Our History

Dr Samina Showghi established The Harley Street General Practice in 2002 with the ambition of providing a traditional ‘cradle to the grave’ general practice in a private setting. Over the years, she has enjoyed looking after her patients’ children, and their children’s children.

Dr Showghi is a family doctor in the truest sense of the word, following in the footsteps of her father Dr Mansur Ahmad, who ran his own GP practice from 1970 until he retired from the NHS at 68, where he then joined Samina part-time at The Harley Street General Practice.

Doctor’s Dissected

In 2015, Dr Mansur Ahmad contributed a chapter to Doctors Dissected, by the psychotherapist Jane Haynes and GP Martin Scurr, a unique look at the changing role of the doctors and an examination of whether medicine is a job or a vocation.

READ THE CHAPTER IN FULL

“In 1968, I became Senior Registrar in Cardiothoracic Surgery at Harefield, and I used to work with Magdi Yacoub doing all the major cardiac operations. After open-heart surgery, one of our team had to stay with the patient and measure their potassium levels every two or three hours.

At that time in Harefield, Magdi Yacoub started doing his first coronary artery bypass and that was the beginning of coronary artery bypass surgery and I was present. Then we used mitral valves [prosthetic and hetero/homografts] for mitral-valve replacement and of course I thought sadly of my dad and wished I could have helped him, but in 1960 there was no mitral valve replacement.

Samina’s mother, Greta, (2nd from the right), was a Theatre Sister in Loughborough Hospital circa 1965

To begin with we saw so many cases of rheumatic heart disease but since 1970 onwards there has been a huge decrease in its incidence because general health has improved and it is now a disease of the past. In 1970, I could have applied for a consultant’s job but I thought then I might have to move my family to Scotland, or the North of England, so I decided to avoid the hassle and settle down in General Practice.

We lived in Carpenders Park and I got a job, a partnership with two English doctors in Harrow. When I joined in 1970 we had four branch surgeries and we had a rota and after one year I took over one of the branch surgeries. I separated from my partners in a happy way and started my own two-room surgery. I received half the list of another retired doctor in the area and then the practice flourished and by ’78 or ’79 my list went up to four thousand. Normally, a single handed GP cannot have more than 3,500 patients. So I can say in a humble way, I was a good doctor.

Samina, with her father, at the opening party of The HSGP at 73 Harley Street on 16 September 2002

I knew that the biggest problem in General Practice is not to miss a diagnosis. Some mistakes are bound to happen but overall I have not missed much and over the years one gains so much experience to avoid making mistakes. The personal liking between the patient and the doctor is an important factor, regardless of whether the doctor is English or Asian.

The initial contact is very personal. I believe that as soon as the patient enters the room, in the first 40 or so seconds, they form an opinion of whether they like the doctor behind the desk. Of course the doctor does the same thing but he has to try to be even in his responses. The eye contact tells you so much. I think if you listen to the patient and respect what they are saying to you then they are going to be more hopeful of receiving your sympathetic attention.

In 1970 I had only two rooms, and no secretary or receptionist, and I had to open the door to the patients, write all the repeat prescriptions, which I used to leave outside in a box, and also the referrals when I used to write the information for the patient on a letterhead paper and give it to them to take it to the hospital and make an appointment. Since then the changes that have taken place in the bureaucracy of General Practice are phenomenal.

My daughter is a doctor too now and I told her, ‘Please make sure you always treat the patient in an empathic way.’ Whatever I would do for myself when I am in pain, I will do the same for a patient and I want her to do the same for her patients. In this case you cannot go wrong and most of the rules of the GMC are covered by this one sentence, ‘Treat the patient as you would like to be treated yourself.’ You do not need to read 20 books, you just have to remember your responsibility to attend to whatever problem the patient brings to you, which sums up my 40-plus years of work as a GP and if I were reborn I would still want to be a doctor.

My wife Greta, is a nurse and she used to help me as a practice nurse. When she came to the surgery there were times when she brought Samina with her to help her with bits and pieces. To begin with I did not drive and when I did night visits, Greta had to drive, and Samina had to get up and come with us.

Dr Samina’s daughter Amelia, aged 3 and a half. Not going into medicine!

Even when she was little she helped, she used to come to the surgery and get the notes out and file them and call the patients in, so that she had that medical feeling from a young age. She learnt a lot from being in the same atmosphere and that is a short cut from the theory of medicine, although that is important too.

Samina learnt from being in a home with a medical ambience and seeing me come home in the evening. When I was worried about a patient she would hear me on the phone asking how they were and now I know she does the same thing with her patients as she saw her dad doing.

Since those times, General Practice has changed beyond recognition. Quite soon I was able to buy another, larger house and turn that into a surgery and, by 1988, I built a large extension as a treatment room. I have always been an enthusiast of Harold Macmillan, because he was also a humanist; he was a Tory with a passion for human beings so I named my own surgery the Harold Macmillan Medical Centre and I invited his son to be present at the opening ceremony.”

Press & Media

Dr Samina Showghi in Independent Practitioner

Dr Samina Showghi talks to Independent Practitioner

A decade on from setting up The Harley Street General Practice, she reflects on the highs and lows of going into business as an independent doctor

Dr Samina Showghi appears on Diet Doctors

Samina co-presented the third series of the popular Channel 5 programme The Diet Doctors. Samina was the co-writer of the book based on the series. It is called Diet Doctors Inside and Out: The 12-week Plan to Make You Slim for Life.

ORDER THE BOOK

Our History

Doctor’s Dissected

Press & Media

Dr Samina Showghi talks to Independent Practitioner

Dr Samina Showghi appears on Diet Doctors

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