Profile: Hugh Montgomery
Professor Hugh Montgomery is an intensive care consultant at University College Hospital London and directs the Institute of Human Health and Performance at University College London, but the way he sees it, the biggest threat to health is something that won’t be touched by these medical endeavours as Sarah Walpole finds out
This year, Professor Hugh Montgomery will be giving the Royal Institution Christmas lectures, which are about the body and the physiology of survival. “It’s theatre as much as lecturing”, and Hugh says that it may well be “the most difficult thing [he’s] done”.
It’s not Hugh’s first delve into the world of entertainment though, as a film that he wrote is currently being produced for Hollywood. When given the opportunity to write a piece for the big screen, Hugh wrote this medical thriller, “Reputation and Control”, in six weeks. He has also written two novels for families (”The Voyage of the Arctic Term” and “Cloudsailors“). His latest is ‘The Genie in the Bottle- about which more later.
Hugh has pursued many interests, including music, climbing and sky-diving. Aside from this, he has broken the world record for underwater piano playing and co-founded a company called Rock Face Medicine. Clearly Hugh Montgomery is a busy man, and I asked him what it is that motivates him to do so many things. “Fear of dying unfulfilled, and inherited protestant guilt”, was his response. “The principle seems to be to try to do the right thing and work hard at it, but suffering in the process seems essential.”
It is Hugh’s desire to “do the right thing” that has prompted him to dedicate his energy and enthusiasm to addressing environmental issues. “The only really important thing is climate change”, he says. “Everything else pales into insignificance. Climate change is the greatest threat to human health, and we must take action to address it.”
Addressing climate change must entail personal change, and Hugh’s commitment to the environment affects all aspects of his life. For example, the Montgomerys chose the location of their house based on its proximity their work, to allow them to commute by bicycle. Hugh admits that practising what he preaches has entailed “loads of compromises”, but says that they have “nearly all been painless”. Travelling by bicycle has many advantages, including being more reliable than the London underground, and saving money!
This summer, rather than taking his wife and two children away to an exotic beach location, Hugh chose to spend his holiday closer to home and travelled to Ireland by ferry. Rather than begrudging the less-than-perfect weather, Hugh pointed out the benefits of this choice: it’s cheaper, the journey’s easier, and the risks of DVT and jet lag are completely eliminated!
Hugh admits that “it will hurt sometimes”, but in his view, this is a “price that we’ve all got to pay”. Hugh leads the team who discovered the first gene for human fitness, and was research director for the Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition this year, investigating the effects of altitude on human physiology. Hugh was to go to the top- a lifelong dream. But Hugh made a decision not to take aeroplanes for environmental reasons, and felt he couldn’t justify breaking with his environmental principles for this trip. “I flew a great deal before I knew what I was doing, and still have taken the odd flight. I climbed Cho Oyu in Tibet (8201m) last year in preparation for Everest. I just felt that I couldn’t really make a second international flight within 12 months.”
This can be an issue. “When you start turning down international speaking engagements, you stop being asked. This does hamper research networking. But the short term damage is mainly to the ego”, Hugh explains.
Not being one to do things by halves, Hugh is making sacrifices beyond lifestyle changes. He has set up Project Genie, which aims to inspire young people to “be part of the solution to the world’s big challenges, rather than part of the problem”. The main tool is his book “The Genie in the Bottle”, which tells the story of environmental destruction and what should be done to tackle it.
Project Genie entails massive personal cost for Hugh; “It taken forty hours of extra work a week, all at nights and weekends, plus the added stress.” Hugh admits that he has “yet to achieve a tangible outcome”, but the rewards of his work include “meeting and working with enthusiastic, motivated, focussed people”.
We not only need to educate children, but should also work at an organisational level. “We need to educate each other, colleagues, GPs and trust managers that this is the right thing to do in terms of health”. Huge impacts can be made quickly and without any cost in the NHS. “Thousands of pounds can actually be saved, and it is immoral to besquandering that; we’re spending other people’s taxes”.
Currently there is no incentive to individual members of staff to make these savings, but Hugh points out that there are ways to incentivise ‘being green’. For example, if a trust says that it will distribute 70% of the cost savings to salaries- perhaps of the poorer paid cleaners and security staff- staff will be more concerned about saving energy, and happier. The trust will also have more to spend on patient care.
Hugh believes that we have no choice but to take action. “We’ve got to treat this like a world war”, Hugh says. “In a lot of work the emphasis is on process rather than product, and so much red tape makes it hard to act quickly…. We need to recognise that something has got to be achieved in under five years.”
Hugh remains pessimistic about the United Nations meeting in Bali, which will open a new Climate Change summit. “There is no hope of America joining; they have stated that they will not engage in binding agreements of this sort.” A downturn in the North American economy means that politicians will not be willing to make cuts in emissions that appear to have negative short-term impacts. Given this obstacle to progress, Hugh’s remaining hope is that other nations will come together to achieve something in Bali.
“We must create a permissive environment to enable national change”, Hugh explains. “We must persuade people to change as individuals because, in a. democracy, we are the government.” In fact, Hugh believes that individual change is “the only mechanism that is responsive enough to prevent catastrophic changes due to climate change”.
“I’ve seen beautiful places in the world, and I want my kids to be able to enjoy that in fifty years time,” Hugh told me. “Together, we really can make the difference. Now go and turn something off.”
Sarah Walpole
Fourth Year Medical student
Leeds Medical School
Worsley Building
Clarendon Way
Leeds
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argotomunky@yahoo.co.uk