Born in Belfast, Dr Philippa Whitford studied medicine in the West of Scotland before specialising in breast surgery. She has been a Consultant Breast Surgeon for 19 years, and is now the MP for Central Ayrshire and the Westminster spokesperson on Health and Europe for the Scottish National Party. Over her career she has studied Breast Cancer Immunology for her MD dissertation, worked as a medical volunteer in Palestine and sat on the Health Select committee.

In this inspiring conversation, Philippa and Zack discuss the misogyny she experienced as a young surgeon in the 1980s, the advantages of gaining experience abroad, whether we need more doctors in front-line politics, the coronavirus pandemic and much more.

Philippa's Links

The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett

The Health Gap by Michael Marmot

Twitter - @Dr_PhilippaW 

Music - Overriding Concern by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4187-overriding-concern

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

About the host

Zack Hassan is a junior doctor based in Edinburgh and a Healthcare Leadership Academy Scholar. His podcast hosting combines his experience of debating at the Cambridge Union with insights from the NHS front-line.

Twitter – @MontereyZack 

Zack's LinkedIn 

Our Supporters

The Healthcare Leadership Academy has a mission to inspire the next generation of healthcare leaders. They have lots of opportunities on their website for a variety of health professionals, including through HLA Listen, their podcasting channel.

Health Education England North East and Health Education England South West support the podcast by sponsoring HLA Listen.

Medics.Academy is an online platform which provides technology enhanced learning solutions for organisations and individuals.