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The College
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Dr Pearl D. J. Hettiaratchy
(Introduced by Professor Susan Benbow)
Dr Pearl Hettiaratchy is a distinguished clinician,
doctor, psychiatrist
and old age psychiatrist, who has contributed to the
National Health Service (NHS) over a period of more than 30
years. She qualified in Sri Lanka, one of three family members
who took up medicine: her brother was a physician and her
sister Port Health Officer in Colombo.
She
came to the United Kingdom in 1968 for a clinical attachment at
St James Hospital, Portsmouth, where she later commenced her
first consultant appointment in 1975 after completing her training.
Here, together with a nurse manager colleague, she pioneered
the development of old age psychiatry services, setting up the
first travelling day hospital for older people in the UK.
She
has enthused colleagues of all disciplines, and educated people
from many backgrounds to reflect on and improve their practice.
For 5 years from 1983 to 1987, she single-handedly ran the
Region’s Day Release Courses in the Psychiatry of Old Age, and
educated 400-500 key professionals, who are now leading old age
psychiatry services regionally and nationally. She moved to
Winchester in 1984, where she continued to teach and develop
services.
Pearl
has worked for the Royal College of Psychiatrists on committees concerning
later life, nursing, ethnic issues and unethical practices, and
has also served as Vice President. She has been an important
role model for younger people coming into the specialty. She
was featured as one of five psychiatrists giving their views on
why psychiatry is a rewarding career to choose, in the
College’s career information pack produced in 1990, and again
in 1994. What she wrote here is typical of Pearl’s approach to
her work:
‘the field of psychiatry
fascinates me. It takes time, patience and diligence to unravel
the workings of the human mind and one can never fully
understand its intricacies. Every patient I see, even after 23
years’experience is still a diagnostic puzzle and a therapeutic
challenge. So there can never be any burnout or boredom.’
And
further:
‘At the core of
psychiatry is the ability to empathise, understand and give
something of yourself to the patient within thetherapeuticrelationship....’
Pearl
has been determined and devoted to her work: her humanity and
compassion are shown by her willingness to take unpopular stances
when in the interests of her patients. Her advice wasoverruled during a ward
closure in 1994 and eight elderly patients died shortly after
moving from long-term hospital care into private nursing homes,
against medical advice. The ensuing scandalled to guidance on long-term care,
an ombudsman’s enquiry and a Select Committee hearing. Pearl
was quoted in the press as saying:
‘the care team becomes
the family of the patient. They are faces in their failing
memories.’
She
has worked tirelessly on behalf of older people in need of
long-term care, unafraid of making her views known.
Pearl
was elected to the General Medical Council (GMC)in 1994, and
reelected in 1999. Her election was a great event in Sri Lanka,
as she was the first Sri Lankan to serve on the GMC. Her
reelection was reported in Island International on July 21
1999: the report noted that Pearl had participated in the discussions
the GMC had with Sri Lanka’s Minister of Health in 1998 on
holding the Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board test
(part 1) in Sri Lanka. This was a landmark achievement and she
has continued to work to support the development of services in
Sri Lanka. With the GMC she has served on the Racial Equality
Group, the Steering Group for Performance, the Professional Conduct
Committee, the Standards Committee, and the Working Group on
withholding and withdrawing life-prolonging treatment. She
became Medical Screener for Conduct and Performance in 1997 and
regularly investigates complaints against doctors.
She
retired from clinical practice on 4 February 2002, after 34
years’ continuous service in the NHS, but later that year on 23
October, her work was recognised and honoured when she was
invested OBE by Her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham Palace for
services to old age psychiatry.
Pearl
continues to be active in voluntary work, medico-legal work and
medical politics. She is actively involved in national and
local fora in influencing policy and decision making in the
NHS, and her advice is respected on a range of subjects including
the ethics of heath care, the support of doctors in difficulty
and issues in multi-ethnic populations. Following the inquiry
into the death of Stephen Lawrence, she has become involved in
work with the Chief Medical Officer on racism in medicine, and
is about to become an official role model for ethnic minority
doctors. For many of us, she has been an unofficial role model
for a number of years. One of the pleasures of her retirement
is to be able to spend more time with her family, especially her
six grandchildren.
Pearl
is a valued, loved and respected psychiatrist and old age
psychiatrist. I am delighted to present her for the Honorary Fellowship
of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
