Philip has provided and led pregnancy care in a highly deprived town since 1995. The stillbirth rate (2011-15) is exceptionally low (2.9/1000 v UK average 4.4/1000) and was even lower (2.4/1000) in 2017, an indicator of sustained high quality care. He introduced computerised fetal heart rate analysis in labour as a clinical decision making aid, reducing stillbirths in labour still further.
Background
Philip graduated from St George’s Hospital Medical School, London in 1984. He trained in an NHS where doctors were still working 120 hour weeks and when training was by experience rather than design. This did however give a breadth of experience difficult to attain in the UK today. In particular, practising in a mix of busy district hospitals and tertiary referral and teaching centres allowed him to become proficient in many aspects of obstetrics and gynaecology rarely taught today, for example vaginal breech delivery and rotational forceps. His training in abdominal, vaginal and laparoscopic surgery was extensive.
He trained in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Cambridge, Norwich, Basingstoke and London (St George’s, Westminster Hospital & St Mary’s) and in anaesthetics in Chelmsford. He has always worked in units that have undertaken neonatal intensive care and accepted in-utero transfers.
He has particular knowledge and skills in operative vaginal delivery, including Kjellands and Moolgaoker rotational forceps, having been trained by Moolgaoker and working now in a unit established by Mr Edward Parry-Jones, one of the pioneers of rotational forceps in the UK, and complex preterm deliveries.
Since 2007 he has been an Instructor on Advanced Life Support Group (ALSG) Managing Obstetric Emergencies and Trauma (MOET) and Pre-hospital Obstetric Emergencies and Trauma (POET) courses, along with being a course director and quality assessor. These courses train senior doctors, paramedics and midwives across the UK and underline his commitment to training of teams in the rapid and safe approach to obstetric emergencies.
Philip continues to practise as a full-time NHS Obstetrics & Gynaecology consultant in north Wales at Glan Clwyd Hospital NHS Trust.
Improving healthcare
Philip has a extensive record of involvement in clinical governance and clinical audit, with an MD that looked at variations in outcomes and intervention rates, leading to the development of the audit spiral in maternity care.
Philip is an established national assessor for the UK Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Mortality (MBRRACE) which reviews all deaths in pregnancy and the year after.
He is an ex-advisor and perinatal expert to the WHO European Office in Quality Assurance in Maternity Care, co-authoring a textbook on quality assurance in maternity care for the WHO.
His national leadership role saw him author the white paper on ‘Achieving High Reliability in NHS Wales’, echoing the need to support individuals failed by flaws in health systems and the need for an open and transparent culture that welcomes learning and recognises that practising in a culture of blame and punishment is destructive to the NHS and patients.
Philip was the obstetric expert on the NICE 2021 Neonatal Infection Guideline update committee addressing primarily Group B Strep early and late onset disease. This participation has given him a particular expertise in the assessment of the management of pregnancies complicated by GBS.
Research
Philip is actively involved in research in fetal monitoring in labour and has a long collaboration with the SisPorto team based in the University of Oporto. His current research focusses on breast cancer in pregnancy and the difficulties associated with capacity to consent in obstetric emergencies.
Teaching
Having been Honorary Senior Lecturer with Cardiff University and head of the undergraduate team at Glan Clwyd Hospital as Clinical Lead for the North Wales Clinical School, Cardiff University has conferred the title of Honorary Professor in the School of Medicine.
He gained a distinction in his Postgraduate Certificate in Professional and Clinical education in 2010 from Bangor University.
With his team, he has developed a hands-on approach to undergraduate teaching, involving students as part of the clinical team. Clinical placements in Reproductive Medicine at Glan Clwyd are often rated the best in Wales. With Dr Steph Jenkins, he won the Cardiff University ‘Innovations in Teaching’ award for their work on professional socialisation and teaching the ‘hidden curriculum’, as well as the NHS Undergraduate Teacher of the Year 2011 in recognition of a “significant and excellent contribution to training and support of undergraduate students”.
In 2012 he won the BMA Cymru / BMJ Learning Clinical Teacher of the Year Award for Wales.
In 2013, he was made a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Educators.
The Academy citation states “Philip Banfield has a long history of making change happen in the NHS, which is never an easy task. He is clearly extensively committed to medical education (particularly undergraduate) in his local area, with a record of involvement going back over 20 years. Despite his gently self-deprecating tone, his career history of excellence in medical education is outstanding, and he has received several national awards for his work. He is a welcome member of the Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Educators”.
He has extended small group skills and human factors training to whole year cohorts, presenting the work at the RCOG World Congress in Singapore.
Medical politics
He came to the BMA relatively late in life, being voted Chairman of the Clwyd North Division in 2009. He found the ARM in Cardiff exciting for its demonstration of democracy in action with a first time motion attacking vacancy controls in Health Boards that are leading to an exodus of staff and newly qualified students from Wales. He has taken an active part in ensuring that the interface between primary and secondary care can be used constructively in the service reviews in the North and is certain that more needs to be done to get the public involved in decisions about what is effectively rationing to come in the NHS unless there is a change in policy or funding.
Philip is a past-chair Chairman of BMA Welsh Council, where he promoted the professional role of doctors in leadership and healthcare as the NHS in Wales undergoes a radical transition. He held this position for 5 years and sits on the BMA UK Council.
In June 2022 he was elected chair of BMA UK Council. He led the union until June 2025 through an intense period of industrial action across the profession involving high level negotiations with successive national governments, NHS England and NHS Employers.
Links
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health/one-wales-top-doctors-wants-13257515
Personal
Philip is married to a GP (retired), a qualified obstetrician herself. He has 5 children and 6 grandchildren.
Twitter: @DrPhilBanfield
Obstetrica 