One of the Trust’s leading consultants was recently invited to St James’ Palace to meet Princess Anne.
Dr Louise Buchanan (Consultant Cardiologist and Associate Medical Director for North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Trust), is a member of the British Cardiovascular Society and it was in that capacity that she was invited to meet the princess.
It is currently the Centenary year of the British Cardiovascular Society and HRH the Princess Royal is the Patron. This was a reception to celebrate that.
Louise was lucky enough to have a conversation with the princess.
She said:
“There was supposed to be a garden party in September 2022, unfortunately this has to be postponed. I was invited as a member and Council Representative for non-surgical centres for the British Cardiovascular Society.
She met a wide variety of guests before giving a short speech. She asked me where I was from and why I had chosen to work in Cumbria. She also asked when I knew I wanted to be a cardiologist.
I said I was originally from Cumbria and came back in order to help develop cardiovascular services in the region I grew up, even though I didn’t think I would return when I was younger. I explained it was important as there are a large number of patients with heart disease and we need to make this better, to which she responded ‘the heart will get you in the end!’
I said that we needed to do more to prevent heart disease – she said we weren’t very good at that but it was nice she spoke about prevention in her speech later on.
This underlined the importance of improving heart health in the population and the need to prevent death and disease as we get older. She also spoke about the importance of the multi-disciplinary team and the input of all health professionals in the care of our patients and acknowledged the work of the BCS over the last 100 years. She presented the Mackenzie Medical (the BCS highest honour) to Professor Jane Somerville.
It was very special and it’s important to celebrate how far cardiology has progressed in the last 100 years and the role of the British Cardiovascular Society. “
