Welcome back for Series 4. We are joined by Consultant Geriatrician and bestselling author Dr Lucy Pollock. As Lucy tells us - we all become old if we are lucky. But how do we deal with it - as people and as health professionals? We chat about Lucy’s experience in working with the elderly and the importance of honesty, humour and shared decision making. We discuss ‘The Book about Getting Older (for People Who Don’t To Talk About it)’ - an inspirational and life-affirming read. This is a book you HAVE to read. In addition we talk about leopard skin underwear, regimes vs regimens and the importance of factfulness.

Our micro discussion focussed on the paper “Shared decision making between older people with multimorbidity and GPs: a qualitative study” https://bjgp.org/content/early/2022/04/04/BJGP.2021.0529. We discuss the 5 M’s (Mind, Mobility, Medications, Multi-Complexity, Matters most) and STC delivers his verdict on medico-legal vulnerability.

As with all our guests we ask Lucy to pick her ‘Desert Island Drug’, a career defining anthem and a book that has influenced her work. Lucy is the first guest to bring a prop as part of her answers!

To get in touch follow us on Twitter @auralapothecary or email us at auralapothecarypod@gmail.com

You can listen to the Aural Apothecary playlist here; https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3OsWj4w8sxsvuwR9zMXgn5?si=tiHXrQI7QsGtSQwPyz1KBg

You can view the Aural Apothecary Library here; https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/31270100-paul-gimson?ref=nav_mybooks&shelf=the-aural-apothecary

The Book about getting Older https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/315794/the-book-about-getting-older/9781405944434.html

Hans Rosling - The Best Stats you’ve ever seen thttps://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen

Lucy Pollock Bio

I am a consultant geriatrician. I love my job and sharing my enthusiasm for high quality patient-centered care of older people. We will all become old if we are lucky – older people are just the rest of us, grown up. I enjoy meeting and teaching students and AHPs, and watching our trainees learn what it is about geriatric medicine that is so irresistible. I am also made happy by family and friends, birds, plants, reading, music, food, wine, slow running and even slower swimming.

I trained at Cambridge and Barts and worked as a junior doctor in the East End, Camden and Lambeth before moving to Somerset in 1997. I’ve chaired our clinical ethics committee for 10 years, represented geriatric medicine on the NICE hypertension re-write of 2017, and am currently Clinical Director for Frailty at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust. I’m proud to have contributed a tiny part of the Medicine for Older People syllabus for Bristol University Medical School, which I will claim is the most comprehensive, effective and popular undergraduate training in geriatric medicine in the world.