Dr Vesela Valchova MD, PhD

Written by a NHS patient at Addenbrooke's Hospital

If a committee were convened to assess the qualities need to be a top-class medical practitioner, I suspect the list would contain, amongst others, the following attributes. Patience, ability to explain sometimes difficult concepts with clarity, empathy, ability to listen and respond reflectively, clear planning and concise prognosis. If we grant the truth of the foregoing propositions, Dr Valchova is the beau ideal of a specialist doctor. As is inevitably the case with a socialised medical system such as the NHS, it cannot be said that I chose Dr Valchova, nor for that matter that she chose me. However, this is of little account. It merely serves to underline the truth of the fact that some of things that we value most highly in life are things that we have not freely chosen. Dr Valchova and I are quite different in both disposition and temperament, and I would make a terrible doctor. There are many reasons for this, but lack of the necessary intelligence would chief amongst them. Clearly then like most lay people I am intellectually disqualified from making a sound assessment of the technical content of specialist ophthalmology. However, what I can firmly assert in that in the course her duties Dr Valchova has the happy knack of giving the confidence that treatment is being undertaken with you rather than merely to you. In my experience in various contexts, this is not a quality that not all doctors possess. Dr Valchova hails from Bulgaria and I reflected that, in the United Kingdom, this a country of which we hear little. The last time it impinged meaningfully upon my consciousness came half a lifetime ago in 1994 in a sporting context (I am 62 years of age). I can remember feeling well disposed toward the Bulgarian football team as, against all expectations, they made it through to the semi-finals of the World Cup in the USA with playmaker Hristo Stoichkov the prime mover behind the success. As sport looms large in my life, I have, accordingly, come to regard Stoichkov as the greatest living Bulgarian. The pleasure at the displays of a national football team is clearly vicarious and fortunately medical practice attracts less media attention than sport and, unlike international football, it is experienced directly. Without wishing to sound pompous, Dr Valchova, like Stoichkov, reflects major credit on her home nation. I am sure that Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust are aware her talents and I feel truly fortunate to be under her medical supervision for my Glaucoma. It only remains for me to say that I cannot recommend her highly enough.

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Written by a patient at Addenbrooke's Hospital

I was totally satisfied. Thanks doc.

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Written by a carer at Pilgrim Hospital

High level professional, very careful and precise. Help us a lot.

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