21st December 2015

K✨Merry Christmas!✨

Last post of 2015: here's wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2016!

It has been a privilege to showcase some of the fantastic things that go on in the Surgical services @ASPHFT. I started this blog to help try to show that the surgeons are a lovely bunch whose skills far extend beyond delivering excellent patient care. I hope I've done that.

I think we all know that the majority of junior doctors passing through surgical firms are not there by choice, and with such little exposure to the nuts & bolts of surgery at medical school it is not hard to build up these specialities into something  awful, to be endured.

If you can see past that though, there is so much to gain. The surgeons on the LFG faculty @ASPHFT are committed teachers & trainers as these blog posts have shown.

Nominations for TOTY 2015

Still time to get your nominations in for Surgical Trainer of the Year. A few words on who and why will suffice: email me before New Year's Eve and I'll announce the result early next year.

Surgeon of the Week

Last to occupy this slot in 2015 is Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon Rishi Chana, seen here with senior radiographer Rageshni Nair

Rishi is one of our most qualified educators as well as being a Hip & Knee specialist. 

Forthcoming Attractions

Caught sight of this on the RCS @RCSNews website but can't get any more info than the title. Still, it's free and the CST interviews are coming up so if you're off that day, give it a go and tell me what you think

Core Surgery Prize Day hits us almost immediately the Christmas decorations go back in the loft.

Good luck to everyone with podium & poster presentations. Please practice in front of friends and family to get the timing right and to make sure you come across professional & polished

That's all my thoughts for 2015. Hope the God of rosters has been kind to you all and you've been able to share some good cheer with those that matter most.

14th December 2015

Nominations For TOTY 2015

It's that time of year again: please send me your nominations for Surgical Trainer of the Year!

You rightly expect your trainers to tick your boxes, validate your WBAs & train you to in the art of surgery - now is your chance to give them some feedback for their portfolios & appraisals. This is not a numbers game, I'm not counting votes as most trainers will only have two or three trainees. 

What I would like is a citation, with examples if you can, showing how your nominated trainer has enriched your training experience in this difficult environment. I will then rank and announce the winner early in the New Year. The anonymised citations then get sent to the trainers for their portfolios so don't be shy, express yourself freely!

Just remember every time you've asked a senior for an MSF, then do this one thing for them. Go on. 

HEKSS Speciality Study Day

This week @ASPHFT hosted the regional T&O study day. 

Thank you to all the core trainees who came and embraced the idea of wholly interactive teaching: you were all good sports and I hope gained more out of the day as a result.

Thanks too to our HSTs Kieran Gallagher, Sujit Agrawal and Ben David @drbendavid for their relevant, engaging fracture sessions...

... to Dean Michael @deanmichael1971 for his tour de force on hip arthritis and to James Corbett from Depuy-Synthes for all the saw bones & kit

Surgeon of the Week

I'm embarrassed to admit I have only met this week's colleague today, even though he has been at the Trust since April... Please welcome Nim Arumainayagam @nimalanarum, Consultant Urologist (seen here with Humphrey Scott @humphrey_scott)

Don't be fooled by the word 'vascular' on his lead apron, Nim is one of our 6-strong Urology Team, which like most surgical specialities embraces a minimal access radiologically guided approach and his thing is Stones

And finally...

As I mentioned last week, I do LOVE to see St Peter's in print!! Bravo to Arshad Khaleel and his team on this monumental piece of work

7th December 2015

'Are You Cut Out For It?'

This week saw the @HE_KSS heat of the Royal College of Surgeons @RCSnews competition for second year Core Trainees. Each LETB (formerly known as 'Deanery') holds heats with the winners going to the College in February for the Finals and the chance to win the first prize of £1,000.

This is a surgical skills-based competition, with competitors demonstrating suturing, knot-tying, excision of lesions & closure of defects and laparoscopic dexterity skills: here our own Aphiwat Luangsomboon stacks sugar cubes to the amusement of Sachin Agrawal

Thanks to everyone who came out on a windy Thursday night to Fracture Clinic at the Rowley Bristow. It was a tough call to judge, with the range of scores being very tight, but winners we had and congratulations to first prize winner Ana Borges...

... and runner-up Jennifer Caswell...

...who received their certificates from Bill Dunsmuir and will go forward to represent our LETB at the Finals.

Huge thanks to the judges who gave up their free time to support this event: Bill Dunsmuir, Sachin Agrawal, Holly Ni Raghallaigh (@UncleHester) and Ben Carrick. Thanks too to Sophie Wrigley @sophiehfwrigley and Christian Asher @marshaisic who were magnificent in helping set up and pack away afterwards.

Tuesday's Day of Action

Preparations for potential industrial action were incredible and very organised. On the day itself of course, junior doctors were working as negotiations brokered by ACAS were underway. Theatre lists had already been stood down, which left some surgeons with an incredible opportunity to get together, brainstorm, and take the time to talk through plans and strategies not only for CCG-related projects but also interdisciplinary issues such as rotas and training.

It is so rare to have the time to sit down with colleagues both clinical and managerial (here above with ADO Cathy Parsons @cparsons007 and Associate Divisional Director Paul Trikha @surreyknee): three ad hoc meetings later I felt I achieved more in that one day than in months of emails.

Changeover Wednesday 

Wednesday morning was given over to Departmental Induction. Four months goes by so quickly, doesn't it: we welcomed some new faces to T&O

They will benefit from the hard work put in by previous trainees Emily Decker @emilydecker1, Seok Cho @YSeokC & Sophie Wrigley @sophiehfwrigley who have sat down with us to construct a weekly service plan that should provide that elusive balance of continuity and education. I'm a firm believer that the doctors happiest with their rotas are those who have gotten a grip of it themselves.

We covered a huge range of topics including Consent training, Unit structure,  pre-assessment - not to worry, it can be found on Trustnet including the surgical handbook, for reference.

 

Surgeon of the Week

This week it is my pleasure to introduce Magdy Moawad, see here on the left, with fellow Consultant Vascular Surgeon AJ Jibawi

Magdy is a fantastic support to me in educational projects and at Surgical LFG. Until his arrival we had very little input from Vascular Surgery at all. Now he, AJ @abdjibawi and Barun Majumder @barunmajumder have elevated the educational profile of their speciality in the hospital: wonderful

Forthcoming Attractions

On Friday, @ASPHFT host the Regional Speciality Study Day in T&O. We have some interactive talks lined up as well as a practical saw bones session. This event is for @HE_KSS Core trainees but if you are an ASPHFT junior doctor faintly interested in a T&O taster, you are more than welcome. At lunchtime I will be holding a "Portfolio Clinic" - if you would like me to cast an eye over yours, do bring it along 

And finally...

Can't help myself: LOVE seeing St Peter's in print!!!