Mr Niall Kirkpatrick – being a Top Doctor

Mr Niall Kirkpatrick is an award-winning craniofacial plastic surgeon based in London specialising in reconstructive craniofacial, head and neck surgery. He is highly recognised for both his clinical work, and his charitable work in Vietnam. We interviewed Mr Niall Kirkpatrick about why he decided to become a doctor and to specialise in his chosen field of plastic surgery.

Why did you decide to become a doctor?

I originally trained in dentistry at Guys’ Hospital, London, but towards the end of this degree, I spent some time in a hospital in Chichester training with maxillofacial surgeons. On the morning of my first day, there had been a major road traffic accident involving two cars colliding head-on at 70 miles per hour. As a result, there were significant fatalities and injuries being dealt with by the surgeons on duty. I was able to observe and work with the different types of surgeons treating these patients’ complex multiple injuries. Although this was just a two week period, it is the reason why I decided to go on to pursue a medical degree.

What was it about plastic surgery which most attracted you?

Like most people, I previously held the belief that plastic surgery was all about cosmetic procedures, but during my training, I became aware that plastic surgery was actually so much more about reconstruction of all parts of the body for a wide range of illness, trauma, cancer and congenital deformity. I learned that it required greater dexterity skills and finesse than many other surgical specialties, which I found very attractive. Plastic surgery has a much wider range of procedures than other surgical specialties, and a huge range of reconstructive procedures throughout the body. I also really enjoy the multi-disciplinary nature of working as a plastic surgeon as you are constantly working with other types of surgeons, so that throughout your career, you are constantly learning new skills and expanding your surgical knowledge.

The charity you support, Facing the World, has changed the lives of many children with craniofacial defects in developing countries. What is next for you?

I am still very much wedded to building Facing the World. It was set up 13 years ago to bring children to the UK from developing countries who had no access to the surgical treatment they required. However, we soon realised that there was an extremely high cost in doing this. So, we shifted gears to create a long-term, sustainable plan for Facing the World. We initially built surgical centres in Da Nang, Vietnam 11 years ago, and we chose Vietnam because unfortunately there is a very high incidence of congenital deformities here. These centres have continued to expand, and, we now have three additional hospitals we partner with in Hanoi.

Read more: Facial deformities in children

In recent years, we’ve built many links with leading craniofacial and reconstructive surgery centres globally and these partnerships allow us to fund Fellowship training for surgeons from developing countries. We hope to do more of this in the future.

Last year, we received awards for our work from the British Prime Minister and the government in Vietnam. This recognition has enabled us to fundraise more effectively so that we can continue to achieve our goals and more.

What challenges do you face on your charity missions?

One of the major issues we face is the language barriers. Medicine requires very accurate use of language to explain problems and solutions to patients and surgeons. Therefore, access to excellent translation facilities is essential for our work.

Another challenge is understanding and adjusting patient expectations. In developing countries, patients can have very high expectations as to what we can achieve. In reality, one surgery is not going to fix everything for all our patients, and several surgeries may be needed over time. Whilst this is much simpler in the UK, our work in developing countries must be carefully managed so that we can deliver multiple surgeries in a timely fashion over several trips abroad. The training of local surgeons is necessary for managing these patients between charity missions and the surgeons are funded by the charity to come to the UK for surgical training and are able to take their expertise back to Vietnam and treat the patients themselves.

What is the most rewarding thing about your work?

For me, knowing I have made a difference in either saving or improving the quality of patients’ lives is the most rewarding aspect of the work that I do.