Rob is an independently practising Palliative Care Physician, working ad hoc at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHSFT, and supporting voluntary hospices in person and digitally.

Following accreditation in Respiratory and General Medicine and a doctorate on breathlessness, Rob pioneered HIV & non-cancer palliative care from 1987 and has worked in all clinical palliative care settings since then in teaching hospitals, DGHs and NHS and voluntary hospices. In that time, he has been   responsible for the care of over 25,000 dying and suffering patients from all diagnostic groups, care settings and many cultures.

He is an Independent Medicolegal Expert and Mediator. He has advised various UK Government Departments on matters relating to the End of Life, including serving as the independent clinical expert to the Liverpool Care Pathway Review led by Lady Neuberger in 2012. He has given expert opinions in landmark cases in the UK and abroad and is instructed regularly by Coroners, the National Crime Agency and in civil cases for plaintiffs and defendants. He is a regular contributor to the British Media on Medical ethics, death and dying.

He has been an elected Councillor for the Royal College of Physicians, London and has sat on working parties reporting on aspects of palliative and end-of-life care, Prolonged Disorders of Consciousness and the Committee on Ethical Issues in Medicine. Currently, he chairs the Speciality Certificate Exam Board in Palliative Medicine for the Federation of Royal Colleges of Physicians of the UK. He was President of the Association for Palliative Medicine of Great Britain and Ireland from 2015- 2017.

He is a commentator and clinical academic rather than an experimental researcher with a particular interest in the Philosophy and Ethics of Care. Before gaining his personal chair at the Cicely Saunders Institute Department of Palliative Care, Rehabilitation and Public Policy at King’s College London, he was Hon. Senior Lecturer in Bioethics at University College London. He has over 140 publications with around 1900 citations, reflecting the different elements of his career.

He is a passionate cyclist, foodie, wine bibber and wears a monocle. His children and grandchildren give medicine a wide berth.