Extras · 1 of 4

A typical day

Clinic starts at 8am and the first patient has had headaches for eleven years. You listen for twenty minutes, examine them with a reflex hammer and a tuning fork, and work out where in the nervous system the problem sits before anyone orders a scan. Midday a stroke page goes off: you are at the scanner in four minutes deciding whether to give a clot-busting drug. Afternoon is follow-ups, a nerve test, and a conversation with a family about a disease that will not get better. You leave at 6pm with notes still to write.