Paul Siklos – Trustee

Career Profile

After qualifying from the Middlesex Hospital Medical School (University of London) in 1972, my medical training included four years from 1978 as University of Cambridge Clinical Lecturer (one of the first Clinical Supervisors of the newly established School of Clinical Medicine). I was able to continue a relationship with the Clinical School after my appointment as Consultant Physician at West Suffolk Hospital (WSH) in 1982, supervising the increasing number of clinical students placed at WSH and examining and teaching in Cambridge.

In 1995 I was appointed Associate Clinical Dean with half-time commitment to the Clinical School in Cambridge, and in 1999 as the Foundation Director of the Cambridge Graduate Course in Medicine (CGCM). This is an ‘accelerated’ 4-year course in medicine for graduates with a first degree in any subject and has its academic base in Cambridge and clinical base at WSH, allowing the expansion of the educational activities and supporting infrastructure at the hospital.

In 1997 I was elected a Fellow of Hughes Hall, a Cambridge College which started life in 1885 with a commitment to University education of women, and is now the oldest graduate College in the University with an egalitarian, diverse and international student body offering study, particularly in education, medicine (CGCM) and law. As a member of the Governing Body for 20 years, I was able to develop the skills required of a Trustee and support a vibrant and eclectic student body.

Why did you become a St Nicholas Hospice Care Trustee?

As a hospital clinician for over 40 years, I have seen many patients dying in an acute hospital bed, and, to quote Canon Richard Norburn, founder of St Nicholas Hospice, I felt that “there must be something better”. The Hospice movement and palliative care were in their relative infancy then (1981), and I have seen how over the last thirty years or so, the holistic care of the dying has been transformed.

I worked ‘informally’ with the palliative care teams at WSH and the Hospice for many years. Having now retired from clinical practice, I am very pleased to be in a position to support local palliative care and be of service to the Hospice as a Trustee.