Surgical Tutor's Homepage: 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