Career Story 4: Dr Chris Haley

I am Chris Haley, I graduated from St Andrews University in 2001 and completed my medical training at the University of Manchester in 2003. I am now in my final year of anaesthetic training in the Northwest deanery and I'm about to undertake an advanced pain year fellowship.

My training to date has been mainly focused on anaesthesia training. This is because of the long training required for the specialty and the value of experiential learning. During my time I have really grown to appreciate the value of team working and good communication skills. Over the past two years I have undertaken a medical leadership fellowship in the North West deanery. This fellowship runs alongside the NHS graduate scheme which allows me to come into contact with motivated individuals from the fields of management, finance, human relations and I.T.  This has given me an invaluable insight into the workings and internal politics involved in modern healthcare management and it has allowed me to understand the barriers and drivers to successful projects within organisations.

This fellowship has also taught me about my own leadership skills and leadership style. I feel it as given me the confidence to become a more independent practitioner and as such I have developed an interest in chronic pain management.

I gain great satisfaction from clinics and enjoy having the time to talk to patients and fully understand their issues. I enjoy the multidisciplinary approach that is required to tackle these often complex problems and being able to listen to patients returning to clinic and showing improvement from our team efforts. I find this longer process of diagnosis, treatment and review a refreshing change from life inside an operating theatre. The more I experience chronic pain management as a specialty the more I appreciate the need for good training and the use of skills different to those in day to day anaesthesia.

Outside of work I also like to continue leadership activities and I have undertaken several overseas expeditions as the medical support. These experiences have opened my eyes to the practice of medicine in low resource environments and has allowed me to appreciate what we have in the UK; a free at the point of care healthcare system, available to all.