Broadcast
Broadcasting started as a side project. In 2015 I founded WatMed Media, a social media health broadcaster, and run it still as a media consultancy. It became the springboard: I was a health contributor for the BBC from 2015 to 2018 and for Sky News from November 2016 to January 2021, with appearances on LBC: an estimated 110 million+ cumulative broadcast impressions.
In 2016, the year the mainstream appearances began, Medic Footprints named me Diversified Medic of the Year.
Listed below are curated highlights of my public health broadcasts that have been seminal in shaping the work I do today. The sections lead to summaries with more details of each exchange.
The COVID-19 moments
When the pandemic arrived, translation between what medicine knew and what the public could act on stopped being an interest and became a duty. Three moments stay with me.
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Live public coronavirus Q&A on Mark Austin's News Hour
Answering the public's medical questions live on Sky News as the pandemic took hold in the UK.
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The Prime Minister is admitted to intensive care
On air as Boris Johnson was moved to intensive care with COVID-19.
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London declares a major incident
Covering London's major-incident declaration as the Kent variant drove infections.
The NHS cyberattack, live on the hour
When a cyberattack hit the NHS in May 2017, I was on air with five live briefing slots, one every hour, translating a fast-moving crisis for the public as it unfolded.
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NHS cyberattack briefing, 1 of 5
The morning after the May 2017 ransomware attack, live from the Royal London Hospital: how completely IT now runs through NHS care, and why anyone with symptoms of a heart attack or a stroke should still come to A&E.
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NHS cyberattack briefing, 2 of 5
Hour two of the cyberattack coverage: the NHS was coping, but where had the patient data gone, and who was accountable for keeping one of the country's most valuable data sets safe?
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NHS cyberattack briefing, 3 of 5
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NHS cyberattack briefing, 4 of 5
Hour four: the professionalism of staff who put patients first, why the Sun's 'National Hacked Service' was the headline that stuck, and a first read on the scale as a COBRA meeting was called.
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NHS cyberattack briefing, 5 of 5
Hour five: the fatigue and opportunity cost of staff covering the gap, why safety comes first even when care takes longer, and why keeping systems secure needs leadership from the top.
Early, and on the record
What broadcast was for all along: getting to a public health question early and being right about it, as with vaping in February 2018.
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Brexit and the NHS, on Sky News
On what Brexit would mean for the NHS workforce in November 2016: not a dramatic exodus but a slow, damaging decline, and a warning against making EU colleagues feel unwelcome.
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The NHS winter crisis, on Sky News
On the January 2018 winter crisis and the health secretary's apology for thousands of cancelled operations: honesty about a service running hot every year, and protecting the staff who speak up.
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Vaping, with Kay Burley on Sky News
On the public health questions around vaping in February 2018, early on the issue and correct on it.
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NHS 111, with Stephen Dixon on Sky News
On the record 111 month of August 2018: a good option inside a struggling system, the call-centre staff carrying it, and why the two emergency lines need to talk to each other.
Paper Reviews
Away from the health desk, a regular slot reviewing the morning papers on Sky News: three live turns across the breakfast programme, taking the day's stories, the serious and the light, from a doctor's point of view.
23 July 2017
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The death threats sent to Great Ormond Street over the Charlie Gard case, and smoking on Love Island.
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The Boots emergency-contraception row, and blood donation and whistleblowing.
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NHS cuts, the drug industry's reluctance to make new antibiotics, and flexible working, including yoga in the office.
