Ben Blacklock

Friday we do BVA Hereditary Eye Disease screening, journal club and try to discharge our patients for the weekend.

How did you get to where you are today? (obligatory question)

I graduated from Bristol University in 2009, and there were only 2 things I was absolutely sure of: 1) I would never do an internship or residency, and 2) I was going to be a farm vet, maybe mixed practice at a push. So after 2 years of fantastic mixed practice in Lancashire, and more middle-of-the-night calvings and lambings than I care to remember, I decided to start a small animal internship, just to learn a bit more and see if I liked referral practice. This decision was also probably influenced by the fact that my then girlfriend (now wife) had just finished her surgery residency and had taken up a position at the Animal Health Trust (AHT) in Newmarket. I moved to the AHT, and was completely blown away by just how cool ophthalmology was… a perfect combination of surgery, medicine, lasers and expensive machines. I was very fortunate to be finishing my internship as a residency in ophthalmology became available, and even more fortunate to get the position! After completing the 3 years of residency at the AHT, I moved to a busy private practice, Dick White Referrals, and spent 4 happy years there growing the service, passing my boards and becoming a BVA eye panellist. We decided to make the move to Edinburgh for many reasons, but in short, we love the area and the university just felt like such a great fit, with a perfect combination of clinics, teaching and research opportunities.

How did you land your current role? (obligatory question)

I feel like I’m in a very privileged position in that veterinary ophthalmologists are very rare, and so I was invited to apply for the role, with a view to launching a clinical ophthalmology service.

How did you learn to embrace risk-taking?

I think I circumvent risk rather than embrace it! I obsess over minutiae and don’t make a decision until I’ve thoroughly researched every avenue and then slept on it several times. It drives my wife mad: as a surgeon she prefers the mantra “better to make the wrong decision than no decision at all”. I completely disagree with this sentiment, although even I will admit it does make simple tasks like buying a new kettle a pretty tedious and time-consuming process!

Was there ever a role you applied for and landed, but weren't 100% qualified to do? How did you proceed?

Yes – my residency. I was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time, and I tend to be personable and get on well with everyone – I think they gave me my residency because they knew they could get on with me for 3 years, rather than necessarily being a particularly skilful or knowledgeable candidate (some people describe a residency as being similar to a marriage). To get a residency these days you often need to have done a general internship, then a discipline-specific internship, then got a PhD and a Nobel prize nomination. How did I proceed? In the 2 months prior to starting the residency I read all the main ophthalmology textbooks in the evenings and at weekends – it was pretty hard going but at least meant that when I started the residency my theoretical knowledge was adequate!