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