Dr Rishi Chopra, Class of 1996 and parent to a Year 9 student, visited the Latymer School on Thursday 24th October to deliver a medicine workshop to our current sixth formers. For the past 10 years, Dr Chopra has been coming back to the Latymer School to run workshops to help our aspiring doctors prepare for the challenging medicine interviews they will face. 

Rishi is a GP who graduated from Queen Mary University of London. As he explained, he always wanted to be a GP, which made him an exception as only three people in his entire cohort of 300 medical students pursued the same aspiration! He enjoys the "cradle to the grave" aspect of being a GP, building personal connections with families, and seeing the kids grow and become adults and having their own kids. 

Rishi is also very involved in the research and development of medicine and medical technology. He regularly meets up with top members in the industry and works with top scientists from institutes such as Oxford University to develop lifesaving technology. His contributions have garnered him lots of praise and recognition for his contributions in the medical world – he has even been honoured to meet King Charles twice! 

The lecture began with Dr Chopra asking students questions regarding health and equality, making them ponder about the effects that wealth depravation has on health. To display the effects of inequality, he used a case study of a rich area in Westminster with a life expectancy of 90 years compared to a more deprived area in Westminster with life expectancy of only 70 years. This discrepancy made it clear to the students how income is linked to the quality of healthcare available to you. 

After this, Rishi moved on to tips for medical interviews. He encouraged students to visit medical schools, research courses and start thinking about their CV early. He also put emphasis on the skills that medical universities are looking for, such as intellect and practical skills, composure under pressure, diligence, and good social skills. He constantly engaged with students, getting their opinions on why these are important skills to have, the reasons they wanted to study medicine, and what they would like to specialise in once they made it to medical school. 

Rishi then talked about current issues and hot topics in the NHS and medicine like euthanasia, care homes and antibiotic resistance, providing anecdotes to show how complicated these issues are and how challenging they are for the NHS to manage. Students were encouraged to provide their own solutions on how they could be managed, and Dr Chopra stressed the importance of staying up to date with medical news. 

There were also debates to challenge students and assess their critical thinking skills. He eased them in with a question about private healthcare getting them to weigh the positive and negatives of it and whether it is fair. He then moved them on to a more challenging ethical issue, presenting a case study – a single mother who had overcome alcoholism and a 19-year-old student with a birth defect needing a kidney transplant, asking students who deserved it more. These tasks made the students think deeply and highlighted the tough decisions that doctors must make especially when there is not a clear right answer. 

Finally, Rishi rounded up the workshop answering any questions that the students had, providing tremendous advice and helping reassure them. 

Dr Rishi Chopra's contributions to our school community have impacted many Latymerians throughout the years. For the past decade, he has helped countless students achieve their dreams of studying medicine. Equally importantly, he has also instilled advice that have helped students blossom in life, regardless of the path they take for many years to come!