EAU consultant celebrates five decades in medicine
Dr Gopalakrishnan Venkat-Raman, 71, part-time Consultant Physician in the Emergency Assessment Unit (EAU), celebrates an impressive 50 years of practising medicine this month. After qualifying as a doctor at the end of 1972, his first day on the job was 3 January 1973, at Safdarjang Hospital in Delhi, reputedly one of the busiest hospitals in the world.
After gaining a wealth of experience in India, Dr Venkat-Raman arrived in the UK in 1979, where he worked at hospitals in Sunderland and Portsmouth, getting his MRCP and specialising in Renal Medicine. Within six years of moving to the UK, he had achieved appointment as a Consultant Nephrologist.
Dr Venkat-Raman worked at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust from 1985 to 2016 until taking retirement, making him one of the Trust’s longest serving consultants.
Not wanting to retire fully, however, Dr Venkat-Raman then joined Royal Surrey in a part-time role in EAU. He said: “I realised I didn’t want to give up medicine completely, because I get so much pleasure from it, and of course, there is a crying need for more experienced doctors. In any case, I’m still firing on all cylinders so I’m keen to keep my work going for a few more years. I currently mix private work with my part-time role in the Royal Surrey’s EAU.
“When I’m not working, I do a lot of travelling but also enjoy looking after my 20-month-old grand-daughter.”
Dr Venkat-Raman has also turned his considerable talents to writing and published a novel in April last year. Described as ‘an impressive debut with an engaging storyline,’ Evil at the Core, was written under the pseudonym Vinquita Romaine and has raised money from its sale for charities, Save the Children, Comic Relief, Friends of the Earth and the World Wildlife Foundation. Watch this space for whatever the next chapter in this busy doctor’s life will bring!