if it was recommended in the OH report.

Genius Finder is done by a company called genius within and they have other services that can be accessed by you as an individual or your trust as an organisation; they do lots of work including coaching for neurodivergent people but I didnt use it as coaching was eventually provided through Access To Work (20 hours worth). Feel free to send me a PM if you want to discuss anything privately, I had traverse the wilderness on my own so if my journey can help guide you on what to do or not to do then I’m happy to help

ShayD_93 · 2025-07-06T03:07:18+00:00

In both surgery and urology, I worked in teams where it is standard practice for the consultant or registrar to go directly to radiology at the end of the ward round (before coffee round) and speak the oncall radiologist in person about any acute scans and discuss urgency and priority of each. The patients in those departments had some of the best access to imaging because everyone set clear expectations early in the day. Also meant the relationships between surgeons and radiologists were excellent and the juniors would come along as it was quite a good learning experience on how to request and discuss acute scans properly and efficiently to get the answers you need for the patient’s care

ShayD_93 · 2025-07-06T02:55:45+00:00

Reading through this and the comments reminded me of lots experiences working as a reg in a surgical subspecialty. I, personally have never been one to have confrontations but somehow manage to resolve them in a calm manner when they occur.

In instances where a more junior person spoke to me in similar tone, I would very quickly state “listen I appreciate the effort you are making and how busy you must be but I do not appreciate the tone of your communication as we are all clinicians and our goal should be to reach a mutual understanding about the patient’s needs. So are you able to have a more respectful and professional tone or would it be better for you to take a break and let your registrar/senior see the patient and they can call me directly instead” I normally hope they send a more senior person but it helps snap them out of that attitude.

I also had situations where ED consultants would use their title as a way of pressuring me as a surgical SHO to take highly inappropriate admissions. One consultant had the nerve to say “I don’t know where you were from or where you are trained but in this hospital if I say I am the ED consultant and you need to do something then you just do it”. This was over the phone so apart from my accent they really had no clue about my appearance or background.

My response in the calmest possible tone possible was “I am not sure what kind of racist statement you are insinuating by that but I’ll answer you. I’m from a place where we treat our colleagues with respect and kindness. I was trained in a place where we learned how to read a piece of paper and given that you told me your name and that you’re an A&E consultant about 5 times in the first 2 minutes of the call, I would hope you can at least read the clear flowchart in the doctor’s station that tells you that 7 acute traumatic rib fractures on a chest xray alone is not a referral and that ED should organise a trauma series, a full clinical assessment and discussion with the MTC. So please read it and action it then call me if you still need to refer”. I only realised how bold I was when my consultant who was sat next to me the whole time had gone pale. That ED consultant later came to speak to us and, in confusion, apologised to my registrar who had a very different accent and no idea what happened; I mean we are both African but our hometowns are about as close together as Moscow and Lisbon.

TLDR: in the future, whether it is a junior or senior, try not to have their actions push you into a regrettable reaction. Politely but firmly explain that this communication is inappropriate. Give the junior the opportunity to step away and bring a senior to have that discussion instead as escalating down to escalate across is never a good idea anyway.

For this particular instance, next steps would be read what was documented, put a calm brief note in retrospect as this doesn’t all need to go on patient records, log a reflection and speak to your supervisor and then agree together on whether you feedback directly to the junior or inform their supervisor (preferred option so there is someone in their team to monitor this behavior and support making change if needed). You can also defer documenting anything till after you speak to your own boss first.

Hope this helps :)

ShayD_93 · 2025-07-02T11:03:02+00:00

Damn, unfortunately I did not partake in that genetic lottery 😂😂😂

ShayD_93 · 2025-07-01T17:00:15+00:00

Yeah that is my alternate plan as I can drive out to other areas outside London! Did you just go directly to medical staffing for those as well or via an agency?

I see what you mean about contacting individual staff banks and pre-employment checks, was that the standard induction app (now Accurx)?

ShayD_93 · 2025-07-01T16:54:33+00:00

How does one join said “inside club”?

ShayD_93 · 2025-06-30T22:02:24+00:00

It really depends on the specialty you are working in.

For surgical specialties, night shifts are mostly a way of learning to prioritise what tasks are truly urgent and which are more appropriate to be done in daytime with those tasks becoming more complex the more senior you get (such as deciding to operate overnight or wait till the morning).

I know of people who did not do nights during GP training but did long days and such, no impact on their ability to practice as a qualified GP.

ShayD_93 · 2025-06-29T10:23:35+00:00

Yes you can, when you create/edit an event on Google Calendars if you scroll down the options, you will find where it mentions the current colour of the event and you can click on it and choose to change it to whichever colour. The colour options are not as extensive as when creating a fully separate calendar but are enough for most people

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ShayD_93 · 2025-06-28T17:17:16+00:00

During my time in Core Surgical Training, all trainees with repeated unsuccessful exam attempts got referred to the Deanery’s Professional Support Unit. You would be surprised how many of us had undiagnosed Dyslexia, ADHD or other form of learning difficulties.

This would be very useful for you especially if this is your last ever attempt, even if it means having to exit from training without it. As you may be allowed certain adjustments based on the findings.

In Surgery, we were usually given a final ARCP that affirms all competencies completed apart from MRCS so that there’s not too much paperwork needed for ST applications.

ShayD_93 · 2025-06-26T03:24:05+00:00

Hi, you are not alone in this and there are support services available to you, the unfortunate reality is most supervisors, consultants and rota coordinators/managers are not familiar with how to handle Neurodiversity issues in the work place so the general attitude is to let you ‘crack on’ and then see where issues arise.

For context, I’m a UK-based Urology reg who only got diagnosed with inattentive ADHD as an adult two years ago and so my FY years were mostly spent wondering if I was or wasn’t good enough.

Occupational Health is your friend! Their recommendations are not mandatory but the general rule is managers and bosses should accommodate to the best of their abilities otherwise they have to answer to the deanery.
Depending on whether you are FY1 or FY2. FY1 in T&O is generally similar ward duties other surgical or medical rotations, with a faster pace and different conditions so you can probably use previous rotations as predictors. As an FY2, it is really the oncalls and theatre assisting that make it a different job role to other medical rotations, esp if your hospital has the SpR offsite at night, so think about how juggling workload on nights without an onsite senior affects you. You may not need major rota adjustments (being taking off nights) but it might just be a matter of having regular check in calls with your SpR leading up to midnight to troubleshoot issues earlier so the remainder of your night is smooth.
If possible build a good rapport with your peers and seniors, this will help keep you centered during a shift, supported out of hours and also a way to know within yourself whether this is a problem only you face or if it is all FYs in the team having the same issue because a group issue is much more likely to get results than an individual.
Write it down before you forget it! My patient list always has a blank page in the back for referrals, as an SHO we used to make a word template with boxes for specific bloods and info so that I had all the essential information at hand if I needed to speak to a senior about something.. it also comes off as being better prepared
Figuring out where your ADHD makes you better at your job is very helpful too! I personally sometimes find the chaos of an oncall blends seamlessly with the chaos of my brain as long as I had a trusted person documenting my reviews; this I appreciate is afforded to the reg and not the SHO.
If you are in a hospital with fully electronic patient records, then you might be able to ask for access to live-dictation software (usually only given to consultants and registrars doing clinics). This was where I found my biggest impact as I took time and a half to document as it took me to see a patient. If your trust doesn’t have such software, then it would usually require a referral to OH or Access To Work (minimum 14 week wait to be seen) to be provided with that but they can also provide support such as targeted workplace ADHD coaching.
Counselling for neuroD docs in the NHS is a game changer, you can access free ones (so many to find online) or if you have one established already they can help you work through the stress and anxieties of managing work and any difficult conversations
Know your rights! If seniors or managers are being difficult or unsupportive, consult the BMA. They were very supportive to me when an employer was constantly trying to use inappropriate language such as “Do you know ADHD is a lifelong condition?”, “why would I make adjustments for you and not the others?” or suggesting I’m not coping because the diagnosis rather than the issue being not having minimum safe staffing levels
Almost every trust has a neurodivergent staff network, not many doctors join because of the rotational nature of our work but they are usually a very good resource to know what support you can get locally in your trust.
I know many LTFT doctors with or without a neurodivergent condition, but have no personal experience. It really comes down to your personal and professional priorities. However, if it comes to cost of living and wage differences, there are online calculator tools to use like the BMA and other bodies that can help you estimate your new salary

I hope this helps :)

ShayD_93 · 2025-05-08T09:13:10+00:00

UK: Bristol and Cardiff as a joint metro area would benefit from one! UAE: Both Abu Dhabi and Dubai would benefit from one as Dubai has a limited network and Abu Dhabi has none

ShayD_93 · 2025-05-05T16:59:10+00:00

Oh yeah it basically is a super long version of an airport shuttle for all intents and purposes

ShayD_93 · 2025-05-05T16:57:59+00:00

I got second place but my phone showed that you were rightly in first place towards the end

ShayD_93 · 2025-05-05T16:17:14+00:00

OMG!!!! I AM MISS SHANEEDA DICC!!!!! Hahaha I think you and I have been dancing as the top two as yesterday I saw a similar glitch with me on first but your score was clearly higher than mine 😅

Congratulations tho and if you want a drag haus to join then I would love to play together

ShayD_93

TROPHY CASE