Fed-up senior doctor quits £100,000 NHS job to become a HAIRDRESSER

A high-flying hospital consultant got so fed up with NHS red tape he has ditched his doctors coat for a pair of scissors and has become a hairdresser instead.

Former clinical director in anaesthesia Roger Tackley has given up a £100,000 salary to realise his dream of opening up his own salon.

The incredibly long hours and frustration of working within suffocating bureaucracy all added up disillusionment as a doctor.
And a chance meeting with celebrity stylist Trevor Sorbie further inspired the 56-year-old to quit medicine.

He was so fed up with the NHS he even advised his youngest son who is studying to be a doctor not to follow his footsteps.

Now the father-of-two is looking forward to being his own boss after 19 years as a consultant.

Mr Tackley went to night school to learn his new trade after purchasing a salon he was working in part-time last year.

The former Torbay hospital consultant is delighted to have changed direction after opening his own salon in Paignton, Devon today.

He said: ‘I got fed up with all the red tape and the restrictions on what we were allowed to do.

‘I did not get the opportunity to try out new ideas.
‘My hands were tied often waiting for approval from above. And hairdressing is more fun than sticking a needle in people.

‘The NHS job changed. I would deal with protocol and the finance.

‘But I had very little power to make any changes - I could make recommendations but nothing ever got done.

‘All these things just added up in the end and it was time for a change.

‘For instance when I started as a clinical consultant if a new drug or a new technique in anaesthesia came around I could try it out, using my clinical judgement, obviously not putting patients at risk.
Trevor Sorbie


‘But now if anything is a major change from the standard procedure you have to wait for ethical approval or clinical trials to be done.

‘I just thought there’s more to life than spending 100 hours a week in a hospital.

‘I always wanted to do something with hair but I never got the encouragement or the opportunity and as a hairdresser I can be much more of an individual,’ he added.

Mr Tackley, from Torquay in Devon, said everything came to a head in December 1998 while on a four-week family holiday in New Zealand.

He decided to go part time and started an evening class in hairdressing.

‘I was very stressed at this point in time and a bungee jump just put me in the right mood to chuck it in - I finished my job as clinical director in 1999,’ he said.

‘I studied two nights a week at South Devon College but I was very worried about fitting in as I was older.

‘But I got so much encouragement I knew it was what I wanted to do,’ he added.

‘My son is studying medicine at Cardiff and I told him not to do it. But it is a good job with plenty of satisfaction and challenges for him.’

He added that further encouragement came from a chance meeting with Trevor Sorbie on a train in November 2000 when the celebrity hairdresser told him to go for it.