26th October 2015

A Word of Thanks

The hospital has been under 'black alert' again this week, which means the pressure on beds has been enormous. In this situation, though frequent senior ward reviews make sure discharge plans are in place, it does mean that patients' surgeries are cancelled. 

In T&O, it is the 'walking wounded', those patients who don't need to be in hospital because of their injury (eg broken ankles or wrists) but do need a bed for a day for their procedure. It's meant some tough conversations have had to be had this week, for our Trauma Coordinator Hazel as well as our teams - and of course our patients. 

Thank you everyone involved in these individual human stories of injury, delay, restitution and rehabilitation. In a week where in-patient flow had been the focus of attention, they haven't lost sight of those at home receiving that call to say their op is delayed.

Trainee Talk

Higher Surgical Trainees swapped rotations at the beginning of the month so I thought it would be nice to meet some of them.

This week I am introducing Kieran Gallagher, T&O Registrar seen here with his current boss Arshad Khaleel. Kieran was with us as an SHO so it feels like the return of a member of the family. 

Kieran is now one of our more senior trainees (how time flies) and can focus a little more on his subspeciality choice of Foot & Ankle.

Surgeon of the Week

Big shout out this week for Oral Surgeon Alex Creedon, sporting magnificent but uncharacteristic facial hair. This is not a Movember stunt but instead preparation for @TheStrokeAssoc Stroke Association Half Beard Challenge in January. I hope I can update you then on his transformation

Forthcoming Attractions

This looks pretty excellent: the Future Orthopaedic Surgeons event @RoySocMed Royal Society of Medicine on Saturday November 7th

https://www.rsm.ac.uk/events/events-listing/2015-2016/sections/orthopaedics-section/org03-future-orthopaedic-surgeons-conference-2015.aspx?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=org03231015

19th October 2015

Thought for the Day 

Medicine is a fabulous profession. It is a privilege and a pleasure to be involved in people's lives in such a positive way. There is no bigger buzz than helping someone break free of pain, anxiety or illness. I have nothing but encouragement to give you to pursue a career in this direction. 

Please do not be disheartened by the contracts dispute. There is a bigger agenda going on here than any of us on the ground are party to. What we all do have is a degree in Medicine and it is professionally healthy to use it to gain the broadest experience we can, whether it be in the U.K. or abroad. It is a career without boundaries and few professions can say they have the opportunity that we have, to take our skills to wherever we find our best fit.

Junior Doctors Protest

Saturday was a Big Day... If you follow me on Twitter @SurgicalTutor or if you saw any on line news service, you'll already know what I got up to, but for those who don't...

20,000 junior doctors, supported by consultants, medical students and other health professionals gathered in Waterloo Place for a demonstration and march to Parliament Square. Surprisingly no lights on or signs of life, other than the police presence, as we went past Dept of Health, but I guess they don't work a seven day week...

HEKSS Showcase

Ahead of the march, I popped in on the HEKSS Showcase event at the Charing Cross Hotel. This event hosted stands from all the KSS Trusts, encouraging Medical Students and Foundation Doctors to take a look at what each Trust has to offer

I met the new Dean Director, Professor Graeme Dewhurst (left) here with our own Dr Michael Wood and I'm very keen he comes down to see us and see what we do

Surgical LFG

This week saw the last LFG of 2015. As I've explained in a previous post, this is where Educational Supervisors in a Surgical specialities meet to set our standards for the next quarter, plan training, support trainees in difficulty and address issues both positive and negative raised by everyone taking part in medical education

As many of you will be aware, Surgery, Urology and T&O has seen an expansion in trust grade posts at 'SHO' level and one of our goals is to ensure these non-training grade doctors are involved in an educational programme to support their continued professional development and revalidation. Senior Registrar Ben Carrick (bottom right) has joined us for six months and one of his goals is to establish a weekly teaching session for these doctors (and all who'd like to join if service provision permits). It was useful for us to brainstorm this and I look forward to letting you know about the programme as it develops.

Surgeon of the Week

This week we celebrated the appointment of our LFG colleague and Vascular Surgeon Abdullah Jibawi @abdjibawi to the post of Chief Clinical Informatics Officer (seen hear with Library manager Laura Stafford)

AJ eloquently outlined to us the current situation of IT networks put in place and evolved with apparently no clinical input. AJ is a programmer with a background of working with the Department of Health on IT project management he and explained how powerful a clinically directed IT service could be particularly in our new configuration as a merged Trust. The scope of his vision is huge and exciting and he has our whole-hearted support.

Forthcoming Attractions 

The @HE_KSS Regional Heat of "Are You Cut Out For It?" @RCSNews competition will be held on Thursday December 3rd at 6pm

This competition is open to all CT2s in HEKSS to choose dexterous trainees for the National Final to be held at the College with a substantial cash prize. Test your laparoscopic and open skills against your contemporaries under the eagle eye of Consultants and let's see what you're made of

12th October 2015

This week we said goodbye to most of our Higher Surgical Trainees at Registrar Changeover Day. Here are Zu, Mark and Evangelos on their last day:

Always a sad moment as teams that have worked well together for a year (or sometimes two) turn around and we start again with new faces. If we're lucky though, we see them back as Consultant colleagues and in our T&O department of 16, nine of us were registrars in the Rowley Bristow Unit which says something, I think.

Of course it is also the time we welcome a whole new cohort and over the next few weeks I hope to be able to introduce you to many of them.

I've been off on my own CPD this week. This time I was in Manchester at the Medical School Anatomy labs trying out a fracture-specific plating technique. Hearing Rob Medoff from University of Hawaii and Livio Di Mascio from the London talk about their experience and protocols was a great pick-me-up to get me excited again about the job we do

Surgeon of the Week

This week's celebrity is Colo-Rectal Surgeon Phil Bearn, seen here with outgoing HST Kiran Sran:

Phil has for a long time be the local Programme Director for the Surgical Registrars but this is a baton he has recently handed over to Shashi Irukulla. Heavily involved with research, Phil has forged great links with the Royal Holloway to take on MSc students and he is also involved with the training of Physicians Associates.

Forthcoming Attractions

So: I've cleared my diary, sorted out childcare and dragged out my white coat - this is where I'll be on Saturday October 17th. Do feel free to join me