Miss Gaural Patel

Profile

Miss Patel joined the Milton Keynes team in November 2018. She is delighted to return to the area, following her medical degree at Oxford University (where she also gained an honours degree focussing on cognitive neurosciences) and Foundation training in Buckinghamshire
She has worked over 5 continents, absorbing tips and tricks from many gifted trainers, and completed her core surgical training in London (Chelsea and Westminster hospital, Charing Cross Hospital, Hammersmith Hospital and Hillingdon Hospital). Higher surgical training took her to Wales and an inspirational observership at the Royal Marsden Hospital. Pre-appointment, she was awarded a highly competitive National Oncoplastic TIG fellowship year at Broomfield Hospital and St Andrews Plastics Unit, Chelmsford. Here, she worked alongside internationally respected surgeons in order to train in all aspects of oncoplastic and reconstructive breast surgery including therapeutic mammaplasty, skin sparing mastectomy for implant and flap reconstruction, breast reductions/mastopexies, nipple reconstruction and areolar tattooing. She also took on a key organisational role for the regional risk reducing mastectomy multidisciplinary meeting, which brought together geneticists, psychologists, oncologists, surgeons and breast reconstruction nurses to allow comprehensive assessment and acceptable options for ladies with high risk of developing breast cancer. She finished off her training with a travelling fellowship to Paris, working under the expert supervision of Krishna Clough and Isabel Safardi who helped hone her oncoplastic –aesthetic sense and expanded applications of fat grafting in their technically superb, yet extremely patient centred way.
Since practicing in Milton Keynes she continues to contribute to the academic community, in the form of international conference posters and peer reviewed publications, but is increasingly focussing on holistic care of her patients. She works alongside the Macmillan wellbeing team, to ensure that a diagnosis of cancer can be used positively to improve your quality of life, with access to hospital and community resources encompassing physical health but also addressing emotional and psychosocial needs that can be neglected. You will also find her out and about, both in the hospital and Milton Keynes community, promoting breast awareness with the mammographers and breast specialist nurses, through joint events with local companies and organisations. She hopes to educate and empower both women and men about breast health with the help of her colleagues, media and of course Betty Boob (our realistic mannequin who generously allows everyone to gain confidence with breast examination on her!)
She has a special interest in leadership and the hidden curriculum where norms, values and beliefs, as well as knowledge are passed on unwittingly as well as consciously. She hopes that early development of these ideas with medical students and trainees from both Buckingham and Oxford Universities, will encourage self-awareness and understanding of others. These, together with empathy and kindness, help build the resilience required to complete the demands of higher training, where mind, body and spirit can be relentlessly tested in order to allow oneself the privilege of being someone’s doctor, without losing the qualities of a being a fellow human being.