A review of 2022 and welcome to 2023

2022 was a year of consolidation and development.  The Beaconsfield Clinic was consolidated as an excellent venue for couples to have all of the investigations that they might require, usually on the same day as the first consultation, in the sort of atmosphere conducive to relaxing and making some decisions.  We have also developed our relationships with our gynaecological colleagues at Beaconsfield, particularly Neale Watson, Gavin Kemball, and Lynne Chapman.

At the same time, we were planning to move slightly away from the HCA consulting rooms in Devonshire Street to a more bespoke environment in the London Clinic at 145 Harley Street, and I am pleased to say that we completed this move in October of last year, and I must of course thank my PA, Alison, and her assistant Hannah for all of the work that this involved.  We now have a separate computer system for our patients and a separate venue for them to be seen, where I hope their investigations will run a little more smoothly and where perhaps the atmosphere will be a little less frenetic.

The end of 2022 was not good, however.  I developed an arrhythmia, or irregularity, of my heartbeat which has proven not only difficult to diagnose but rather difficult to treat.

Therefore, throughout November and December I have been having quite extensive investigations, first of all to make sure that there is no serious underlying condition, but then to try to treat the arrhythmia to improve the function of the heart.

The arrhythmia has been resistant to treatment and it has transpired that the probable reason that the heart’s rhythm is too quick and irregular is that one of the heart valves is leaking and may have been doing so for many years.  However, it certainly seems that the time has come to repair this defect and therefore to restore normal services, and this procedure is to take place on 6 January.

I will require at least four weeks’ convalescence and maybe six, so I hope that I will be able to be seeing patients and operating again by the end of February or the beginning of March 2023.

In the meantime, we have tried to make a lot of contingency plans to try to maintain the diagnostic and therapeutic services.  My colleague Lona Vyas, Consultant Urologist and Andrologist at Chelsea and Westminster, is seeing patients for me at The London Clinic at 145 Harley Street, where she has access to all of the patient records and where Alison of course can help her to look up all previous tests, investigations and operation results.

At Beaconsfield, my friend and colleague Jas Kalsi is going to see a few patients on a Tuesday, which will help to fill that gap, at least in the short term, and of course my friends Claire Mooney and Hayley Fryer, and Ali Hassan, will keep working on your behalf.

At the Lister, when surgical sperm retrievals need to be undertaken, then my colleague Tet Yap will stand by, and when we are dealing with clinical situations of considerable complexity, then my senior colleague Professor Suks Minhas will always be there, not only for advice but also for more sophisticated treatments should these be necessary.

In any case, I hope to be returning to a rather invigorated, and possibly even enlarged, service with better access and probably more timely consultations during March of this year, and in the meantime I do thank you all for your patience and forbearance and I must reiterate my own gratitude and thanks to Alison for standing by to make sure that as far as possible everybody is accommodated with what they need and require in a timely manner.

With best wishes to you all.