The History of the Croydon Medical Society

Miss Ranee Thakar is a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist and a Subspecialist in Urogynaecology at Croydon University Hospital as well as being an Honorary Senior Lecturer at St George’s University of London. She is the Urogynaecology Lead and has previously served as the Clinical Business Unit Lead in her trust. She is the current Vice President for Global Health and the co-chair of the RCOG Race Equality Taskforce.

She is passionate about research and recognises its vital role in advancing health. Her publications include many original papers in peer-reviewed journals and chapters in books. She has edited three textbooks. Having previously focused on the diagnosis and repair of obstetric anal sphincter injuries (OASI) through research and training, she is currently leading on a joint Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and Royal College of Midwifery national prevention project funded by the Health Foundation, which has demonstrated a significant reduction in OASI rates.

She has a lifelong commitment to the improvement of women’s health globally and intends to pursue new initiatives in global health in her capacity as the Vice President of the RCOG.

Agnelo Fernandes was born in Goa, went to school in Wandsworth, South London and attended King’s College, London and Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School. His interests include minor surgery, dermatology, teaching and quality improvement of health services through innovation and transformation. A GP at Parchmore Medical Centre in Thornton Heath, Croydon for 30 years he is also a GP Trainer, member of the South London RCGP Faculty (8yrs) and a Governor at Royal Russell School, Croydon (16yrs). He was previously an Educational Supervisor of GP Trainees out of hours (20 yrs) having initially set up the scheme, a GP appraiser (15yrs), a member of the Croydon Local Medical Committee (2002-2017).

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I am the eldest of 3 brothers and 2 half-brothers. My late father was a pioneering consultant radiotherapist at the Royal Marsden Hospital and my late mother nursed King George VI in his final illness. I was privileged to be educated at Sevenoaks School when I first developed my love of performing music and drama which was further nurtured in my medical training at Westminster Medical School. After Professorial Medical and Surgical house jobs, I embarked on a career in Obstetrics and Gynaecology including a 4-year rotation in the Northeast of England from which I emerged as a registrar with the MRCOG qualification. After 3 more years as a registrar, including a year at Croydon University Hospital and working as a research registrar in IVF, I found myself "stuck" and increasingly estranged from my long-suffering wife Jo and our 4 children. So, I made the decision to become a GP, after a long meeting with the former "Giant" of Croydon General Practice, the late Dr Clifford Floyd.

I was amazed at how little I had understood the GP's role when I was working as a hospital doctor and found the 2 years of further training challenging and rewarding. There then followed 27 years working as a GP Principal in a small friendly family Practice in Shirley with a fantastic loyal Practice team and patient base with little staff or patient turnover.

During this time, I also worked one session a week in the colposcopy clinic at CUH for over 20 years mainly with the late Mr Peter Clarkson who was a special friend and inspiration. The fact that I was physically present at the hospital every week enabled a particularly helpful working relationship with the hospital consultants that made difficult problems easier to resolve by personal discussion.

I also worked for over 15 years as the New Addington Family Planning Clinic Doctor with a wonderful team.

I retired in 2015 in the face of my ideal of the "small friendly family Practice" being no longer sustainable, with the direction of travel of Primary Care being expected to deliver more and more with fewer resources, including ticking all the boxes and controlling expenditure. To be honest I was "burnt out" with 12-hour days and regular 6–12-hour weekends "catch up" being the norm for the last 2 years.

Retirement has been a revelation enabling me to travel, enjoy 6 grandchildren aged 2-9 years, regularly walk, play bridge and play all manner of brass instruments- mainly tuba (bought for me by my patients when I retired), the French horn and trombone. I regularly play with 4 concert wind bands and "dep" for several more. I also play in several orchestras including tuba in " The Doctors Orchestra" who do an annual big charity concert at Cadogan Hall.

I qualified at Nottingham University before returning to Croydon, completing my GP training at Mayday and then joining a practice in Woodside Health Centre - where I remain as one of the partners. I lead the training at the practice, teaching a training various trainees - medical, nursing, and physician assistants to name a few!

I am also a Guide and Rainbow Guide leader and help lead the Duke of Edinburgh Award at Royal Russell School.

Dr Khalid Khan has been a Principal in General Practice at the Parkside Group Practice in South Croydon since 1997.

He is a GP trainer, tutor for King's College London School of Medicine and a former community pharmacist. He is former Board member of the South Croydon Primary Care Group(PCG) and of the South London Faculty of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP.)

Dr Khan is Fellow of the RCGP; Fellow and Steering Committee Member for the Chinese Medical Institute and Register (C.M.I.R.), a Licensed NLP Trainer and author of Mnemonics & Study Tips for Medical Students (CRC Press). He is current Quizmeister of the Croydon Medical Society.

I qualified from Cambridge University and the Middlesex Hospital in 1985 and currently still work as a consultant gastroenterologist at Croydon University Hospital. Exploration and the new are my great loves and administration my great hate.

I was a member of the Cambridge Travellers and Explorers Club and organized an expedition to Zanskar in the Indian Himalayas in 1981. I was the first to discover an old unused route across the Himalayas, providing the Indian ministry of Tourism with the first description of the route. I have been to the central Congo, have crossed the Sahara, climbed the Hoggar mountains, and visited Mongolia and Tibet more recently.

In medicine, I have had an active research career crossing many different disciplines. I was the first to prove that Helicobacter pylori was mainly acquired in childhood with little on the way of acquisition in adulthood, the first to show that most cardiovascular risk factors were the result of chronic inflammation, the first to show that bowel inflammation is affected by exercise, fibre intake and obesity which are all risk factors for colorectal cancer, and the first to show that counterintuitively obesity is risk factor for the development of Crohn’s disease. Enthusiasm for the novel led me down one blind alley, being the first to propose that Helicobacter pylori infection is a risk factor for coronary heart disease. The association turned out to be the result of residual confounding but nevertheless it was the forerunner of the contemporary interest in the role of gut flora in the pathogenesis of coronary heart disease.

Born and bred in Croydon, Louise returned to her roots in 2014 after qualifying from Imperial College and completing foundation training in North-West London.

She dabbled in a career in hospital medicine with the MRCP, but soon found her true calling as a GP and has been working in a salaried post at Greenside and Lennard Road practices in West Croydon since 2017.

Louise enjoys speaking French and worked with GPs in the Loire region as part of an Erasmus exchange programme during her training. She is an avid musician; she plays the bassoon, piano and, more recently, percussion with her 1 year old son!

John Spicer qualified from the Middlesex Hospital in 1977, spending the few years thereafter in various hospital posts in the Midlands, before washing up in Croydon as a GP trainee with Albert Nawrocki in 1981. He started working at Woodside Health Centre, South Norwood in 1985 after a couple of years travelling and working overseas. He's still there, at the time of writing ! Other medical interests have included undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in which he's had various roles, leading to being Head of Primary Care Education for HEE South London. He is still a teacher of, and writer about, medical ethics, and is particularly proud of A Handbook of Primary Care Ethics: a large book published in 2018 and winner of a BMA prize. He is very interested in the arts and medicine [being a mediocre guitarist] and a trustee/director of the London Arts and Health Forum.

Abdul Sultan is a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist with a special interest in urogynaecology. He has been based at Croydon University Hospital since August 1996.

Peter was born and bred in Croydon attending Selhurst Grammar School which latterly became the Fame School of Performing arts sometime after his departure.

He qualified in 1976 at St Georges Hospital, at the time it was transitioning to Tooting but was fortunate to spend around half of his clinical training at Hyde Park Corner site. House jobs followed at the now closed St James Hospital and Mayday with Mr Bradbeer and Mr Pendower.

General medicine followed, he was Rupert Courtenay-Evans registrar for 2 years, prior to 3 years doing thoracic medicine at Papworth and Addenbrookes Hospitals in Cambridge. He switched to general practice and did a year as a trainee in Purley with Dr Betty Bass (Woodcote Practice) and 6 months obs/gynae at Redhill, after which he became a partner at the Old Coulsdon Medical Practice, where he has been since 1985.

Peter is a member of the LMC and was Chairman for about 8 years. He has served on FPCs, FHSAs, Health Authority, PCGs, PEC and is currently Chair of the CCG’s Council of Members. He was a trainer for around 20 years as well as having a stint as an Appraiser at the onset of the process.

He retired as the Senior Partner in his practice but continues in a salaried role 3 days per week.