I’m doing what I’m meant to be doing. It’s a rare gift (From Gazette)

I’m doing what I’m meant to be doing. It’s a rare gift

10:03am Thursday 4th October 2007 in Features By Vicky Passingham

The patient looked surgeon Jo Reed in the eye, desperate for clarification as to what she had just told him.

"He said to me So you will be doing the operation?... So you are a surgeon?'," she recalled, smiling. "It was taking a while for it all to sink in."

The operation wasn't the issue with the patient, the fact she is a woman was.

"It still is very much a man's world," said Miss Reed, describing her role as a consultant surgeon.

More women may be joining the ranks of consultant surgeons in today's NHS, but it is still a male-dominated world.

"Maybe it is because you need male characteristics to do the job," she said. "You have to be decisive, assertive and have good leadership skills. Some people perceive this as being aggressive, as opposed to female characteristics being seen as more passive."

So is she aggressive?

"Maybe some people may say I'm a pushy woman, but I just know what I like," she stressed.

Pushy is not a word that springs to mind on meeting 44-year-old Miss Reed at Colchester General Hospital.

She is chatty, candid and has the sort of twinkle in her eye which betrays a sense of fun, despite having such a high-profile job.

She has recently joined the hospital's surgical team as a keyhole surgeon - or consultant upper gastrointestinal and general laparoscopic surgeon, to be precise. Her remit includes procedures such as removal of gall bladder, spleen and hernia operations, plus surgery for people with stomach cancer.

She says her rise through the ranks isn't due to a driving ambition, although she admits her family would say otherwise.

"But I have never wanted to get to the top just for the sake of it, it's more happened by mistake," she said.

Growing up in Coventry, Miss Reed never had any desire to be a medic, probably as a rebellious stance against her gynaecologist father. He worked long hours and she never saw him.

But when it came to choosing a university, she realised medical school was where her heart was.

Her career has taken her to Newcastle, Leeds, Hull and Huntingdon, but it was a trip to Australia that opened her eyes to keyhole surgery. The hospital was ahead of those in the UK... and she was hooked.

"It was out of this world," she said beaming. "The patients did well, it was delicate and needed real skill and I thought this is what I want to do'."

Ten years later and her enthusiasm has not dimmed. "I know, absolutely, that I am doing what I am supposed to be doing. This is a rare gift."

But it has come at price. Her husband, Nick, and daughters Amy, 14, and Rebecca, 12, have had to play second fiddle to her career.

Nick left his job in IT to look after the children.

"I have the most wonderful girls. They are the best daughters in the world, but it is down to my husband who brought them up," she states.

While she has no regrets, her career has meant she has missed chunks of their lives.

She is hoping her role at Colchester and the family's move here will give them a more typical family life.

That was probably the plan when she became one of the first women in the UK to be appointed as a consultant general surgeon with a specialism in keyhole surgery in 2000 at Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Huntingdon.

For the last 18 months of her time there she was in charge of all the general surgery, but the hospital was in financial crisis and Miss Reed felt it was time to move on.

She felt her role was more about sitting in crisis meetings than her clinical role.

"It was a traumatic time. Nobody felt valued and they were frightened for their jobs and for the future of the hospital," she remembered.

She is already enjoying her new role at Colchester. She was attracted to its reputation as a leading training centre for laparoscopic surgery.

It also means a return to her husband's roots - he grew up around Colchester - and being able to enjoy more time sailing ,as they have an oyster smack in Brightlingsea.

Her only regret about moving is having to leave the fruit and vegetable garden she had nurtured at her former home.

But with hands as skilled as hers, it is only a matter of time before they work wonders in the garden of their new family home in Essex.