The Guardian (London) – Final Edition
June 30, 2007 Saturday

The accession: Profiles: Ministerial surprises

[parts omitted]

Ara Darzi

While other ministers hold surgeries in their constituencies,
Professor Sir Ara Darzi will be carrying them out for real. On
Fridays the new junior minister at the Department of Health will
continue to practise as surgeon. The 47-year-old, Armenian-born
pioneer of keyhole surgery will be paid by the government for three
days a week, but work four. Any money received from his international
private practice will be donated to research at Imperial College,
where he has been head of the surgery division. "He is a world
renowned surgeon in some of the most hi-tech areas of surgery but he
also combines this with great experience of leading change in the
NHS," the prime minister’s spokesman said. Mr Darzi is a former
member of the NHS modernisation board, and has led controversial
reviews on NHS services in Kidderminster, the north-east, Yorkshire
and London. He once demonstrated technological improvements in rectal
probes to the then shadow health secretary, Ann Widdecombe.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress