Hilali Noordeen Interviewed by Muir Gray

Spinal surgeon Professor Hilali Noordeen makes the case for revisiting reforms in the National Health Service, which he says are destroying values of care and compassion, and talks about the pressures faced by doctors in the face of the COVID pandemic.

Noordeen’s Letters to a Young Doctor was sparked by his 15-year-old son asking his opinion on pursuing a career in medicine. It is partly a warm and witty account of life as a successful surgeon but also carries a serious message about the de-professionalising of a great profession in the pursuit of efficiency. Noordeen says there are ways to manage the disappointment or alienation that causes many to leave the medical profession.

Noordeen is a consultant at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. He was an undergraduate at the University of Oxford where he became President of the Oxford Union in 1983. He has several medical technology patents to his name. Here he talks to leading public health expert Sir Muir Gray.