In my surgery, I sit at my ­grandmother’s kidney-shaped wooden desk with its leather top. My view from the desk is a high window with a glass shelf, lined with patent medicine bottles of all sizes, shapes and colours.

They remind me of what were once offered as remedies, like Pink Pills for Pale People (iron oxide and magnesium sulphate), sold as a cure for consumption. I believe this outlook helps me to keep my perspective on modern medical practice and its potential fallibilities.

Even in my 30-year career, the practice of medicine has changed dramatically, with treatments radically altered as new knowledge has been gained. 

I remember when theophylline was a mainstay of asthma treatment with its narrow therapeutic range, necessitating regular monitoring of blood levels. Beta blockers were first-line for hypertension, counter to current recommen­dations that discourage their use for that purpose.