Leading Welsh GP, Professor Kamila Hawthorne MBE, has joined Swansea University’s Medical School as the new interim Head of Graduate Entry Medicine.

Professor Hawthorne says she is excited to join a top 3 UK Medical School and as a mum to two junior doctors she is well aware of the stresses and strains medical students feel today.

She said: “I have been teaching medical students for 25 years and both my children are now junior doctors so I have a deep understanding of the highs and lows of being a medical student in this day and age.”

Professor Hawthorne has been a GP for 31 years, having originally qualified from Oxford University, and has practised in Nottingham, Manchester, Cardiff and Mountain Ash.

She added: “The most important thing medical students can learn is the art of listening to, and really caring for, the patients they meet with respect and compassion.

“The doctor-patient relationship is a very special one - based on trust and respect.  We are very privileged patients let us into their lives.

“Swansea University Medical School is Wales’s number one Medical School and I am honoured to be working with such a talented team of clinicians and academics and I look forward to helping educate our next generation of doctors.”

Professor Keith Lloyd, Head of the Medical School, added: “I’m delighted to announce Professor Kamila Hawthorne MBE is our new interim Head of Graduate Entry Medicine here at Swansea.

“Kamila is an experienced GP, well known in the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) with a wealth of experience as medical educator, researcher and leader.

 “As well as being a former Vice Chair at the RCGP, a Nationally Elected Member of RCGP Council, an MRCGP Examiner and a Bevan Commissioner, Professor Hawthorne’s research and clinical working interests are  in health inequalities and access to health services,

“She has also been named GP of the Year twice for her work with Black and Minority Ethnic communities and was appointed MBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours List 2017 for services to General Practice.”

Professor Hawthorne replaces Professor Andy Grant who stepped down from the role this summer.

Professor Lloyd said: “I want to welcome Kamila and thank Professor Grant for all his hard work with our Graduate Entry Medicine programme.

“We are a small but innovative medical school with around 100 spaces, so our students benefit from extensive contact with teaching staff and our students have contact with patients right from their first term.”

Professor Lloyd added: “Our students are incredibly lucky to have someone of Professor Hawthorne’s calibre leading their medical education.”