IPM conference 2025

In 2021 I made the decision to leave my NHS Practice where I had been a partner for 20 years. I really wanted the opportunity to practice medicine in a way that felt authentic. I was scared about taking this step and warned by colleagues that ‘the grass was not greener’ elsewhere. I was scared but I did it anyway…..and I did it because I did not want to live a life of regret.

I took on a variety of different positions in the NHS and in Private Healthcare, trying new roles, learning new ways of doing things that took me far outside of my comfort zone and I failed many times during this steep learning curve.

I attended lots of medical conferences and started networking with like minded fellow health care practitioners and I grew.

Two years ago I attended the Integrative and Personalised Medicine Conference at the QE11 Centre in London. This is the largest integrative medicine conference in the UK promoting whole-person patient centred health. The conference attracts over 2500 delegates from all over the world coming together joining forces to think of new solutions, better medicine for better health and ultimately a better planet. It represents healthcare professionals from a range of modalities including conventional, integrative, functional, lifestyle, environmental, complementary and holistic medicine. This is about how as a collective we can share skills, knowledge, lived experience and resources to provide the best possible outcomes for our patients. Our job as health care practitioners should be to make ourselves redundant!

At last years conference I shared my thoughts on what it would be to bring love and kindness and spirituality back into medicine, on what it is to connect with patients, with each other, beyond our ‘diagnosis’. It was the first time I had really spoken these things aloud and I waited with trepidation how this would be perceived. Would I be judged? Would I be ridiculed….

It seems I am not the only health care professional having these thoughts: this year I am attending the conference again – as an invited speaker! The subject matter: spirituality in medicine. This is not about religion (although it may be for some) this is about connecting with that greater sense of who we are – our true purpose.

We always have choices in life, granted they may be difficult and perhaps even unpalatable but we do have choices never the less and doing something unexpected, out of character - something that is not familiar can open up possibilities and opportunities that may not otherwise exist.

As we enter the New Year it is often a time when people set themselves resolutions, diets start, gym memberships are at an all time high and it is a chance for starting over.

I would invite you in this fast paced world we live in to just pause. It is ok to be quiet for a time, to retreat, to prioritise self care and maybe that is enough.

If the New Year is a difficult time for you know you are not alone.
There is a beautiful book written by Bronnie Ware: ‘The Top Five Regrets of the Dying’ – I share this with you not because I wish to be maudlin but simply because my own experience of conversations with patients echo these sentiments.

Bronnie compiled a list of the five most common regrets expressed to her by the patients she cared for:

I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
I wish that I had let myself be happier.

In 2025, perhaps your resolution could be to be who you are supposed to be. It only takes one thought, one action, to set you on this new path. My journey started with a call to action, and I have not looked back…..

If you are interested to know more you can find me here:
https://ipmcongress.com/2025-conference-speakers

If I am the sort of doctor you would like to work with I would love the opportunity to do so. You can book an appointment to see me at the Fitzwilliam Hospital Peterborough by calling 01733 842 304.

If you are a fellow healthcare professional and would like to be part of a growing collective of outside-the-box thinkers in health and healing ,you can register here: https://ipmcongress.com/register

References:
https://ipmcongress.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAcQfn96yFk Bronnie Ware Ted Talk