Dr Mike Farquhar is a consultant in sleep medicine at Evelina London Children’s Hospital. He trained in general paediatrics, respiratory paediatrics and sleep medicine in Glasgow, Nottingham, Sydney and London, and took up his current post in 2012.Â
The Evelina London Children’s Sleep Department provides a comprehensive diagnostic, assessment and management service across the whole of paediatric sleep medicine, supporting children, young people and their families with complex, rare and refractory sleep difficulties within London, but also across the UK. Mike has an interest in the importance of sleep, sleep deprivation and fatigue in the context of shiftwork within the NHS. He has worked to improve awareness and understanding of these issues since becoming a consultant.
Mike can be found on Twitter , where he regularly tweets about sleep-related issues affecting children and young people, as well as the importance of acknowledging the impact of workplace fatigue, and more general sleep issues.
Mike is one of the originators of the Rainbow NHS Badge project, piloted at Evelina London from October 2018, aiming to raise awareness of challenges and issues faced by LGBT+ children, young people and families. You can find out more about the project at the Twitter account.
Outside of work, Mike can often be found in a theatre or reading X-Men comics… losing himself in stories has been a lifelong love.
One of the keynote speakers at RCPCH Conference and exhibition in May 2019, Mike was also awarded with the RCPCH &Us Voice Champion Award. In 2022 he was one of the first ever recipients of the RCPCH Members’ Award which is for members who have done exceptional work in support of child health.
Mike was the first known paediatrician to feature on the front cover of Milestones. He wrote a feature on sleep for our autumn 2021 edition.