Dr Samia Adil - FSRH Training Hero

Dr Samia Adil, Specialty Doctor in Sexual and Reproductive Medicine of the General Training Programme Director for Lewisham and Croydon NHS Trust, is FSRH's first training hero. Dr Samia shares a bit about her life and her career with us.

I am one of eleven siblings and come form a long lineage of clinicians. Having completed my MBBS at Dow University of Health Sciences from Karachi, Pakistan in 1996 with distinction in Obs. & Gynae. where I was constantly compared to my first rival, my twin brother!

After working in the city of Karachi for many years in maternal health and as a Medico legal examiner, I immigrated to South London with my young family in 2004. I have been working in Sexual health with a special interest in psychosexual counselling and therapy.

I previously worked at HAVENS as a sexual offence examiner. There is a great deal of sensitivity and support needed after assault and I am passionate about developing culturally sensitive support and education about this topic amongst BAME cultures where such subjects rarely feature in the cultural discourse.

Passionate

I am passionate about medical education and having being acknowledged with the first training hero award reinforces continued work and commitment to keep self-professional skills by attending meetings, instructor & training days to engage with other professionals & promote our SRH services continues. Over the years I have been heavily involved in organising teaching and training for a variety of health care professionals including abortion service providers, midwives, nurses and doctors. Some of these sessions include training for DFSRH, NMP, LoC for coils and implants, supporting to be FRTs (Faculty Registered Trainer) and AHD (Assessment Half Day) as well as CRASH teaching for medical students.

I have set up and delivered AHD at Lewisham which has now become a regular feature of the calendar. We are so pleased to have received with 100% results at Lewisham’s, Across the differnt sites I work at, I have taken part in multiple FSRH led audits, which I am looking forward, to resuming in the near future.

Specialty Doctor

I have been a Specialty Doctor at the integrated SRH (Sexual and Reproductive Health) services of Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust(for the last 12 years) since 02/2010 in a challenging inner-city area of South East London. Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust provide hospital and community services for more than 666,000 people across southeast London. The Trust puts patients at the heart of everything they do, which is reflected in the positive feedback received.   Integrated sexual health services in Lewisham are run across 3 community sites in the borough with approximately 24,000 attendances annually.  The department offers contraception and STI work to level 3 of the National Sexual Health Strategy and all 3 clinics have been awarded a Pride in Practice Gold Award.  The department prides itself in being a dynamic and forward thinking service, with an excellent reputation for teaching and training.

A part of the general sexual health service I also provide a Psychosexual Counselling clinic, which is a special interest of mine. In fact, I recently completed the London Diploma for Psychosexual and Relationship Therapy to help me better support our patients.

Faculty Registered Trainer

I have been a FRT (Faculty Registered Trainer) for a number of years helping to deliver Course of 5 on a regular basis. I also took on the role of GTPD for Lewisham in 2019 and have also become GTPD for Croydon in 2021.This of course has been achieved by immense support and contribution by the leads of both the services Dr Emily Mabonga at Lewisham and Dr David Phillips at Croydon along with my fellow colleague trainers.

One of my favourite projects has been the Twinning partnership between Nyagatare District Hospital in Rwanda and Lewisham Sexual Health Services within Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust. The project aims to strengthen the sexual, reproductive health and rights services of both centers by building the capacity of local service providers through the reciprocal exchange of expertise and transfer of skills. I have had the experience of incorporating Nyagatare Hospital’s midwife lead model for post-natal contraception by training six midwives in LGT to deliver post-natal contraception (PNC) to post-partum women, which has culminated in a LoC for SDI (IO).

In my role of being the Wellbeing champions plus for Lewisham I strive to make sure that colleagues and patients feel well looked after and supported. It is important to acknowledge that staff working in NHS often neglect their own health in our efforts to ensure better care for our patients. Thus having regular support whether it is an informal conversation to regular events helps to ensure staff throughout the service at both sites feel empowered to take care for themselves. I also really enjoy organising Pakistani cuisine for my colleagues. It is a much loved feature of our workplace.

Outside of work I enjoy looking after my two children, two cats and spending time with my best friend – my husband!