News

Consultant Ear, Nose and Throat Surgeon, Mr Robin Lee, has retired after 31 years at KGH.

And on June 28 friends and colleagues from across the hospital – and further afield – wished him well at a retirement event at hospital’s social club.

Robin joined KGH as an ENT Consultant Surgeon in 1988 after the retirement of previous consultant Mr John Page.

He worked with our only other ENT consultant at the time – Mr Mo Latif - who retired in 2010.

During his 31 years at KGH Robin has been Clinical Director of the Head and Neck department for 18 of them.

His career began in 1978 when he qualified as a doctor from Trinity College in Dublin.

He worked as a junior doctor in Ireland until 1988 – except for a year in England in 1984 at St Margaret’s Hospital and year in the USA in 1987 – where he was a research fellow at the University of Iowa.

The Irish system meant that he had a fixed amount of time as a senior registrar and then had to find a consultant job. Not able to find one in Ireland he applied to Milton Keynes and Kettering General.

Not successful at MK he was discouraged and almost didn’t attend his KGH interview but Mo Latif called him and encouraged him to come in.

He said: “The first thing I thought when I got off the train at Kettering was how much nicer it was than Milton Keynes.

“And then when I arrived at AM Lee Ward at the hospital I was met by a nurse, Bev Bouchier, who made me tea and toast and I thought it was a sign of how friendly the hospital was – and I was right, I and have been here ever since.”

Thousands of local people have benefitted from Robin’s experience as a skilled ENT surgeon.

In the early days of his appointment Robin and Mo carried out all major ENT surgery themselves including head and neck, nasal and ear surgery.

Since 2000 there has been an increase in specialisations within this field of surgery and now surgeons tend to specialise in one area.

Robin said: “I think the biggest changes I have seen over the years have been the rise in technology and the growth of sub specialisms within the field.

“We are now able to carry out procedures such as polyp removal in the sinuses through nasal endoscopy – where a thin tube with a camera can enable surgery without the need for full open surgery.

“And increasingly surgeons are specialising in improved ways to carry out ear surgery and head and neck work.”

Robin has carried out thousands of life enhancing procedures for local people from simple tongue tie operations (where tissue prevents a child from fully extending their tongue) through to complex cancer surgery.

Robin, from Little Oakley, is married to Jane and the couple have four children and six grandchildren.

Robin’s daughter, Sarah Meadows, is continuing his legacy and is now a Consultant Orthodontist at KGH working in the new Maxillo Facial Unit – a conversion of the former AM Lee Ward (where Robin himself worked at KGH for most of his career).

He plans to spend his retirement with pastimes such as bridge, indoor football (for a bit longer anyway), petanque, croquet and walking with the Rickety Ramblers group.

He has been a Kettering Huxlow Rotary Club member for many years and plans to continue with this – the clock bought by the club for Kettering town centre is about to be repaired.

And he also has plans to travel with trips to Ireland, Dubrovnik, Tuscany, Cape Verde and the Danube already lined up.