Kandan Loganathan

I’m a GP principal at Hilltop Medical Practice in Drogheda, a GP trainer with the Northeast GP Training Scheme, and a team doctor for Drogheda United and the women’s under-19 team. I am also an undergraduate GP tutor.

I work in an urban area, and I wanted to do a different kind of course – both to improve my practice and to examine healthcare from an organisational level. I also felt that improved emotional intelligence could help with my day-to-day practice.

I had always wanted to take a course at RCSI, and friends told me that its Professional Diploma in Clinical Leadership was fascinating.

The course itself was quite intense. It’s all about how to be a clinical leader, burnout and how to recognise it, teamwork, project planning and using the right tools to create a project that can work.

I am more of a practical person than an academic person, so some of the writing was challenging. It took me outside the comfort zone of the type of courses I usually do.

I’ve been in my practice for over 10 years, but we had no female GP and all our women’s health medicine was referred to female-led practices. After the course, we took on two new female GPs, which opened an opportunity to create a women-centred service in Hilltop. With challenges including the initial cost, the uptake of the new service, figuring out how much to charge and ensuring a successful start, the course helped me to lead this change.

The next step is to keep growing my practice and improve what we do here. I’m striving to future-proof the patient experience and the practice.