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