13 July 2010
A comprehensive guide to the consultants who work at Epsom, St Helier and Sutton hospitals has been launched, so that patients coming in for an appointment can find out more about the expert who will be in charge of their care.
The online consultants' directory (available at www.epsom-sthelier.nhs.uk/consultants) lists details of more than 200 Trust consultants and includes information on their backgrounds, medical training and areas of medical research and interest.
The Trust's Medical Director, Dr James Clarke, is responsible for the Trust's consultants (as well as the 600 doctors currently working at the Trust). He said: "We recognise that coming to hospital can be daunting for some of our patients, and we hope that this directory can help to lessen people's anxiety about their appointment.
"This new directory is a great way for people to find out more about the consultant that will be overseeing their care, and the kind of expertise and experience they have."
The consultants' directory, which is updated as new consultants arrive, is already proving to be popular. Latest statistics show that the consultant's directory is the second most popular section on the Trust's website and in June alone, it received more than 6,400 hits.
The directory contains information about consultants from each of the seven directorates (the different medical specialties) that the Trust provides, including general and emergency medicine, renal and cancer services and critical care and anaesthetics directorates. It also includes consultants who work for the Elective Orthopaedic Centre (EOC), which is managed by the Trust and is based at Epsom Hospital.
From each profile, users can then follow a link to find out more about the services that their consultant offers and what directorate they work for. So, for example, if you were looking up consultant in respiratory medicine, Dr Shanthi Paramothayan, you could read her full profile, then follow a link to the respiratory medicine service page and then read more about the directorate that falls under specialty medicine.
Dr Paramothayan said: "I believe that people should have access to information about the consultants at the Trust, and I know a lot of people are finding it helpful. It can be very reassuring for our patients to be able to put a face to a name, find out more about us and read about our qualifications."
