A pioneering IVF doctor and TV star has become patron of Hammersmith Hospital’s charity which helps improve services.
Professor Lord Robert Winston officially became patron of the Friends of Hammersmith Hospital yesterday, having joined the hospital as a registrar in 1970 when he developed gynaecological surgical techniques which improved fertility treatments.
He went on to be a scientific advisor to the World Health Organisation’s human reproduction programme from 1975 to 1977 and after working abroad he returned to Hammersmith Hospital to set up its IVF service.
Lord Winston has also pioneered new treatments which improve IVF and developed pre-implementation diagnosis which allowed embryos to be screened for genetic diseases to allow parents with faulty genes to have children free of illnesses such as cystic fibrosis.
He said: “I am delighted to be a patron of an organisation which has supported so many improvements for patient care at a time when people coming into hospital feel vulnerable and frightened. This is most valuable charitable work.”
As well as a doctor, he has presented many BBC TV programmes such as Superhuman, The Secret Life of Twins and The Human Body which won a BAFTA.
Una Jeffries, from the Friends of Hammersmith Hospital, said: “We are delighted that Lord Winston has become patron of our charity, as a long serving and pioneering past member of staff and now a popular public figure, he is in a unique position to promote and appreciate the work the Friends do for the hospital.”
Lord Winston has become patron just two weeks after Hammersmith Hospital and Central Middlesex Hospitals' A&Es both closed down.
