By Kevin Mullan
Professor Melville was in Derry for the graduation of the first doctors from the School of Medicine, a day prior to his official retirement on Tuesday. Opening his address in the Guildhall he referred to the young doctors next to him as 鈥榞raduates, or should I say colleagues because they are’. He said: 鈥淟ouise [Professor Louise Dubras, Foundation Dean at the School of Medicine] referred to John Hume and his three very prestigious and absolutely ripely earned awards, the Nobel Peace Prize, the Gandhi Peace Prize and the Martin Luther King Junior award. I wanted to pick up a little on that theme because it seems poignant and appropriate to this particular gathering.鈥 He urged the Class of 鈥25 to remember four key principles as they embarked on their careers 鈥 鈥榟onour, honesty, humility, humour鈥. 鈥淒octors,鈥 he remarked, 鈥渞emain amazingly at the top of the list of the most trusted people by the public but why? “That is because they are community-orientated, transparent and service-driven. Conversely it is power, spin and self-interest that lose credibility which is why certain groups are not trusted by the public.鈥 He continued: 鈥淛ohn Hume said this: 鈥楧ifference is the essence of humanity. Difference is an accident of birth and should never be a source of hatred or conflict.鈥 鈥淏ut unfortunately although trust in doctors remains high it is falling and amongst Black and Asian patients they feel that they are treated differently because of their ethnicity. That accident of birth. They need to do more to address that.鈥 Honesty, he said, should be a watchword reflecting that 鈥榖eing honest never gets you in trouble鈥 and 鈥榠t is people who try and cover-up who end up in trouble鈥. Prof. Melville spoke of how the late John Hume had been an example when it came to humility. 鈥淗e said. ‘I never thought in terms of being a leader. I thought very simply in terms of helping people.’ “And I have to say for me through my career I never saw myself as a leader. I never intended to be the Medical Director at the GMC. It was almost something that happened, you might say, by chance. “But I’ve always held and I’ve said from platforms and it has been tweeted in the past ‘I am just a bloke doing a job’.鈥 The doctors were reminded to maintain a sense of humour. 鈥淲e have seen a significant risk of burnout from doctors and medicine can be stressful but if we look after ourselves and then consequently look out for each other we can thrive more easily,鈥 he declared. Prof. Melville closed by asking graduates to recall a quote attributed to existentialist philosopher S酶ren Kierkegaard 鈥 鈥楲ife is best understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards鈥. “You have careers ahead of you and they will have ups and downs, choices that need to be made and maybe sometimes opportunities that seemingly were denied and I’ve had plenty of those but if I had got some of the jobs that I thought I should have got I would not have ended up doing what I’m doing now.鈥