Dr Abraham George
(Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust, London)

Having completed MBBS in 1989 and MD (Internal Medicine) in 1993 at Kasturba Medical College in Manipal, S.India, Abraham George served as an Assistant Physician in Internal Medicine for Pushpagiri Mission Hospital, Kerala (July 1993- Dec 1993) and as an Assistant Cardiologist for Trichur Heart Hospital in Kerala (Jan 1994 to Sept 1994). He then came to the UK and worked in various multispecialty substantive SHO posts for the many DGHS and University Hospitals, gaining admission to the Royal College Of Physicians of Ireland, in 1999.

After Renal SHO training at St.James's University Hospital, Leeds, Abraham gained his MSc in Renal Medicine with Distinction, at the Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College, London, in September 1999. During this time he had the opportunity to carry out research regarding the utility of Urinary MCP-1 in ANCA ass vasculitis under the guidance of Prof Charles Pusey and Dr Fred Tam.

He worked as a Staff Grade in Nephrology at the Inverclyde Royal Hospital, Greenock, W.Scotland (Oct 1999-Oct 2001) and has been for working for the Hammersmith NHS Trust since November 2001.

Abraham is currently involved in all aspects of routine Nephrological care provided at this Tertiary Care Trust and is particularly keen in improving the quality of access provision that is provided for the hemodialysis patients across this Trust. For this the Renal Unit has established close links with the local infectious control unit which liaises closely with the CDC unit in Atlanta, USA. This preliminary work of bacteremic surveillance undertaken at the Trust has had a tremendous positive impact on the Hemodialysis programme in breaking the cycle of recurrent line sepsis and has also paved the way as a powerful business tool for negotiating further investment in native access provision.

This work was undertaken under the leadership of Dr Alison Holmes, FRCP, Consultant in infectious disease, with the support of Dr Kathy Bamford, FRCP, Consultant in the Microbiology Unit at the Hammersmith Hospital. In future they hope to establish a Bacteremic surveillance programme for haemodialysis centres across the UK.