Health Inequalities Workshop

--Parliament and Big Ben early in the morning--

I woke up on Monday at the wonderful hour of 5am to grab a ferry and train to London for a Health Inequalities Workshop specifically focused on cardiovascular disease. I went with Debbie and Mary, the trust's representatives for the morning, and it was quite an experience. Public transportation is so convenient here that people are able to commute by train from as far away as Southampton (2 hours!) every day to London. The train was packed with business types messing on their laptops and chatting away on their blackberry's-a reminder of why I postponed the real world to enter medical school.

The workshop was in the Holiday Inn somewhere near the London Eye b/c I could see it out the windows of the conference hall. Speaking of which, who designs a conference hall with windows and expects people to pay attention? The workshop itself was interesting and gave me a few directions to pursue for my paper. It was great to see all the PCTs come together to swap inequalities projects and the diversity in which the programs were designed. Because I woke up before the sun did (which is 4:30 here) I let my guard down and accepted every offer for coffee that I received which ended up being 5 or so. I apparently forgot one of the first lessons I learned when coming here which is how to say no to drink offers. I actually had to leave for half an hour to settle down b/c I was starting to feel like I'd been drugged...and I guess I actually had been. Good times....

Since Monday I've been at the Medical Commissioners office seeing how the CEOs, directors, and corporate big rollers interact. I must say I'm glad I ended up on this side of medicine b/c the meetings are dreadfully long and technical and the administrators all seem a big detached from the humanistic side of their jobs. I suppose you have to be but that doesn't mean I have to envy their positions.

The girls from the office (Philippa, Randip, Joanne, Gayle) took me out for dinner and drinks last night to celebrate my birthday. It was actually in June but it took us a while to find a time that was compatible w/ everyone's schedule: not that it made a difference to me, my nights are universally open. The people from work were awesome and we had a great time.

Time is running out as I fly out next Friday. My remaining time will be spent with a GP in rural Freshwater, with the cardiovascular prevention outreach bus, and with the public health team. I'm also heading to London this weekend with Paul's family to see the spots I missed when Shannon and I visited in May and maybe check out Kent.