Home Page

Dr. Suresh Damodharan is an Endocrinology and General Medicine Consultant who currently works in a Sri Ramakrishna Hospital in Coimbatore, India. For the last eleven years, Dr. Damodharan has been working over the Christmas period at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust (UHP) and has been coined ‘the Christmas fairy’ by staff.

Recognising the pressure that the hospital faces over winter, Suresh gives two weeks of his time to help support patients and staff, ensuring there is a senior cover for patients from the Emergency Department’s front door through to the wards.

Reflecting on why he thinks it is important for him to work during this time, Suresh said: “Even though it would be nicer for me to come and work in the summer, I appreciate that my help is most valuable in the winter, not only because the hospital is busy, but also because it gives the staff at UHP a chance to take more time off with their families over the festive period”.

Initially, Dr. Damodharan had only planned to work at UHP over the Christmas period once, but he quickly built a relationship with the Trust and has continued to come back for years afterwards since. He said: “I am extremely thankful to all the staff that help facilitate my visits here, without their support I would not be able to do this job, the community and teamwork is one of the things I enjoy the most”.

David Brown, Interim Care Group Manager for Women’s and Children at UHP said: “I was working as the Care Group Manager for medicine when Suresh first came to the hospital and have maintained a great relationship with him ever since. The work that Suresh does here is remarkably selfless, he is such an important pillar of the service we provide at Christmas.

“He is a great example of the huge contribution that international healthcare workers make to the care that we provide to our patients in Plymouth, and we are very lucky to have his support, and that of our broader international family.

“Several of our consultants have also been able to visit Coimbatore, and we have learned a lot from the teams over there too. Our relationship with Suresh has also led us to explore opportunities for working with our international colleagues on delivering our planned care services such as outpatient appointments which are able to be delivered remotely.

“We are hoping that we can develop our relationship with Suresh further in the future, and also we are hoping this will bring opportunities for other international trainees to visit the hospital and learn from us and build lasting relationships with UHP”.

Despite Dr. Damodharan not being able to celebrate the festive period at home, he says the staff find a way to make it special: “The work is hard as the hospital is busy, but we make an effort to celebrate, we often have a lot of food around and have lunches which helps to keep the morale high. Christmas day is also a good time for us to be able to get flow moving in the hospital, so the balance of work and celebration is good.

“There is also a harvest celebration in January in India, so when I go home I am able to celebrate that with my family too”.

The work that Suresh does for the trust is greatly appreciated, and staff are tremendously thankful for the help he has provided over the last 11 years, and will continue to provide in coming years, with hopes that he will be able to work alongside our teams throughout the year in the future as well.

This last 11 years working with UHP would not have been possible without the help and support of both Dr Suresh’s family in India as well as the support and understanding of the Trustees of Sri Ramakrishna Hospital in Coimbatore, both of whom have our sincere thanks and gratitude.

As well as his clinical practice, Dr Suresh is also the Vice President of the Tamil Nadu Endocrine Society and on the clinical executive of the Endocrine Society of India. He also has a keen interest in research and clinical training and development.