Stratford-upon-Avon Living Jan - Feb 2021

DOCTOR DOCTOR
We talk to one of the UK’s favourite doctors - Dr Hilary Jones
Dr Hilary Jones is one of best known TV
doctors and has been ITV’s Health Editor
on Good Morning Britain since 1989. Sally
Thomson had the opportunity to have a
discussion with him following his early start
on the programme.
Thank you very much for taking my call.
Dr Hilary, have you had a long day?
It’s been a fairly long day but I’m getting
used to that at the moment.
What time do you start in the mornings?
4 o’clock starts usually 5 days a week for
the last few months so, yeah it is what it is
and it’s a challenging story.
Most people know you from the breakfast
programme you are on, but a lot of people
don’t know why you actually chose to
become a doctor?
My dad was a doctor so I had an insight
into what was involved and I think I was
always a people person so I suppose in a
corny way I wanted to do something that
would make a difference. Whilst I had to
change from Art A levels to science which
was a struggle the clinical work was very
satisfying, so it was an easy decision.
Was there a particular field that you
wanted to specialise in?
No, I’ve always thought a specialist is
someone who knows more and more about
less and less until they know everything
about nothing. I wanted to be a jack of
all trades and have a broad spectrum of
knowledge and the challenge of general
practice is you never know what’s going to
come through the door.
How long ago did you enter it, when did
you become fully qualified?
1976 so 44 years ago.
Would you recommend a young person
goes into the profession?
Yes, it’s a fantastic career still. It has its
challenges and I think in the UK it’s not
particularly appreciated enough by the
doctors patients but I would say that its
challenging, interesting, satisfying and
nobody does it for the money but I think
in terms of job satisfaction and going to
bed at night thinking my goodness I’ve
think I’ve made a difference it is a fantastic
career.
I guess it must be quite challenging at
times, the other side of it that is quite
difficult I should imagine.
Of course, they are long hours and you
have to impart bad news sometimes and
you deal with death and dying as well as
making people better.
Is that a major part of the syllabus? How
you handle those unpleasant and really
heart rendering times when you have to
give somebody bad news?
What you learn in training is fairly superficial
and it’s what you pick up through the
experience of practice that makes the
difference and you never stop learning in
medicine.
How did you get into TV? There appears
to be a lot of doctors now on the box, but
you have been there for a little time, now
haven’t you?
I was lucky enough to have gone to a
school with a very good drama society
and it was not unusual for us to perform in
front of an audience and I think that when I
was in general practice I realised we could
reach a lot more people rather than dealing
with one person in the surgery. Public
health messages were capable of reaching
hundreds of thousands of people in one hit
so I wrote to TV AM asking for a job, then I
got a letter back saying we like your ideas
come and meet us and that was in 1989.
I understand that you have been working
on topics regarding keeping well during
the wintertime and in light of the awful
year we have had in particular, what
advice would you like to give our
readers?
I think patience and perspective would
be two words that come to mind. I think
everyone is very impatient to get on with
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