Chapter 28

Chris Parsons wasn't looking forward to his hastily scheduled meeting with the hospital board the day after his conversation with Martin. The board members were all busy professionals and time was a precious commodity for each of them; a second meeting scheduled right after one the previous day would likely result in an ill-humoured contingent. It would take all of his finely honed interpersonal skills to brighten their mood before outlining Martin's conditions, but that was the kind of challenge he was more than willing to face if it meant having Martin on staff.

They were anticipating a staffing coup, bringing the highly regarded Martin Ellingham on board as chief of vascular. Chris had been certain that he could tempt Martin with both the opportunity to return to surgery and the challenge and prestige of creating a world class vascular surgery centre. Certainly, Martin would have jumped at the chance just three years ago. But it was now apparent that his marriage to Louisa, the birth of his son, and the anticipation of their second child had mellowed him. He was no longer the singularly focused surgeon that he once was.

True he admitted to Chris that a return to surgery tempted him and he was willing to help resurrect their vascular department. But would he be available beyond January? He had left an opening. Chris was sure that once Martin found himself in theatre day after day, the thrill, dare he say it, of holding the blade in his hand and doing what he did so well would persuade him that he belonged back in surgery, not in Portwenn as the local GP. That was the basis upon which Chris would make his appeal to the board.

Chris had promised a quick meeting over lunch, and Ms. Newman had ordered a simple buffet of sandwiches, pasta salad, crisps and biscuits for their meal. There were the usual assortments of coffee, tea, soft drinks and water as well. Chris greeted each board member genially as they walked into the conference room, and directed them towards the luncheon offerings.

He began the meeting once everyone had filled their plates and sat down. "I spoke with Ellingham yesterday evening. I want to say first off that he is very interested in joining us here in Truro. He is in London this week working on a vascular surgery training simulator, a project on which, as some of you know, he has been working for the past five months. He will be back in Cornwall this weekend, and can meet with us next week, preferably on Thursday or Friday."

"Get him in here on Monday." Mr. Kirkham, head of surgery demanded as he waved a handful of crisps in the air and then popped them in his mouth.

Chris nodded at him, "I understand your impatience Rob, but Ellingham had already made plans for next week before we approached him. He and his family have been living in the cottage where the current surgery is located. They have just purchased a new home and are relocating to the new house this coming Monday and Tuesday so that he can expand the current Portwenn surgery."

One of the other members spoke up, "I've been to that surgery. It's small, cramped and very poorly located. Why didn't he just find another location?"

Chris replied, "I understand that he has hired an estate agent to look for a more suitable location, but none are available at the current time. I believe he is open to moving if such a location becomes available."

Chris took a sip of his drink and then continued, "As I was saying, Ellingham has been working with a GMC technology team to develop a vascular surgery training tool. He is committed to that project two days each week, and he doesn't feel he can abandon it at this juncture."

Groans emanated from several members at the table. Chris quickly continued, "However he is willing to come on board in house three days a week in order to start building up our vascular unit. In fact, he said he would be scouting potential candidates for our unit whilst in London this week."

"That's all well and good, but we need someone on staff full time. You know how quickly things can go wrong without a strong captain at the helm."

"If you knew Martin Ellingham, you wouldn't have such concerns. He is the strongest personality that I have ever encountered. He will captain the ship, as you put it, with an iron hand. Anything goes even slightly awry? He'll be on top of it before anyone else is aware that a problem exists …. even if he isn't in hospital."

There were mutterings all around the table, some positive from those who knew Martin, and some sceptical from those who knew of him only by reputation. Chris had thought of a possible approach to this problem and he laid it out before them. "I would also suggest that we tempt him with state-of-the-art equipment on which he can test out the training tool. Place it here in his office so he can work on it on the two days when he is not doing surgery. That way he will be available should something go wrong."

"That might be expensive."

"Yes, a high-fidelity virtual reality simulator would be expensive, but I'm not proposing that we make that investment … just yet. Dr. Ellingham has a more basic simulator in his office in Portwenn which has been suitable for his testing requirements, and that is what I am proposing we purchase for a start. But … let me tell you what I am thinking. A while back, he was telling me how useful he thinks the simulator will be in training surgeons. He even suggested that I send some of our more promising registrars over to Portwenn to try it out. If this equipment were here in hospital, we could start training our entire team. I also understand that there is a similar training tool near completion for orthopaedics. If we find the basic simulator tool to be effective, we could invest in a more sophisticated version, and we could use the hardware for training our orthopaedic surgeons as well as our vascular staff. It could be the beginning of making Truro Hospital the best training facility in the nation … next to London hospitals of course."

"Perhaps equal to London hospitals."

"Yes. That's possible."

"Hmm … sounds promising." Mr. Kirkham the head of surgery was intrigued, and Chris knew that if he were interested, he would bring the entire board around.

Agreement was voiced all around the table, and Chris was feeling that the first part of the meeting had gone extremely well. But now he had to drop the second bombshell. He hoped his usual powers of persuasion would be able to negotiate a soft landing. In medical school, Martin was the brilliant medic whereas Chris was the brilliant mediator, always able to bring two differing parties to a compromise that was agreeable to both. That was why he ended up in administration, and not surgery. "Why don't we take a brief break, say 10 minutes and come back. I have one or two more items to cover and then we can get back to our regular responsibilities.

When the group reconvened, Chris started to speak, "Some of you may know that Dr. Ellingham and his wife are expecting a second child towards the end of January."

There were rumblings at this news. Some of them had already heard, and others were surprised to discover that Ellingham, the miserable tosser, was married. Chris held up his hands, trying to quiet the group, "Yes. Dr. Ellingham has a beautiful wife and a young son, and his wife is expecting their second in January. Which presents us with another conundrum. He wants to return to general practice in Portwenn for a month or two after the baby is born."

"Deal breaker." One or two voices shouted out.

"Possibly," Chris agreed. "But let me remind you that we currently have no promising applicants for either a vascular surgical position or for the department head. I firmly believe we should accept Dr. Ellingham's conditions, hire him for the time he is willing to offer and see if he can make any progress. If nothing else we will have an exceptional surgeon on staff to handle some of Cornwall's more complex cases for the next three months. And we may be able … actually I believe we will be able ... to tempt him to stay on after the baby is born."

None on the board was happy with this, but they all agreed that Parsons had a point. Chris waited a few minutes for the group to voice their opinions and then continued, "I would suggest that we offer him the three-month position at the standard department head level of compensation, with a pre-set bonus for each surgeon he brings on board."

"Can't be just any surgeon."

"Ellingham won't hire anyone who isn't top-notch, believe me. He has no tolerance for incompetence of any kind. And if anyone doesn't meet his demanding standards, they won't last two minutes."

Martin opened his messages the next day to find an offer of employment from Chris Parsons, representing the hospital board of trustees. As he read the terms, he was pleased to see that they had met all his conditions plus some. He sat back when he read the section offering the creation of a special room furnished with all the equipment necessary to train future surgeons using the simulation software that he and his London team were developing. He was certain that was included to tempt him to be in Truro five days a week. It was a tempting offer, but he would have to discuss all of it with Louisa later. He forwarded the message to her with a quick note, "Let's discuss tonight. Love, M"

Louisa carried her tea over to the kitchen table and opened her laptop. It had been a slow morning in the surgery and only a few sounds broke through the closed kitchen door, which had made it easy for her to concentrate. She had been reviewing her notes for tomorrow's class and had taken a short break to move the laundry from the washing machine to the dryer before continuing to prepare for her class. Her tutorial yesterday had gone exceedingly well, and Sam had suggested that she was well positioned to join one of the larger counselling practices in either Newquay or Truro. She was flattered that he thought so highly of her, but she wasn't able to think that far ahead with the baby coming in January and James needing extra attention as well. She was concerned for James, fearing that he might retreat into himself if she weren't able to give him the attention he deserved once she was absorbed with the needs of a new born.

She checked her e-mail and noticed the message from Martin. "Let's discuss tonight. Love … M." Short and to the point, but it embodied all that he had learned about their relationship as life partners, how important it was to tell her about decisions that would affect her. Before their therapy with Dr. Timoney, he might not have thought to share the details with her; but he understood now, finally, that he needed to share and discuss important decisions that would affect their family, and she could feel the care and concern for her behind the terse message.

She began to read the offer that Chris had sent and she found herself overwhelmed. She knew that Martin had been an exceptional surgeon. He had once told her that it was the only thing that he was ever any good at. Knowing now how exacting his standards were, he must have been exceptional to say that he was good at it. But the position and responsibility and compensation that Truro was offering highlighted just how highly the medical community thought of him. She read the offer over and over. They had agreed to all of his conditions, even the limitation on his days in Truro, the return to general practice in mid-January, all of it. And the compensation offer, she had no idea that Martin could command such a high salary. It was more than double his earnings as a GP, and she always thought that was more than sufficient for their needs.

She felt stunned. He could have returned to London after James was born, returned to a high-powered surgical career, much more prestigious than the one currently on offer, but he turned it all down because of her. He had stayed in Portwenn in a job he didn't really like just for her. How could she have been so selfish and obtuse? And she knew that he would turn down this offer if he thought it would jeopardize their marriage. He had sacrificed so much so that they could be together, so that she could be happy. She couldn't deny him this chance to find out if surgery was still the path that he was destined for.

She wiped a tear from her cheek, closed out the message, and opened the reading to be discussed tomorrow in class. She tried to focus on the material, but she kept thinking about Martin, her Martin, her brilliant Martin. She needed some air. Closing the laptop, she stood up and reached for her coat and opened the back door. It was a blustery day. Winter wasn't that far away and there were whitecaps dancing on the waves out past the harbour wall. It was a good day for walking and clearing her head, and she headed for the coastal path up the hill past their new home.