The other side of the fence: a patient experience
Diagnostic Radiographer Kenneth Spencer shares his story after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2022, aged 76
By Kenneth A. Spencer TDCR, MSc.
By Kenneth A. Spencer TDCR, MSc.
Synergy has featured stories by radiographers ‘on the other side of the fence’ following diagnoses requiring treatments and procedures that they have administered to others. In 2022 I found myself in that situation, and thought readers might be interested in my experiences as a patient.
First, an introduction: I joined the Lincolnshire School of Radiography in October 1963. The school provided diagnostic and therapeutic courses; usefully, each group gaining from the other, learning material that crossed their boundaries. In June 1966 I received successful examination results (my age delaying my qualification date by six months) and was ready for my first radiographer post, a locum in Lincoln County Hospital.
I soon moved to London, with its many easily accessible diagnostic imaging departments offering a wide range of experience; teaching being my longer-term ambition. And so I worked in several London hospitals seeking that experience, also spending a short spell working overseas.
By mid-1970 I was attending lectures and courses, preparing for the college’s Higher & Teaching Diploma, and gained a student teacher post at the Royal Free Hospital (Gray’s Inn Road). Simultaneously, I attended a Teaching & Learning course at the Polytechnic of Central London (now Westminster University).
At the end of the 1971 academic year, I was delighted (and somewhat un-believing) to have passed the college’s Higher & Teaching Diploma. I immediately started looking for teaching posts, and in October 1971 I became principal of Bath School of Radiography, based in the Royal United Hospital. At age 25, I was too young for the then Whitley salary scale and age band – my salary was abated by two years!
I spent the next 18 years running the Bath School, also serving as society branch secretary (South West Branch) and as an examiner, later senior examiner, for the College DCR examinations.
In 1988, before gaining an MSc (Medical Computing & Health Informatics) I accepted a key role in the Bath District Health Authority, commissioning and managing a new information system, and training DHA staff in its use. Over several years, I had become involved in health service computing, giving a number of talks all over the country and occasionally abroad. (I also supplied and installed the Society of Radiographers’ very first pair of computers!) Some two years later, I joined the new Wiltshire and Bath Health Commission (soon renamed Wiltshire Health Authority) as assistant director for information. I was to extend the Bath DHA system into the new authority’s constituent organisations: Bath, Swindon and Salisbury DHAs and Wiltshire Family Health Services Authority.
In 1996 I began working part time as a consultant in the Health Authority, after starting a business designing computer software. That soon became my full-time occupation for the next 18 years until retiring aged 68 years.
I had always kept myself fit and well, despite starting life in 1946 with Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA) restricting my early years’ growth and fitness. Just before age five the PDA was ligated (in the new NHS!) One and a half ribs and part of my left lung were removed for posterior access: I still have the 12-inch diagonal scar on the left of the back my chest. (PDA ligation is now less invasive!) Except for that early patient experience (and a right Achilles tendon benign leiomyoma removal at age 40), I had no other significant health issues until age 76, in 2022, when this story really begins.
By Kenneth A. Spencer TDCR, MSc.
By Kenneth A. Spencer TDCR, MSc.
Synergy has featured stories by radiographers ‘on the other side of the fence’ following diagnoses requiring treatments and procedures that they have administered to others. In 2022 I found myself in that situation, and thought readers might be interested in my experiences as a patient.
First, an introduction: I joined the Lincolnshire School of Radiography in October 1963. The school provided diagnostic and therapeutic courses; usefully, each group gaining from the other, learning material that crossed their boundaries. In June 1966 I received successful examination results (my age delaying my qualification date by six months) and was ready for my first radiographer post, a locum in Lincoln County Hospital.
I soon moved to London, with its many easily accessible diagnostic imaging departments offering a wide range of experience; teaching being my longer-term ambition. And so I worked in several London hospitals seeking that experience, also spending a short spell working overseas.
By mid-1970 I was attending lectures and courses, preparing for the college’s Higher & Teaching Diploma, and gained a student teacher post at the Royal Free Hospital (Gray’s Inn Road). Simultaneously, I attended a Teaching & Learning course at the Polytechnic of Central London (now Westminster University).
At the end of the 1971 academic year, I was delighted (and somewhat un-believing) to have passed the college’s Higher & Teaching Diploma. I immediately started looking for teaching posts, and in October 1971 I became principal of Bath School of Radiography, based in the Royal United Hospital. At age 25, I was too young for the then Whitley salary scale and age band – my salary was abated by two years!
I spent the next 18 years running the Bath School, also serving as society branch secretary (South West Branch) and as an examiner, later senior examiner, for the College DCR examinations.
In 1988, before gaining an MSc (Medical Computing & Health Informatics) I accepted a key role in the Bath District Health Authority, commissioning and managing a new information system, and training DHA staff in its use. Over several years, I had become involved in health service computing, giving a number of talks all over the country and occasionally abroad. (I also supplied and installed the Society of Radiographers’ very first pair of computers!) Some two years later, I joined the new Wiltshire and Bath Health Commission (soon renamed Wiltshire Health Authority) as assistant director for information. I was to extend the Bath DHA system into the new authority’s constituent organisations: Bath, Swindon and Salisbury DHAs and Wiltshire Family Health Services Authority.
In 1996 I began working part time as a consultant in the Health Authority, after starting a business designing computer software. That soon became my full-time occupation for the next 18 years until retiring aged 68 years.
I had always kept myself fit and well, despite starting life in 1946 with Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA) restricting my early years’ growth and fitness. Just before age five the PDA was ligated (in the new NHS!) One and a half ribs and part of my left lung were removed for posterior access: I still have the 12-inch diagonal scar on the left of the back my chest. (PDA ligation is now less invasive!) Except for that early patient experience (and a right Achilles tendon benign leiomyoma removal at age 40), I had no other significant health issues until age 76, in 2022, when this story really begins.