The Peninsula and Severn Schools of Surgery would like to thank the following specialty surgical trainees for volunteering to participate as panel members for the national Core Surgical Training selection interviews in February 2024;

Rosie Simson

James Oliver

Michael Okocha

Ye Ru Chin

Natasha Keates

Lydia Jenner

Matthew Howard

Hammad Parwaiz

Michael Stoddart

Their participation is hugely valued in the wider process of supporting the training of the future surgical workforce within England and the devolved nations.

Of note, the south west is the region or devolved nation that has provided the greatest number of trainees supporting this process.

With the migration of HEE emails to NHS.net the Severn School of Surgery have a new email address:

England.SevSurgeryschool.sw@nhs.net 

The Severn Deanery School of Surgery is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Jon Randall as the new Training Programme Director for General Surgery. He succeeds Ms Caroline Burt later this autumn. The School wishes to thank Ms Burt for all her hard and work dedication to the General Surgery training programme over the last 5 years, and leaves the programme rated number 1 in the country.

The Severn Deanery School of Surgery is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Henry Burnand as the new surgical College Tutor at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust from March 2023.

“The Schools of Surgery for Peninsula and Severn Deaneries are pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Richard Pearcy as the next Urology Training Programme Director for HEE south west. Richard is a consultant urologist surgeon at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth. We welcome him to the both Schools of Surgery.

We wish to thank Mr Tim Bates for his hard work and commitment to the Urology TPD role over the previous years and we wish him well for the future.”

Many congratulations to the Severn Deanery core surgical trainees, Michael Foxall-Smith and Rebecca Smith, who came second in this year’s Royal College of Surgeons of England’s ‘Are You Cut Out For It?’ competition.

Applications are invited for the roles of Doctor in Training Champion for Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity for the HEE South West Peninsula and Severn Schools of Surgery. Two Champions, one in Peninsula and one in Severn, are to be appointed.

The role will require the successful applicants to work closely with the Heads of Schools, the School Boards, and the Associate Dean for Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (Mr Eng Ong), to advise, and support change, on multiple issues including;

-          Equality, diversity, and inclusivity

-          Differential Attainment

-          Sexual abuse and harassment in the workplace

-          Parents in surgical training

-          Supporting less than full time training

The opportunity will provide the successful applicants with leadership and management opportunities and an insight into surgical education with HEE.

The successful applicants will be expected to undertake the role for a minimum of 2 years and will be supported in attending relevant meetings and Health Education England South West events. The applicants will be expected to support the process of appointing successors to the roles in the future.

Interested parties should submit their interest, with a single A4 letter, reasoning as to why they wish to undertake this role and how they see the importance of the role within the Schools of Surgery in the South West.

Applications should be sent to Mr Rob Longman using the e-mail robertlongman@btinternet.com no later than Friday 29 April 2022. Shortlisted applicants will then be invited to interview at a future date.

Please find  below, two vacancies that are ACF posts, currently advertised on Oriel.

Cardiothoracic Surgery ACF vacancy,  Grades ACFST1 (1), ACFST3 (1)

National Vacancy ID: SEV/22-23/1522/029/1-R1A

Vascular Surgery ACF Vacancy, grades ACFST1 (1), ACFST2 (1), ACFST3 (1)

National vacancy ID:  SEV/22-23/1525/036/1-R1A

“I wish to thank Mr Richard Bamford for all his hard work, as Lead for Skills and Courses, over the last 2 years and especially during such difficult times. Mr Bamford is now the TPD for core surgery training (Surgery in General).

I wish to thank Mr Jon Mutimer and Mr James Coulston who demitted their roles as TPDs for Core Surgery Training (Surgery in General and T&O respectively) In August. They leave the Severn CST programme ranked number one in the UK. Their successors are Mr Richard Bamford (TPD CST SiG) as mentioned previously, and Mr Tristan Barton (TPD CST T&O).

I wish to thank Mr Paul Tierney who is due to demit his role as TPD for otolaryngology in Severn Deanery later this year. He also leaves the role with the progamme ranked number one in the UK. His successor will be Mr Ed Chisholm who we welcome to the School.

I wish to thank Mr Richard Edwards who will demit his role as TPD for neurosurgery in the south west in the new year. His successor will be Mr Paul Fewings who we welcome to HEE south west.

I wish to thank Chrissy Blane for her role as Surgical Simulation Fellow over the last 12 months. She has supported the School is the delivery of training during these difficult times over the last year. I wish her all the best in the rest of her training.

Finally, but not least, I wish to welcome Angeliki Kosti as the new Surgical Simulation Fellow for the next 12 months from this October.

Rob Longman

Head of School of Surgery

Severn Deanery, HEE south west“

Severn School of Surgery have vacancies in Core T & O and Core Surgical Training.

If you would like to discuss the position and what it involves please contact Robert Longman, Head of School or Jonathan Mutimer (T & O) or James Coulson (SIG).

For the application form, person specification and job description, please contact Susan House at susan.house@hee.nhs.uk

The School is pleased to announce that two Severn Deanery Core Surgical Trainees have won the Core Trainee Prize Competition, and have been awarded a bursary, from The Bone and Joint Journal. Congratulations to Catriona Daly and Michael Foxall-Smith.    

The next Surgery Board Meeting is Tuesday 23 February 2021, 9am-10am on MS Teams.  A meeting link will be sent out nearer the time.

Please note below the next few dates for the Journal Club to be held virtually starting on 8 December 2020 at 19:00hrs and then every second Tuesday of the month;

Tuesday 8 December 2020 at 19:00hrs

Tuesday 12 January 2021 at 19:00hrs

Tuesday 9 February 2021 at 19:00hrs

Tuesday 9 March 2021 at 19:00hrs

Tuesday 13 April 2021 at 19:00hrs

Tuesday 11 May 2021 at 19:00 hrs

The Journal Club is aimed at Core Surgery Trainees (not Trauma & Orthopaedic Trainees) and ST3 General Surgery, Vascular Surgery and Urology Trainees. 

Any resources will be available on the SWHST website one week before the event date and the sessions will be recorded and uploaded to the website.  The presentations will be followed by discussion on Twitter for 48 hours after the event.  

We are excited to announce a series of free webinars to replace this year's face-to-face National Research Collaborative conference. Entitled 'Collaboration in a Health Crisis', we hope there's something for everyone in these 5 exciting webinars: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/national-research-collaborative-meeting-2020-31292828107 Details are below:  

Granule: Tips and Tricks for Recruit to Randomised Trials 

Recruiting the trials is challenging. Come to this innovative webinar and learn more about strategies for conveying equipoise, explaining randomisation and engaging with patient preference. 19th November 2020 6.30-8pm bit.ly/3jglA0R (1.5 CPD points) 

How to Design Efficient RCTs: Real World Experience of Real-World Trials  

Learn from international faculty about how to make trials more efficient, including pragmatic trials, integrated oral consent and trial statistics. 1st December 2020 6.30-8pm bit.ly/3ia7EEe (1.5 CPD points) 

Tomorrow's Leaders: Equipping the Next Generation of NIHR Trial Leaders 

Hosted by the NIHR, this exciting two-part workshop is aimed at surgical trainees and early years consultants with an oncology interest. Find out more about sessions such as New Trainee Initiatives, accessing CRN support and NCRI breakout sessions. 

4th and 12th December 2020 9am-12.15pm bit.ly/tomorrows-leaders-2020 

Ask the Editors: Maximise Your Chance of Publishing and Academic Success 

Register to hear from editors of the BJS and The Lancet about the tips and tricks for publishing successfully. 23rd November 2020 7-8pm (1 CPD point) https://bit.ly/2TavKod  

Research Red Tape: What Can We Learn From Undertaking Research in a Pandemic? 

COVID-19 has challenged and changed healthcare and research. Register for this webinar to hear first-hand experience from CIs of the RECOVERY trial and COVID Surgery studies – will the research landscape change forever? 10th December 2020 6.30-7.30pm(1.5 CPD points) https://bit.ly/34e2Gm9  

We hope to see as many of you as possible at these events! Please follow updates @NRCM2020 and https://2020.NationalResearch.co.uk  

Best wishes 

the NRCM 2020 team 

Please note that the next School of Surgery Board meeting will be 23 September 2020 at 5.30pm-6.30pm held virtually.  A meeting link will be sent nearer the time to board members.

Please note below details of  the extension of the process for ARCP during COVID 19 ;

https://www.hee.nhs.uk/coronavirus-information-trainees

Dear Colleagues,

After extensive consultation with key stakeholders, including trainee groups, SAC Chairs and Curriculum Leads, Heads of School and the Statutory Education Bodies, implementation of the new surgical curricula is postponed until 4 August 2021.  The majority of stakeholders felt that, given the continuing disruption from COVID-19 and expected clinical workload pressures of the recovery phase, it was not appropriate to implement the new curricula in 2020 as planned. The GMC has formally approved the new start date of 4 August 2021.

The trial Multiple Consultant Report (MCR) is still available as a tool for detailed, bespoke feedback and self-assessment outside the current formal assessment process. We encourage trainers and trainees to use it in order to improve feedback and familiarise themselves with the new assessment process at the heart of the new curricula.

We will use the postponement to provide guidance and training for further understanding and use of the new curricula and the MCR. Please look out for information via email, ISCP news, and if you use Twitter, please follow us @JCST Surgery. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel for notifications of new curriculum training videos.

Please find attached our revised transition and implementation plans. We will shortly publish the new curricula in full here, together with a range of supporting guidance.

Best wishes,

Jon Lund,

ISCP Surgical Director

Please see the letter from Heads of Schools regarding managing postgraduate training during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Congratulations to the following trainees on being awarded  Trainee of the Year in Core Surgical Training

Daniel Yeomans - T&O CT1

Harry Akehurst - T&O CT2 & Sophie Stanger - T&O CT2

George Hill - SIG CT1

Emily Kirkham - SIG CT2

The School of Surgery is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Richard Bamford as the new Lead for Skills and Courses for the Severn PGME School of Surgery.

Mr Bamford is a consultant colorectal surgeon at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton with extensive surgical education and training experience. I am sure the School welcomes him to the role and will support him in delivering excellent opportunities to all the surgical trainees in Severn PGME.

I am also sure the School thanks Mr Jamshed Shabbir, who is stepping down from this role, for his excellent contribution to and development of training opportunities in this role over the last 3 years.

Mr R J Longman (BSc MBChB PhD FRCS)
Consultant Colorectal Surgeon
University Hospital Bristol NHS Foundation Trust

Many congratulations to Mark Yeatman who has been appointed Training Programme Director in Cardiothoracic Surgery for the Severn School of Surgery.

The School wishes Mark all the best in his new role and also thanks outgoing TPD Clinton Lloyd for his many years of service.

(C. Elliott)

The Bristol Surgical Trials Centre is a multi-disciplinary collaboration aiming to transform patient care by increasing evidence-based surgery. The centre tackles key questions relevant to patients, clinicians and the NHS and is working to inspire and train a new generation of surgeons to undertake high quality research. Director, Jane Blazeby, invites you to join her and the team at its 2016 Showcase event at the M-Shed, Bristol on Friday, March 18th, 2016.

The day will bring together expertise from colleagues and collaborators - surgeons, allied health professionals and methodologists of all grades and types.

Registration is now open and places are limited. (Of note: Trainees must choose ticket type 'trainee'. Choosing another category will render your ticket invalid.)

Please secure your tickets directly by visiting the following link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bristol-surgical-trials-centre-showcase-2016-tickets-19097073862

For more information about the Centre, visit http://www.bristol.ac.uk/social-community-medicine/centres/surgical-research/ or follow them on Twitter https://twitter.com/csr_bris

Of note: The Severn School of Surgery's Trauma and Orthopaedics regional teaching has scored highly in the GMC Survey for four years in a row.

(C. Elliott)

The perfect way to keep with the latest School news, course announcements and opportunities from your iPhone. https://twitter.com/SevSoSurgery

The 40th Anniversary Association of Surgeons in Training International Surgical Conference 2016 will be held on 18-20 March in Liverpool at the Arena and Convention Centre, L3 4FP.

The conference is open to all surgical specialties/grades. It will feature a selection of educational pre-conference courses, along with an interactive and informative programme. For information/registration details, please see the following link http://asit.org/events/conferences/2016/about

Additionally, they are accepting research and abstract submissions covering all 10 surgical specialties and other areas of interest to surgical trainees. Abstracts can be submitted under the following categories:

• Basic science including anatomy
• Breast surgery
• Cardiothoracic surgery
• Case reports
• Coloproctology
• Emergency General Surgery
• Endocrine surgery
• ENT surgery
• HepatopancreatobiliaryHernia
• Maxillofacial surgery
• Military surgery
• Neurosurgery
• Orthopaedics
• Paediatric surgery
• Plastic surgery
• Surgical training and education
• Transplant surgery
• Trauma surgery
• Upper-gastrointestinal surgery
• Urology
• Vascular/Endovascular surgery

Over £3,500 in prizes will be awarded. The deadline for submission is Monday, 18th of January, 2016. For additional information/submission details, please see the following link http://asit.org/events/conferences/2016/abstract_submission

(C. Elliott)

Dear Trainees,

Welcome to Severn to those we haven't met, and hello to everyone we do know. The ePOSSOM project is happy to announce the formal opening of applications to be involved in the next set of modules. After expression of interests, this will be on Rectal Cancer.

EPOSSOM is, as many of you are aware now, a successful elearning project developed by the Severn surgical trainees in collaboration with eCancer, a Bristol based oncology charity. Have a look at our website epossom.ecancer.org to find out more. Unfortunately due to study leave budgets being given back to individual trusts, we are no longer able to offer a study leave budget uplift as we have in other years. However, please don't let this put you off, there are plenty of other reasons to be involved. The module you have created will be acknowledged in your ARCP as a publication, and there are many other educational benefits from not only knowing a subject inside out, but creating medical education material, and learning to be part of a collaboration. 

If you wish to be considered to be a creator, please have a look at the person spec below and apply to be involved on the EPOSSOM website epossom.ecancer.org. Please don't forget to upload a short CV that highlights your medical education skills, and other reasons you should be involved. We anticipate more than the required creators applying so there will be a competitive element to who is involved. (If you have any questions, please contact us via the EPOSSOM website epossom.ecancer.org.)

Applications will close November 6th 2015. Good luck and hope to meet you soon.

Kat Butcher and Richard Bamford
EPOSSOM Leads

RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES

• To work in pairs (Core trainee and Specialist trainee) to develop the content and design for a component of the specified module.
• To attend a minimum of 3 plenary meetings of the whole team to present material, discuss progress and take part in editorial process.
• Trainees will be encouraged on completion to continue with further modules with new recruits to the project as the senior member of the working pair. 
• Trainees will be encouraged to be part of a review team to ensure previous modules remain up to date and evidence based.

PERSON SPECIFICIATION

The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate that they meet the following criteria:

1) Qualifications & Stage of Training

Essential

• MBBS or equivalent Medical Degree
• Enrolled as a Core or Specialist Trainee within an HEE LETB

Desirable

• Higher level qualification in medical education

2) Skills/Abilities/Competencies

Essential

• Ability to make a significant contribution to the design and contents of the module
• Ability to use a variety of learning styles for a user focused module
• Strong interpersonal and networking skills
• Excellent communication skills
• Good computing skills with a basic grasp of PowerPoint presentations and Word based documents

3) Experience

Desirable

• Course development
• Experience of using technology to deliver teaching

4) Personal Attributes

Essential

• Willingness and ability to work as part of a team
• Ability to work on own inititiative
• A collegiate approach to team working with ability to listen to others and develop effective team based solution

Desirable

• Flexibility
• Desire to develop greater understanding and use of technology in education

Many congratulations to General Surgery registrar Alex Humphreys who was recently appointed Surgical Simulation and Non-Technical Skills Fellow for the Severn School of Surgery. She will be working alongside Skills and Courses Lead James Coulston to develop courses and programmes to improve Patient Safety for both core and higher surgical trainees. She'll also participate in the delivery of core trainee training programme teaching in clinical skills, simulation and non-technical skills training.

Alex will succeed outgoing Simulation Fellow (and General Surgery registrar) Richard Bamford. The Severn School of Surgery wishes to express its gratitude to Richard for his hard work and service, and we wish Alex all the best in her new role.

(C. Elliott)

Dear Core Trainees,

All of the 2015-16 Mandatory Core Training Courses are now on the Events section http://surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events of the School of Surgery website with the exception of the following:

• Core Knowledge Day 4: The ST3 Interview Practice Day. Coming soon!
• The second "Surgery-In-General CT2 Clinical Skills Day" (Of note: The Gloucester day on 29.01.2016 is being advertised in the Events section.)
• Core Paediatric Orthopaedic Trauma

In addition, the following courses are listed on the website, however, event details (including registration) have not yet been confirmed:

• Severn Hand Trauma Course (08.02.2016, Location tbc)
• Professionalism & Leadership (06.06.2016 at RUH)
• CT Human Factors (09.11.2016 at the BRI)

I will let you know course confirmations/registration details as soon as I have them. Many thanks for your patience. A complete list of mandatory core training courses can be found using the following link http://surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/about-us/surgical-specialties/core-training/ct-training-programme-2014-15/. 

Not quite sure what you need to be taking? Please see the following quick guide http://surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/news/show/a-quick-guide-to-core-training-courses

If you have any questions, please email me at chad.elliott@southwest.hee.nhs.uk

Many thanks,

Chad Elliott
School Manager

Dear Severn Surgical Trainees,

The EPOSSOM educational project is looking for new recruits to get involved in writing the next set of innovative peer reviewed online educational modules. Recruitment will open in mid October for one of two subjects - oesophageal or rectal cancer, depending on the selected teams choice.

Please look at our website for more information http://epossom.ecancer.org/ to read more about the project, have a look at the work we have already done, including links to the actual modules and apply to be involved. Please feel free to email epossomcollaborative@gmail.com with any questions.

Thanks

Kat

Miss Katrina Butcher
MB ChB MRCSEd PGCertMedEd
General Surgical Registrar Severn Deanery
EPOSSOM Lead 

A quick guide to the mandatory courses your TPD and Mr. Coulston want you to take over your 2 years of Core Training.

Core Surgery-In-General Trainees

Anatomy/Physiology--Complete all modules in your CT1 year. http://surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/about-us/surgical-specialties/core-training/anatomy-and-physiology/
Human Factors--Complete this course by the end of your 2 years of core training. http://surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/about-us/surgical-specialties/core-training/human-factors-training/
Core Knowledge Training Days--Complete all modules by the end of your 2 years of core training. http://surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/about-us/surgical-specialties/core-training/core-knowledge-training-days/ 
Surgery-In-General CT1 Clinical Skills Training--Complete this module in your CT1 year. http://surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/about-us/surgical-specialties/core-training/clinical-skills-training/
Surgery-In-General CT2 Clinical Skills Training--Complete this module in your CT2 year. http://surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/about-us/surgical-specialties/core-training/clinical-skills-training/
Professionalism & Leadership--Open to all core trainees but mandatory in your CT2 year. http://surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/about-us/surgical-specialties/core-training/professionalism-and-leadership/

Core T&O Trainees

Anatomy/Physiology--Complete all modules in your CT1 year. http://surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/about-us/surgical-specialties/core-training/anatomy-and-physiology/
Human Factors--Complete this course by the end of your 2 years of core training. http://surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/about-us/surgical-specialties/core-training/human-factors-training/
Core Knowledge Training Days--Complete all modules by the end of your 2 years of core training. http://surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/about-us/surgical-specialties/core-training/core-knowledge-training-days/
Core T&O Clinical Skills Training Days--Complete all modules by the end of your 2 years of core training. http://surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/about-us/surgical-specialties/core-training/clinical-skills-training/
Professionalism & Leadership--Open to all core trainees but mandatory in your CT2 year. http://surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/about-us/surgical-specialties/core-training/professionalism-and-leadership/

A list of current courses (more coming soon!) can be found on the Events section of the School of Surgery website using the following link http://surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events. If you have any questions, please email Chad Elliott at chad.elliott@southwest.hee.nhs.uk 

Dear Colleagues,

I will be out of the office from Monday, 14.09.2015 until Friday, 02.10.2015 (returning briefly on Thurs-Fri, 24-25 Sept but with limited access to emails). The following information may be of some use in my absence:

Severn School of Surgery Courses. A current list of upcoming courses (including registration and contact information) can be found at http://surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events. MORE CORE TRAINING COURSES COMING SOON!    

Study Leave Applications/Expense Claims (now managed by the Trusts). Not sure who to contact? See the following link http://surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/about-us/policies-and-useful-information/study-leave-contacts-march-2015/

ISCP problems? Please contact the ISCP Help Desk at helpdesk@iscp.ac.uk  

Looking for information/forms regarding Revalidation? Please see the following link http://www.severndeanery.nhs.uk/about/revalidation/ (along with the related tabs on the left-hand side of the page)

Looking for information/forms regarding Quality Panels? Please see the following link http://www.severndeanery.nhs.uk/about/quality-management/quality-panels/  

Other questions? The School of Surgery website, specifically the General Enquiries section, may be of some assistance http://surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/about-us/general-enquiries/

If you have a recruitment-related question, please contact our Recruitment Manager, Susan House, at Susan.House@southwest.hee.nhs.uk

I will answer your email/voicemail message as soon as possible upon my return on 02.10.2015. As the School Manager team at Deanery House is currently short-staffed, I'd also be extremely grateful if you didn't contact the other School Managers in my absence unless it is an absolute emergency. Many thanks for your patience.

Best,

Chad Elliott

The ecancer POstgraduate School of Surgery Oncology Modules (ePOSSOM) website is now live. The address is epossom.ecancer.org. This website is a fantastic resource for any level trainee and contains project information, useful links, along with applications to be involved in future modules.

(C. Elliott)

(For all ST3+ Severn surgical trainees who are current ASiT members)

Dear Colleagues,

Now that my time as a trainee has come to an end, I will be stepping down as the ASiT representative for the Severn Deanery. It has been a real pleasure to represent our Deanery and has provided a fantastic opportunity to contribute to surgical training in this country. I have been fortunate enough to be involved in mentorship training, the organisation of the annual ASiT conference and to sit as a trainee representative on both the JCST review and JCIE FRCS examinations committees. Perhaps most importantly, I have been able to support local trainees in their application for the funding of surgical courses.

The role of an ASiT representative is busy, but rewarding. It will help to build the management section of your CV enormously. Applications for the regional representative are reviewed by the ASiT council, following which a vote is taken to appoint a successor. A two page CV plus a 500 word personal statement explaining your reasons for applying and what you can bring to the job should be sent to applications@asit.org with an email subject heading of 'SEVERN'. Remember you must be a current ASiT member in order to be able to apply. The deadline for applications is midnight on 18 September.

Severn has an excellent reputation nationally for surgical training, so I have no doubts about the calibre of prospective applicants!

If you would like to find out more about what the post entails, then do not hesitate to contact me either by email at davemess@doctors.org.uk or by phone (07968 768167). Good luck!

Best wishes,

David Messenger

Dear CT1s,

As I’ve received several emails from you recently regarding upcoming mandatory core training courses, the MRCS prep podcasts mentioned at your recent bootcamp, etc., this is just a quick FAQ that will hopefully answer many of your questions:

When are the dates for this year’s core training courses? Mr. Coulston and Mr. Bamford are still finalising the programme and course dates with the organisers. We will let you know this information as soon as possible via email, the website and Twitter.

Are there any confirmed course dates? There are a few. These can be found at http://surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events

Will it be explained which courses I need to attend? Absolutely! That information will again be disseminated via email, the website and Twitter.

Why can’t I register yet for Human Factors Training-Core Surgical Trainees (16.11.2015), etc.? There are a few system issues with Intrepid Course Manager at the moment that our IT Team are currently working to resolve....However, please diarise any course dates you’re interested in, apply for study leave at the Trusts, etc. We’ll let you know as soon as course registration is open.

Who do I contact at my Trust regarding Study Leave? Please see the following link http://surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/about-us/policies-and-useful-information/study-leave-contacts-march-2015/  

At the bootcamp, they mentioned free podcasts to help me pass my MRCS Exam. How do I get these? I hope to email you these access codes/instructions by the end of the week.

What’s this about a Severn School of Surgery Twitter account? Please follow us at https://twitter.com/sevsosurgery for course information, news items, opportunities, etc.

Hope this helps. If you have any questions, please email me at Chad.Elliott@southwest.hee.nhs.uk. See you at the Bootcamp on the 21^st of August!

Take care,

Chad Elliott
School Manager

A mandatory induction bootcamp for all incoming core surgical trainees.

Dates
6th, 7th and 21st of August, 2015

Location
Learning and Research Centre 
Southmead Hospital
Westbury-on-Trym
Bristol
BS10 5NB

Surgical Bootcamps are innovative, simulation rich environments that allow the acquisition and development of key technical and non-technical skills. Such programmes already exist in Scotland for core trainees with excellent feedback and nationally for Neurosurgical, Cardiothoracic and Vascular Trainees. The Severn School of Surgery has therefore created a compulsory Bootcamp Programme for all new Core Trainees.

Your Trust has been informed that you are required to attend this programme and all of your commitments should have been cancelled and covered by other trainees within your trust.

If you have any problems attending these days, please contact Mr Coulston (Vascular Consultant and Chair of Training, Skills and Courses Committee) at james.coulston@tst.nhs.uk and Richard Bamford (Severn School of Surgery Simulation and Non-Technical Skills Fellow) at richardbamford@doctors.org.uk.

We look forward to welcoming you to the Severn School of Surgery and meeting you at your induction. 

(C. Elliott)

Are you interested in seeing how the BMJ operates from the inside? Do you want to gain an insight in to the medical journalism and add some valuable experience to your CV? Why not apply to spend a week at the BMJ, working as part of the team to give you a chance to experience medicine from a different perspective.

During your week you would have the opportunity to:

• Attend a daily huddle on what to put in the BMJ each day 
• Attend weekly editorial planning meetings
• Attend manuscript meetings (where we read papers beforehand)
• Help develop new ideas and products for junior doctors (eg: conferences, online products, mobile tools etc.)

For additional information, please contact Jonathan Black at jblack@bmj.com or Dr Luisa Dillner on 02073836671.

All will be revealed Friday, the 26th of June, 2015.

7th Annual Severn School of Surgery Research, Audit & Quality Improvement Training and Prize Day http://surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events/show/annual-research-audit-and-quality-improvement-training-and-prize-day-tentative-date 

6th Annual Severn School of Surgery Dinner http://surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events/show/annual-severn-school-of-surgery-dinner 

(C. Elliott)

Congratulations to Miss Lynne Fryer who was recently appointed OMFS Deputy Training Programme Director, and to Miss Sarah Vestey who was appointed College Tutor at Gloucestershire.

We wish them both all the best in their new roles.

(C. Elliott)

Confirmed ARCP Dates/Locations

ENT (11.06.2015 at Deanery House)
Core T&O (12.06.2015 at Deanery House)
Neurosurgery (16.06.2015 at Southmead Hospital's Learning & Research Centre) 
Core Surgery-In General CT1s (23.06.2015 at Deanery House)
Core Surgery-In General CT2s (24.06.2015 at Deanery House)
Cardiothoracic Surgery (03.07.2015 at Deanery House)
OMFS (08.07.2015 at Chapter House, Bristol Dental Hospital)
ST3+ T&O (17.07.2015 at Deanery House)
ST3+ T&O (14.08.2015 at Deanery House)

Trying to get things squared away on ISCP for your upcoming assessment but having problems? Please contact the ISCP Help Desk at helpdesk@iscp.ac.uk 

(C. Elliott)

For the 10th consecutive year, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend a cleft lip and palate mission in the Philippines with a charity called Operation Hope, The Face Charity (www.thefacecharity.org). This is the UK partner of an American charity, The Philippine American Group of Educators and Surgeons.

This is a continuous training experience that I hope to harness in order to become a key player in the growing field of “global surgery." I led a UK-based team which raised money and integrated with a larger international charity to provide high-volume, high-quality, cleft care in a resource poor setting. Surgically, I was able to work with surgeons and anaesthetists from the USA, Hong Kong, Australia, as well as the UK.

A component of our mission is to train locally qualified surgeons and nurses in the management of cleft lip and palate surgery. We have been working with local ENT surgeons for years and are looking forward to being involved with the 60th anniversary of the cranio-maxillofacial section of the Philippine ENT faculty. Our group, through long-term fundraising and sustainable local development within the Philippines, has a large number of anaesthetic machines and surgical equipment that we are able to use and share with host nation surgical teams.

This project has led to the development of www.missiontracker.org.uk (work in progress), which will act as a LinkedIn-type professional network to identify “live” who is where, doing what, when and with what knowledge and equipment. I am grateful for the support of the Severn School of Surgery in helping me attend this trip, and the continued positive effect this has on my surgical training and career definition (specialist interest in Global Surgery).

I have recently attended the Royal Society of Medicine Global Surgery conference and would like to hear from other trainees within the Health Education South West region who would be interested in forming a network of clinical experience and research for the purpose of local development and support. You can contact me at tom.walker@bristol.ac.uk.  

Mr Tom W M Walker MBChB BDS DOHNS (RCSEd) MFDRCSI MRCSI AKC
Academic StR4 in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery
University of Bristol

Attn: Severn ST3+ Surgical Trainees. The Severn School of Surgery is looking for teachers for our upcoming Human Factors courses. If you have been trained as faculty and would be interested in teaching, please contact Simulation Fellow Richard Bamford at richardbamford@doctors.org.uk

Many thanks,

Chad Elliott
School Manager

Attention: Severn Surgical Trainees.

Are you creative, innovative, skilled (or at least interested) in website development? The Severn School of Surgery needs your help in creating content for our website's surgical specialty pages. Following our recent TPD/College Tutor Conference, School Manager Chad Elliott will be contacting the Training Programme Directors in the coming weeks seeking nominations for trainees to form a working group with the purpose of developing these key pages.

If you're interested in getting involved in this, please contact your TPD and/or Chad Elliott. Your contribution could be invaluable in ensuring the Severn School of Surgery website's future success as both a communications tool and an advertising resource.

(C. Elliott)

Date: Friday, 26th of June, 2015. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Venue: Engineers’ House, The Promenade, Clifton Down, Bristol BS8 3NB

Please see the following link for event details.

(C. Elliott)

Dear Colleagues,

As a reminder, the deadline for study leave expense claims is 31.01.2015. This means I must receive all expense claim paperwork (completed expense claim form, copies of receipts and certificate of attendance) by no later than THIS Saturday, the 31st of January, 2015 or they will not be paid. Please email (or post) them directly to me as always, or contact me if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Chad Elliott
School Manager

Attention, T&O trainees: 

The South West Orthopaedic Club's spring meeting will be held on Friday, the 15th of May, 2015 at Sandy Park Stadium, Exeter EX2 7NN (close to the M5). The event will be hosted by Will Thomas and his colleagues from Exeter. Further details will be posted on www.swoc.co.uk/meetings.html

Abstracts are welcome! Please ensure you are using the correct format (see www.swoc.co.uk/format-for-abstracts.html) and submit them to exeterswoc@gmail.com by Midnight, 08.03.2015.

Prizes: The 2015 Hampson Memorial Prize, Hampson Travelling Prize and Bluespier Prize are all open for entry.  For details, please see www.swoc.co.uk/prizes.html

Coming soon: The date and details for the 2015 Autumn Meeting. This will be hosted by Jon Mutimer and his colleagues in Cheltenham.

(C. Elliott)

The General Medical Council is hosting an upcoming conference to explore the theme of creating a culture of openness, safety and compassion in London. The event will be held on the 16th of March, 2015 at the QEII Conference Centre, London.

The conference will be chaired by BBC Medical Correspondent Fergus Walsh and will include an interactive programme of workshops, discussion and debate on this important issue. Registration will open in January.

Medical students and doctors in training are encouraged to contribute to the programme of this important national conference by presenting a poster on a patient safety project they have been involved in. Additional information, including the abstract template submission form can be found at http://www.gmc-uk.org/about/events.asp.

The deadline for submissions is 31.01.2015.

(C. Elliott) 

Mr. Steve Eastaugh-Waring, Head of the Severn Postgraduate School of Surgery

Q: Congratulations on completing your first year as the Head of the Severn School of Surgery, Steve. Has the role been different than you’d originally anticipated?

Thanks, Chad. Still in one piece! The role is just as enjoyable as I’d envisaged, mainly due to the people involved - from trainers to trainees, from Deanery staff to other Heads of School. The remit is wider than I’d imagined though, from negotiating with HEE and NHS England over cuts in surgical training numbers, to inputting into examination Quality Assessments. A huge portfolio really, but a challenge I really look forward to.

Q: Despite the current organisational challenges, you’ve had a fantastic start and have accomplished a number of things including the appointment of a Simulation Fellow, excellent results for the School in the GMC Survey, etc. Are there any achievements you’re particularly proud of?

The success of the individual Surgical Specialities in GMC survey and examinations is always wonderful to see, and will only continue to attract the very best trainees to our region. In addition, I think the collaborative working groups have really come on of late - the ePOSSUM group is in discussions with the JCST over recognition, and is in the process of being rolled out across all the Surgical Schools nationally. Trainee developed, trainee designed, for trainees. Educational entrepreneurialism at it’s very best.

Q: Is there anything you wish had gone a bit better?

I think the introduction of the Quality Panels is going to take a little time to settle down. The concept is excellent, but with the amalgamation of the two Deaneries and two very different ways of working in this area, it is bound to take a while to find a steady state. The appointment of Jon Francis as Quality Lead will be an enormous boost for the process though, and I’m really optimistic about what we can achieve even in early 2015.

Q: What are your goals for the School of Surgery in the coming year?

Quality Panel development as mentioned above, developing a robust and clear strategy for our simulation programme - we have excellent leadership here with James Coulston, and the appointment of Richard Bamford as the Fellow will allow us to forge something really exciting.

Q: Do you have any advice for surgical trainees trying to stand out in an extremely competitive programme?

It is so important to set oneself apart, because at the end of the day everyone in that waiting room before the Consultant interview is, to a greater of lesser extent, at a similar clinical level. Research and Teaching will always be popular, but I really believe that there is an increasing need for trainees to be involved in service development within Trusts. Trainees are amongst the few people who regularly move between Trusts and so are perfectly suited to cross-pollinate good practice and ideas. Sitting in an interview describing the clinical and/or financial benefits of a service development project which you ran will sound so powerful to managers and clinicians alike.

Q: Anything else you’d like to say to Severn surgical consultants and trainees?

Simply that I am so proud and honoured to be involved with such an incredibly motivated and high achieving group of clinicians, and please keep up the good work. The School is in rude health!

 With daughters

Off and running!

(C. Elliott)

Please note the earlier June date for this year's event. (In the past, the Research & Audit Day has usually been held in August/September.)

The 7th Annual Research, Audit and Quality Improvement Training and Prize Day will be held on Friday, the 26th of June, 2015 at Engineers' House, Bristol. This is an extremely popular and competitive event, providing an invaluable opportunity for surgical trainees to network, support and share learning with peers, and to meet clinical academics and key leaders in the Severn School of Surgery.

We encourage you to put this date in your diary now and start thinking about how you might benefit from the experience by contributing and/or attending. Additional information will be announced in the new year. In the meantime, if wish to register your interest, or have any queries, please contact csr-bristol@bristol.ac.uk 

Dear Colleagues,

The deadline for study leave expense claims is 31.01.2015. This means I must receive all expense claim paperwork (completed expense claim form, copies of receipts and certificate of attendance) by no later than Saturday, the 31^st of January, 2015 or they will not be paid. Please email (or post) them directly to me as always, or contact me if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Chad Elliott
School Manager

Are you considering a career as a clinical academic but want to experience life as a researcher before you decide?

Applications from suitably qualified clinical graduates are invited for six month biomedical research and trials methodology “primer” projects to be undertaken at the University of Bristol. These are supported by a Wellcome Trust ‘Institutional Strategic Support Fund’ award to the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute, the Medical Research Council ConDuCT-II Hub, and the University of Bristol. The projects will commence in 2015 and the funding will cover clinical salary and associated project costs.

This opportunity is aimed at exceptionally motivated clinically qualified trainees who are at an early stage of their career, but who can demonstrate the capability and drive to undertake a period of research with a view to developing a career as a clinical academic.

The ConDuCT-II Hub Primers will focus on methodology in randomised controlled trials in surgery and other clinical areas that involve invasive procedures.

The Biomedical Primers will be available in the following areas and specialties:

• Bioengineering
• Cancer
• Cardiovascular disease
• Infection and immunity
• Musculoskeletal diseases
• Neurosciences and psychiatric disease
• Population health and epidemiology
• Regenerative medicine
• Renal disease
• Zoonotic disease

Projects will be interdisciplinary in nature and so will be co-supervised by clinical and non-clinical members of staff. The training period is negotiable (range 3-6 months) and will allow time for one clinical session per week, if applicable.

Applications should be made using the form that can be downloaded from the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute website http://www.bristol.ac.uk/blackwell/funding/clinical/

The completed form and your CV should be emailed to ebi-health@bristol.ac.uk. The closing date for applications is 9am, Friday the 12th of December, 2014.

Your application will be reviewed and if successful, you will be invited to an interview in Bristol in February 2015. If you have any queries, please email ebi-health@bristol.ac.uk

Dear Colleagues,

For those of you who don’t know me, I am Richard Bamford and I have recently been appointed as the first Severn School of Surgery Simulation and Non-Technical Skills Fellow. Officially I start this role in April when I will take a sabbatical from my ST training to concentrate on improving simulation resources, training and opportunities across the South West. I hope that this remit will also cross over into some of the excellent (and perhaps occasionally not-so-excellent) teaching that we currently receive in order to ensure we are all getting the highest quality, most relevant and up-to-date training possible.

I am aware that this School has a large number of extremely talented, experienced and enthusiastic trainees who have many ideas on how to best improve these areas of training, and I would like to utilise your knowledge and experience as best I can. Therefore, I (along with Mr. James Coulston, Chair of the Severn Skills and Courses Committee) am setting up a trainee “Skills, Courses and Training Committee". This will feed directly into the Deanery's committee and will have the ability to affect real change on the training opportunities available to us. Ideally we are looking for 6 trainees (a mix of core and specialist trainees) from a number of specialties so as to best represent the whole School of Surgery.

If you have an interest in training, especially in the field of simulation or non-technical skills, then please do contact me about being part of this group. To apply, please email me (at richardbamford@doctors.org.uk) a brief paragraph explaining your interest, experience and ideas for training. We hope to have our first meeting at the beginning of next year and so the deadline for application is 30th November 2014.

Alternatively, I would greatly appreciate it if you could email me any ideas or suggestions you have that we may be able to use over the coming 18 months.

Many thanks,

Richard Bamford
Severn School of Surgery Simulation and Non-Technical Skills Fellow

For course details and registration information, please click on the following link http://www.surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events/show/bristol-oxford-surgical-trials-course/

SCRUBS (the Bristol Medical School Surgical Society) is looking for core surgical trainees and registrars to teach various suturing workshops run throughout the academic year.

The events will be held in the Education Centre opposite the BRI. SCRUBS is looking for between six and eight committed teachers for each session. All necessary equipment will be provided and instructors will also receive University of Bristol SCRUBS teaching certificates for their CVs.

SCRUBS runs Basic Suturing Workshops, Advanced Suturing Workshops and Suturing with Tissues Workshops. While there isn't a strict curriculum for each workshop, Basic generally consists of interrupted suturing skills; Advanced focuses on continuous stitches, including the running subcuticular suture and potentially knot tying; while the Suturing with Tissues Workshop usually involves tendon repairs with pig trotters (skin pads, forceps, needle holders, needles and thread, plus trotters are all provided).

The course dates are:

Basic - 21st Oct 2014 - 18:00 - 20:00 - Lecture theatre 3 Education Centre

Basic - 28th Oct 2014 - 18:00 - 20:00 - Lecture theatre 2 Education Centre

Advanced -18th Nov 2014 - 18:00 - 20:00 - Lecture theatre 3 Education Centre

Basic - 3rd Feb 2015 - 18:00 - 20:00 - Lecture theatre 2 Education Centre

Advanced - 17th Feb 2015 -18:00 - 20:00 - Lecture theatre 2 Education Centre

Advanced - 3rd March 2015 - 18:00 - 20:00 - Lecture theatre 2 Education Centre

Tissues - 17th March 2015 -18:00 - 20:00 - Lecture theatre 3 Education Centre

More details can be found on the SCRUBS website www.scrubs.org.uk. If interested, please contact Jonathan Bray at jb13590.2013@my.bristol.ac.uk

(C. Elliott)

Mr. Mark J. Speakman, the President of the British Association of Urological Surgeons, will be delivering the Distinguished Lecture at the upcoming RCSEd and University of Bristol Symposium on Surgical Education and Training which will be held Thursday, the 16th of October, 2014 at the Lecture Theatre, School of Oral and Dental Sciences, Bristol, BS1 2LY. Speakman will be discussing "The Future of Urological Surgical Training."

For additional information, including a full programme, please see the following link http://www.surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events/show/rcsed-and-the-university-of-bristol-symposium-on-surgical-education-and-training/

(C. Elliott)

Congratulations to the following award winners announced Friday evening, the 26th of September, 2014 at the Annual Severn School of Surgery Dinner at Bordeaux Quay, Bristol:

Core Trainee of the Year
Winner (£500): Charlotte Carpenter
Highly commended: Caroline Cheesman, Daniel Rodriguez, Lucy Simmons, Michelle Carey

Trainee (ST3+) of the Year
Co-winners (£500 each): Ellie Broughton and Brett Rocos
Highly commended: Brian Parsons, Richard Bamford, Katrina Butcher

Trainer of the Year
Winner: Mr. Amit Atrey

Many congratulations again to all of this year's award winners!

(C. Elliott)

Congratulations to the following Severn surgical trainees who won prizes at the 6th Annual Research, Audit and Quality Improvement Training and Prize Day on Friday, the 26th of September, 2014 at Engineers' House, Bristol:

Audit
Jeffrey Lim (£500) for "Measurement of adherence to sepsis guidelines in emergency general surgery admissions: a multicentre study."

Quality Improvement
Michelle Carey (£250) for "The use of interactive media to enhance the nasogastric tube safety message."

Research
Laura Gould (£1000) for "Existing evidence in emergency non-trauma general surgery: on overview of systematic reviews."

In addition, the following trainees also received £50 book vouchers for "Best Questions": Hui-Ling Kerr (Audit section), Laura Gould (Quality Improvement section) and Luke Brunton (Research section).

The annual Severn School of Surgery event also included an interactive workshop on "Designing and delivering inspirational presentations" by Mr. Ross Fisher, a consultant paediatric surgeon in Sheffield, and a key note presentation on "Designing high-quality trials to improve practice" by Professor Tim Peters of the University of Bristol, in addition to the many presentations from surgical trainees competing for the awards. A full programme of the day's activities/speakers can be found at http://www.surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events/show/6th-annual-research-audit-and-quality-improvement-training-and-prize-day/ 

Many congratulations again to this year's winners. The tremendous competition for these prizes is a testament to the quality of our surgical programme.

(C. Elliott)

Cardiothoracic surgical tutors have been working over the past year in conjunction with Ethicon (the suture manufacturers) to design 12 new training courses geared towards ST3-ST8 Cardiothoracic trainees. These will include clinically based modules for early and intermediate years, as well as courses on professional development for trainees near the end of their training. Ethicon will be funding registrations fees, accommodation, meals, etc., though attendees will need to cover their own travel expenses.

Additional information is coming soon. The courses are expected to begin around February 2015.

(C. Elliott)

6th Annual Research, Audit and Quality Improvement Training and Prize Day
Venue: Engineers’ House, The Promenade, Clifton Down, Bristol, Avon BS8 3NB (Phone: 0117 906 4824)
Venue Directions: http://www.eefvenues.co.uk/conference-venues/bristol/location.aspx
Programme: http://www.surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events/show/6th-annual-research-audit-and-quality-improvement-training-and-prize-day/

Annual School of Surgery Dinner
(Invitation Only. Black tie.)
Venue: Bordeaux Quay, Canon's Rd, Bristol, Avon BS1 5UH
Venue Directions: http://www.bordeaux-quay.co.uk/find-us.php
Time: 7p.m. to Midnight

(C. Elliott)

Congratulations to General Surgery registrar Richard Bamford who was recently appointed Surgical Simulation and Non-Technical Skills Fellow for the Severn School of Surgery. He will be working alongside Skills and Courses Lead James Coulston to develop simulation and non-technical skills training for Severn surgical trainees.

(C. Elliott)

(See below job description.)

To apply, please send a CV and covering letter (explaining why you're interested in the position, what skill set you would bring to the role, etc.) to Mr. Coulston at jamescoulston@yahoo.oc.uk

For any questions about the role, please contact Mr. Coulston at jamescoulston@yahoo.oc.uk or 07974 446 335

The deadline for applications is 10th of September, 2014.

JOB DESCRIPTION

JobTitle:

Severn School of Surgery Surgical Simulation and Non-Technical Skills Fellow

Background:

The School if Surgery is committed to high quality training of core and higher specialty trainees across the Severn deanery. Simulation training in all its different forms is key to this and remains at the centre of the principles behind the core trainees training programme and also in the provision of other training opportunities for junior surgeons.

This new post will work alongside the Lead for Skills and Courses (Currently Mr James Coulston, Consultant Vascular Surgeon) to be the focus for simulation training across all the School of Surgery.

The post:

Working collaboratively the post holder will develop a clear strategy in the development of courses and programmes to improve Patient Safety for both core and higher surgical trainees. There are a number of potential plans in process and suitable scheme will be developed further depending on the fellow sub-specialty interest, skill set and experience.

The Simulation fellow will participate in the delivery of our core trainee training programme teaching in clinical skills, simulation and non-technical skills training.

There is an expectation the fellow will provide teaching on:

• Human factors courses
• Core surgical / core T&O surgical skills days (depending on experience)
• Core knowledge days
• Interview and communications skills days
• Medical education and teaching skills days.

There will be an expectation that the post holder will be able to attend relevant meetings on various aspects of medical education and patient safety improvement initiative and will be encouraged to submit research in the field of medical simulation to national meetings. There is also an expectation that, if not already achieved, further postgraduate study in medical education/simulation is undertaken during the post.

The development of surgical simulation and non-technical skills programmes across the School of Surgery will be a key part of the fellow’s role and there is large scale scope for innovation and new ways of teaching and learning.

For service provision, the post holder will be accountable to Lead for Skills and Courses (Mr James Coulston) at School of Surgery. Also work collaboratively with all faculty but specifically head of school, training programme directors and human factors lead.

Out of hours (on-call) work at regional hospitals can be arranged in chosen surgical specialty as required.

The curriculum for the Medical training programme is laid down by external bodies, The Royal Colleges, the General Medical Council (GMC) and Local Educational Training Board (LETB), as are the required methods of assessment and desired competencies. The post holder will be expected to liaise with trainers and trainees, maintain training records and assist in the assessment of competencies as required by the GMC and LETB and the Royal Colleges.

Logistics:

This is a 12 month post. Annual leave entitlement is 32 days as per national scales and deanery policies (available on request) for sickness.

This post is only available internally – To surgical trainees within the School of Surgery (regardless of surgical speciality).

Pay and registration: Fellows must continue to be registered with the General Medical Council. The salary for this post (excluding on-call) is £30,000 gross with £550 study leave budget.

Accountability: Fellow will report to Lead for Skills and training and Head of School.

Appraisal and educational monitoring: The fellow will undergo a full educational appraisal process and all documentation regarding the time out of programme must be completed and submitted to relevant TPD in due course. TPD consent for OOP working is vital. It is envisaged that this post will be taken up as an OOPE and support will be provided to allow this to happen.

Equal Opportunities:

The school of surgery is committed to the concept of Equal Opportunities, which is detailed in the organisation’s Equality and Diversity Procedure. You are required to fulfil your responsibilities under this Policy and to ensure that no individual receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of their gender, marital status, disability, religion, creed, colour, race, ethnic, national origin, HIV status, age, social background, trade union membership or non-membership and is not placed at a disadvantage by requirements or conditions which cannot be shown to be justifiable.

Person Specification:

1) Qualifications/Training

Essential
Full/Limited/Provisional GMC Registration

MB BS (or equivalent medical qualification)

MRCS

Desirable
‘Training the Trainers’ Course or similar

Simulation Instructor training course

Postgraduate qualification in medical education

2) Experience

Essential
On School of Surgery training scheme

ST3+

3) Clinical Skills/Knowledge/Understanding

Essential
Clinical skills and knowledge appropriate for level of training and has completed an appropriate number of work place assessments or DOPS, anaes-CEX, CBDs and MSF

Log book up to date

Awareness of limitations, seeks help appropriately

Undertaken audit or research projects in last 2 years.

Desirable
Experience of medical simulation either as candidate or instructor

Instructor of ALS/ATLS/EPLS or similar

Knowledge of Human Factors training.

4) Other Requirements

Essential
Good communication skills, both oral and written

Excellent organisational skills

Initiative and motivation

Indication of relevance of this post and career development

Dear Colleagues,

The Severn School of Surgery has a small number of places at the upcoming Oxford Educational Symposium on the 24th and 25th of September, 2014. This is a very good quality and prestigious meeting with some world-renowned speakers, and I’m sure would be of interest to many of you. I realise timeframes are tight, but if anyone would like to attend, please let Chad (chad.elliott@southwest.hee.nhs.uk) know. We will distribute on a first come, first served basis. Attendance is paid for. The only cost to yourself would be a £62 fee for overnight accommodation in one of the Colleges.

Best wishes,

Steve Eastaugh-Waring
Head of the Severn School of Surgery

Please see the following link http://www.surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events/show/rcsed-and-the-university-of-bristol-symposium-on-surgical-education-and-training/

Congratulations to the following Severn surgical trainees who have been nominated by the Training Programme Directors and College Tutors for "Core Trainee of the Year" and "Trainee of the Year."

Core Trainee of the Year Nominees
Sabina Barbur
Charlotte Carpenter
Helen Stark
Miltiadis Argyropoulos
John Mathews
Andrew Grazette
Mark Dahill
Caroline Cheesman 
Michelle Carey
Geoffrey Chilvers
Sally Hallam
Zoe Oliphant
Louise Merker
Lucinda Frank
Mark Halls
Peter Labib
Lucy Simmons
Ronak Patel
Daniel Rodriguez
Matthew Doe

Trainee of the Year Nominees
Ellie Broughton
Richard Bamford
Gray Edwards
Brett Rocos
Niall Sullivan
Brian Parsons
Jemma Rooker
Katrina Butcher

The winners will be announced at the Annual Severn School of Surgery Dinner (invitation only) on the 26th of September, 2014 at Bordeaux Quay, Bristol, where the winners of the Annual Research, Audit and Quality Improvement Day prizes will also be announced.

(C. Elliott)

"Is reconfiguration the answer to delivering a safe, quality service?"

Join in the debate at this free one-day conference which brings together those designing, implementing and delivering acute surgery services to share best practice and discuss whether reconfiguration is needed to provide safe, quality services in the Region. These discussions will be continued at the next meeting of the South West Clinical Senate Council (16th October, 2014 in Bristol).

When: Tuesday, 30th September, 2014
Where: Somerset County Cricket Club, The County Ground, Taunton, TA1 1JT
Timings: Registration from 9.00, Programme 9.45 – 16.45
Audience: Consultant Surgeons, SAS Grades, Senior Trainees (S5+), Surgical Tutors, School of Surgery Personnel, Clinical Senate members, CCG members, Medical Directors and CEO’s of NHS Trusts.
CPD Points: Pending

Co-hosted by the Royal College of Surgeons of England, South West Professional Affairs Board and South West Clinical Senate.

For additional information/booking, please contact pcsevents@rcseng.ac.uk

(C. Elliott)

(Brought to you by the Severn School of Surgery in association with the Bristol Surgical Trials Centre)

Dear Severn Surgical Trainees,

You are invited to register for, and submit an abstract to, the 6th Annual Surgical Research, Audit and Quality Improvement Day on Friday, 26th September at Engineers’ House in Clifton. This is organised by the Centre for Surgical Research, led by Jane Blazeby, and supported by the Deanery.

This unique event will provide you expert training in presentation skills as well as giving you the opportunity to present your own work with the possibility of winning substantial amounts of extra study leave allowance.

Please see the information below on how to register and submit an abstract. We look forward to seeing you at this exciting event.

Barry G Main
NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

A quick guide to the information below:

• Registration is required. If you would like to attend/enter the competition, please email your name, job title and email address to kate.taylor@bristol.ac.uk
• Your abstracts should be submitted to Mr. Sean Strong at Sean.Strong@bristol.ac.uk
• The deadline for abstract submission is the 18th of July, 2014.
• Winners will be announced at the annual School of Surgery Dinner at Bordeaux Quay (which follows the competition).

Date/Venue

Date: Friday, 26th September 2014 (9am to 5pm)
Venue: Engineers’ House, The Promenade, Clifton Down, Bristol, BS8 3NB

Registration

Places are limited and registration is required. If you would like to attend/enter the competition, please email your name, job title and email address to kate.taylor@bristol.ac.uk

Programme

Morning session: 

Learn how to design and deliver inspirational talks from paediatric surgeon and presentation expert, Mr Ross Fisher (http://about.me/ffolliet)

Afternoon session:

An opportunity for Severn surgical trainees to present their work to their peers and trainees with the opportunity to win up to £1000 in extra study leave budget.

Details of how to prepare and submit abstracts

The submission categories are as follows;

1. Research abstracts (£1000 of additional study budget)

2. Audit abstracts (£500 of additional study budget)

3. Quality improvement abstracts (£250 of additional study budget)

Please submit your abstracts in TWO formats with one including all details, and the second omitting authorship and institution information (to allow for anonymised marking).

1. Title of project.

2. Authors with presenting author underlined and responsible author highlighted in bold.

3. Details of the department from where the work originated.

4. Structured within 250 words or less (see below).

Research abstracts. Abstracts should take this format: ‘Introduction and aim, methods, results, conclusion and interpretation.' Please also submit evidence of research ethics approval or justification for absence (from the ethics committee). Abstracts submitted without this evidence will be rejected.

Audit abstracts. Abstracts should take this format: Audit standard and aim, methods, results, conclusion and clinical relevance’. Please also submit evidence of audit registration in the appropriate NHS Trust. Abstracts submitted without this evidence will be rejected.

Quality or service improvement abstracts. Abstracts should take this format: ‘Context, problem, assessment of problem and analysis of causes, intervention, strategy for change, measures for improvement, effects of change and lessons learnt.’ Quality improvement projects do not compare practice to current standards (audit), and do not involve interventions or measuring outcomes that are not routine practice (research). Quality improvement is about reliably applying evidence based medicine to routine clinical care. This should be achieved by applying quality improvement methodology i.e. small cycle tests of change (PDSA cycles) aiming for 95% reliability which ultimately bring about an improvement in patient safety or quality of clinical care.

The deadline for abstract submission is the 18th of July, 2014.

Abstracts should be submitted to Mr Sean Strong at Sean.Strong@bristol.ac.uk (please contact directly if further details are required.)

Trainees successfully submitting an abstract AND who attend the whole day will receive a complementary ticket to the annual dinner at Bordeaux Quay in Bristol on the 26th of September, 2014. Prize winners will be announced at the dinner.

Good luck!

(C. Elliott)

Job Title: Clinical Research Fellow (Collaborative Clinical Education)
Department: Surgery and Cancer
Division: Surgery
Salary: £31,838 - £35,952 per annum (plus £1,505 London Allowance)
Location: St Mary’s Hospital Campus (Paddington) / Chelsea & Westminster hospital (Fulham Rd)

This is an exciting opportunity to join a multidisciplinary research team to explore Transportable Environments for Collaborative Simulation (TECS) for educating healthcare professionals and patients.

In partnership with Health Education North West London (HENWL), the post-holder will coordinate the development and deployment of an integrated package of realistic simulation-based scenarios and technology enhanced learning (TEL) tools that will facilitate clinicians, patients and carers working together in developing and improving pathways of care. Particular emphasis will be placed on continuity within and between NHS sectors, working closely with practitioners across multiple levels of care to bring the simulation scenarios to primary, secondary and intermediate care settings, reflecting the multidisciplinary, collaborative essence of healthcare. Though located within NW London, this work will provide a blueprint for wider dissemination. It will respond to the evolving landscape of healthcare education by creating new opportunities for training.

The post-holder will work closely with a multidisciplinary team that will support the development of simulation-based scenarios and TEL tools for each of the identified clinical areas. The team is led by Professor Roger Kneebone, Professor of Surgical Education and Dr Fernando Bello, Reader in Surgical Graphics and Computing, and includes clinicians, educationalists, computer scientists, engineers, social scientists, human factors and patient safety experts. The successful candidate should have the ability to contribute to this wider research team, with its ethos of flexibility and creativity, alongside productivity and the generation of high-profile outputs within a stimulating and productive academic environment.

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Imperial College London have multidisciplinary expertise in surgery, education, technology and simulation. Imperial College London is in the top tier of scientific, engineering, management and medical research and teaching institutions in the world, with particular strengths in the application of science in healthcare, industry and commerce. The organisations formed the UK’s first Academic Health Sciences Centre and are one of six nationally designated centres of excellence in research, education and clinical services.

Applicants should have a degree in medicine or equivalent and experience in simulation-based education and simulation technology.

This full time post is fixed term until 31 March 2015, and will be based at the St Mary’s campus (Paddington), and at the Chelsea and Westminster campus.

For informal enquiries about the post, please contact Duncan Boak at D.Boak@imperial.ac.uk  

For additional information and to apply, please see the following link: https://www4.ad.ic.ac.uk/OA_HTML/OA.jsp?page=/oracle/apps/irc/candidateSelfService/webui/VisVacDispPG&akRegionApplicationId=821&transactionid=356779421&retainAM=Y&addBreadCrumb=S&p_svid=43628&p_spid=1665144&oapc=7&oas=tOr9O_dfv8wC-WY78pcaGw

Closing Date: 28 May 2014 (midnight BST)

Interview date: 5 June 2014 (morning only)

The Southwest Cleft Lip & Palate Service has moved its operating base for children's cleft surgical procedures from Frenchay Hospital to the Bristol Royal Children's Hospital. The outpatient clinic remains at Frenchay Hospital until August and then will relocate to a site shared with the Dental School and Maxillofacial unit across the road from the Bristol Royal Infirmary and the Children's Hospital.

As the regional cleft service for the Southwest, we are the only place in the region to provide exposure to cleft surgery. If any surgical trainees would like to attend for such operating sessions or clinics as part of training, exam preparation or toward applications for Interface fellowships, then UH Bristol NHS trust requires the appropriate forms (which can be obtained from M&DHonoraries@UHBristol.nhs.uk) to be completed and sent to Keira Bird in UH Bristol Human Resources. Whilst the clinics are at Frenchay this does not apply to those clinics, but will become required after August. We also run outpatient clinics at Truro, Plymouth, Exeter, Taunton, Torbay & Gloucester (however, these regional clinics are often heavily booked). All related specialties are welcome.

A small group of musicians connected with Severn Postgraduate Medical Education have recently come together to play regularly with the aim of enjoying making music and undertaking occasional performances for fun and to raise money for charities.

The group plays European and American Theatre, Latin American and gentle Classical music. At the moment, their regular instruments include two flutes, one recorder, two clarinets, one trumpet, one euphonium and one cello. They also have an experienced conductor, but need more players.

The group meets every second Saturday morning from 10.30a.m. to 12.30p.m. at Deanery House. If you are a player of any orchestral, woodwind, brass or percussion instrument at (around) Grade 5, and would be interested in joining the group (or learning more about it), please contact Alan Cook (Head of Medical Education and euphonium player) at alan.cook@southwest.hee.nhs.uk or alancookie@btinternet.com, or conductor Maisie Shrubsall at  mhshrubsall@gmail.com.

(C. Elliott)

The newsletter can be found at the following link http://www.swstncic.org/swstncic-projects.html

Many thanks to Fiona Carter, Rob Longman, James Coulston and Steve Eastaugh-Waring for their work on this.

Dear surgical trainees,

With effect from the 1st April, 2014, trainees based at either University Hospitals Bristol Trust or North Bristol NHS Trust will apply for study leave through the Intrepid online system as usual (though approval will now be undertaken via the medical education department in your post graduate centre), but will now claim expenses for approved study leave through the medical education department of either UHB or NBT and not via the Deanery (UHB/NBT will be in touch with you regarding the claim process very soon).

Trainees in other trusts will continue to submit their expense claims to their School Manager (Chad Elliott or Cel Hardy) as usual.

A quick breakdown:
 

UHB/NBT trainees

--Continue to submit your study leave applications online via the Intrepid system.

--Submit your expense claims to the UHB/NBT medical education department (THIS IS A CHANGE FROM PREVIOUS YEARS)

All other trainees

--Continue to submit your study leave applications online via the Intrepid system.

--Continue to submit your expense claims to your School Manager (Chad Elliott or Cel Hardy).

ALL trainees including those in UHB & NBT must submit all claims within 3 calendar months of your study leave date; we cannot guarantee that claims received after that date will be processed.

As always, trainees in post for less than the entire financial year (1^st April 2014 to end of March 2015) will have prorated funding. A trainee who is in post at NBT/UHB for 6 months, then at another trust for 6 months, would be able to claim prorated study leave from both UHB/NTB and Deanery House but only for courses completed during those corresponding months in post.     

We will let you know your allotted 2014-15 funds very soon. In the meantime, we just wanted to make you aware of the change in the expense claim process.

Sincerely,

Steve Eastaugh-Waring

Clinical Director, Musculoskeletal Directorate
Head of the Surgical School and Associate Dean, Severn LETB

The conference will take place on Friday, the 2nd of May, 2014 at the Royal College of Surgeons in London. The main programme for the event is due to run from 10am-5.30pm and is pending CPD approval.

The Conference features:

• Networking Breakfast with the President of the RCS and Chair of Women in Surgery (from 8.30am-10.00am)
• Parallel Sessions for current and future surgeons
• Drinks Reception
• Presentation from Winner of 2014 Core Trainee Poster Competition

Confirmed Speakers for the day include:

• Clare Smyth MBE - 3 Michelin starred chef
• Miriam González Durántez - International Lawyer
• Professor Michelle Ryan - Exeter University Psychology Professor
• Ms Clare Marx - RCS Council
• Miss Claire Murphy - Flexible Working Advisor
• Ms Karen Nugent - Head of School of Surgery

For more details and booking please see: http://surgicalcareers.rcseng.ac.uk/wins/women-in-surgery-events/events or email pcsevents@rcseng.ac.uk

(C. Elliott)

Many congratulations to surgical consultant James Coulston, who has been named the new Severn School of Surgery Skills and Courses Lead. Coulston succeeds the departing Rob Longman (who is now the General Surgery TPD).

Our Head of School, Mr. Steve Eastaugh-Waring, writes:

After assessing a very competitive set of applications for the role of Skills and Courses Lead for the Severn School of Surgery to succeed Rob Longman (to whom I am enormously grateful), I am delighted to announce that the role has been offered to and accepted by James Coulston, Consultant Surgeon in Musgrove Park, Taunton. James has a long and impressive history of course initiation, development and delivery, and in addition has excellent educational credentials and awards to his name. I would also like to thank his co-applicants for their interest--the standard was exceptionally high.

Congratulations again to James Coulston and many thanks to Rob Longman for his years of service in helping to develop high-quality courses for a prestigious and highly competitive programme.

(C. Elliott)

This year's annual Research and Audit Day competition will be held Friday, the 26th of September, 2014 at Engineers' House, Bristol. The event will last all day.

Abstracts will be invited for research, audit and quality improvement projects for presentation on the day. Prizes will be awarded for the best in each category

Further details, including how to register and enter, will be sent out at the end of April.

(C. Elliott)

Dear Surgical Trainees,

A quick reminder from our Head of School, Mr. Eastaugh-Waring, to be sure to complete the GMC Survey.

Thanks,

Chad Elliott

Attention: Core Trainees!

We need your help in designing a logo for the ‘Bluebelle Study’. Although it is standard practice in adults to apply a dressing to a wound after surgery, it is rare to use dressings in children. This first came to the attention of Professor Jane Blazeby when she was helping in the surgery of a young girl called Bluebelle, and consequently provided the inspiration for the Bluebelle Study.

In the Bluebelle Study we will explore the views of healthcare professionals and patients about the use of surgical wound dressings (complex, simple or no dressing) after common operations. We will also be investigating ways to improve the monitoring of wound sites and the diagnosis of wound infections. If the study is successful, we’ll then proceed to carry out a large project comparing the different types of wound dressings currently in use, with the option of having no dressing at all.

Logo specifications: 

• Include reference to the word ‘Bluebelle’ (through picture and/or use of word) 
• In colour 
• Maximum size 4-5cm

The logo will be used in all study paperwork and on the study website.

Please email your entries to Bluebelle-study@bristol.ac.uk by 24th April, 2014. All entrants will be notified by email of the winning logo.

(C. Elliott)

Mr. Steve Eastaugh-Waring

Q: First of all, congratulations on your appointment as Head of School.

Thank you very much. I have aspired to this post ever since starting my educational roles--initially as Postgraduate Tutor for the Severn orthopaedic trainees and latterly as Training Programme Director. I’m absolutely delighted to have been successful and look forward to working with a superb group of colleagues and such engaged and high-achieving trainees.

Q: Could you tell us a little about your background?

After medical school and junior doctor training in Sheffield, I was appointed to the surgical training program in Frenchay and subsequently the Severn specialist registrar rotation before moving to the academic side as the lecturer in 1998. I was appointed as a Consultant T&O surgeon in North Bristol in 2003, following fellowships in Canada. My educational portfolio is as above and I’m currently the Clinical Director at North Bristol in addition. So I guess you could say I’m an educational “insider” in the management structure!

Outside work I have a young family on whom I dote and who continually make me laugh and keep me very grounded! I have maintained an interest in triathlon in attempt to stay sane and try to do one ironman distance race a year. Just an excuse to go to nice locations in reality!

Q: What made you want to be a surgeon? And why T&O specifically?

I’ve always been a very practical person and surgery, indeed orthopaedics in particular, lends itself to that mind-set. I’d also like to think that we orthopods are too intelligent for anything else, but clearly that also shows exactly how little insight I have! I’m also lucky to have worked in very cohesive and enjoyable orthopaedic departments throughout my training and I do believe we all try to emulate those who we respect and enjoy working with. I've used that as a personal mantra throughout my senior roles--the importance of engagement and enjoyment amongst trainees cannot be under-estimated.

Q: I’ve noticed T&O has an almost fraternal aspect to it. Can you tell me what that’s about?

You’re absolutely right. I think this also explains why it’s currently such a popular specialty in training and consultant job applications. Although it may go against many people’s stereotype of orthopaedics, all the experience I’ve had reinforces how inclusive a specialty we are. In addition, certainly in Severn and Peninsula, there’s a real interest and drive toward educational excellence, and for somebody of my background this was always very attractive. For example, orthopaedic trainees have, for the last 15 years, had protected teaching time across the region for a half day every week and this has been robustly maintained against service pressures. This can only work with the buy-in and engagement of clinicians and management in all Trusts.

 Q: Surgery-wise, what do you consider to be your greatest achievements?

I think that entering a rotation where I so enjoyed the training and the lifestyle (serendipity really--no GMC surveys in those days!) and my fellowship in Canada were both real landmark career moves for me. I would recommend careful thought and selection around one’s fellowships and aim to make yourself unique and different from all those people competing for subsequent jobs.

I firmly believe that if one is working in a teaching environment, with very occasional exceptions, the vast majority of cases should be done by the trainee with senior supervision (according to seniority) and having this approach from the start of my consultant post has set the scene for my subsequent decade of working life. I believe it's important to start life as a trainer with this mind set, because it becomes increasingly difficult to change one's approach as time goes by.

From a practical point of view, learning and gaining expertise in the developing area of hip arthroscopy has been a real challenge but I’m very glad to have gone through that in a more senior position. It has reminded me in a very real way of the challenge in learning new procedures--a challenge which many of our trainees go through every day of their lives. I can promise you all, learning and change doesn't get any easier with age!

Q: Greatest achievements outside surgery?

My daughters—it still amazes and surprises me that one so grumpy and haggard can produce something so wonderful!

I’m tremendously proud of my triathlon career and was fortunate enough to represent Great Britain at age-group level in 1999 and 2002. Still love it to this day, although maybe a little slower now...

But of course, the pinnacle- achieving the role of Head of School.
Obviously!

Q: Would you tell us a little about your plans/goals for the School of Surgery?

I feel very fortunate to have been left the School by Richard Canter in such a rude state of health, but that equally gives me the problem of trying to emulate such an achievement. I’d like to continue the atmosphere of approachability (a real hallmark of Richard's tenure), and I’d like to engage more of the educational supervisors in the ARCP process, as I believe this would have huge gains for trainers, trainees and TPDs alike. Further development of the formal training in leadership, simulation and generic skills which Richard was so successful in starting will only add to our portfolio of expertise, and in addition, the “Deanery” is constantly changing with our links to Peninsula becoming stronger, and with this development comes real opportunity. Finally, I think we can advertise Severn’s success nationally even more than we have in the past and I’m absolutely of the opinion that this is THE place to train in the UK.

I’m really looking forward to engaging with all those colleagues and trainees who I haven’t met in my previous roles and would at any stage of my tenure encourage feedback from all those involved in our education process- of whichever form. We must constantly develop and change, and we can only do this with the involvement of everyone concerned.

On that note, please feel free to contact me with comments or questions on

Steve.Eastaugh-Waring@southwest.hee.nhs.uk

I aim to check this every two to three days but for more urgent issues Chad is at his desk every day of the week and can find me at short notice.

A very happy New Year to all!

With daughters

A new mountain to climb....

(C. Elliott)

Dear Colleagues,

Just a quick reminder that CCT application forms for ALL surgical specialties should be sent to our Recruitment Manager, Susan House, first for checking and collating of information. (Please do not send them directly to our Postgraduate Dean, Professor Martin Beaman.) She will then obtain the Dean/Deputy Dean signature on the forms.

Thanks,

Chad Elliott
School Support Manager

As we bid a fond farewell to our departing Head of School Professor Richard Canter, we take a brief stroll down memory lane in a final question and answer session.

Q: Tell us a little about your background.

As some trainees will know, I was expelled from school. So a bad start can be turned around. That’s probably enough.

Q: What made you want to be a surgeon? And why ENT specifically?

I realised that learning in surgery is a lifelong experience when I watched senior surgeons struggling in theatre. There’s no chance of getting bored.

I was on my way to do plastics and it was recommended that I spent six months in ENT surgery. I realised for the first time that it was a vast specialty and trained as a head and neck surgeon, although switched to reconstructive ear surgeon when the department subspecialised.

Q: How has a career in surgery changed since you were a trainee?

Interesting question. The basic job has not changed. What I do notice is how deserted hospitals are compared to my day. Then we were doing one in two on-calls so this meant there were large numbers of people simply covering wards or in the hospital mess. This meant there was always plenty of expertise immediately available if you were stuck. It is much more difficult to obtain help and advice and I recognise that surgical trainees do a job that is more difficult than it was in my day for this reason.

Q: You’ve had an incredibly successful reign as the Head of the Severn School of Surgery. What do you consider to be your greatest achievements?

I don’t feel I’ve had an incredibly successful time as Head of School because I am conscious of the many things I haven’t been able to do. I’m very pleased about two things: First of all, discovering that consultants, if given the space and opportunity to develop programmes, are immensely productive. And many tell me that they really feel they can make a difference in education in a way they find so difficult in trying to improve service. Perhaps the greatest discovery was finding that surgical trainees, given half a chance, can produce some amazing outputs. I’m thinking here of the spectacular number of skills courses that trainees have developed. The awkward thing here is that I really cannot claim any credit, and I do mean this, because it’s the work of Rob Longman, Steve Mitchell, Alice Roberts, the whole orthopaedic department, as well as many other contributors which supports my first point.

This is not what you would call an “achievement,” but I think we have moved some way towards a family friendly surgical training scheme. To my surprise, I was at a national meeting two months ago in Oxford and a trainee came up to me and she said, “You have a programme in Severn which is increasingly recognised nationally as being family friendly.” She said that’s why she was applying to our programme. In a world where 55% of medical graduates are women, we have to do something to make sure that capable female trainees can complete surgical training without surrendering their wish to raise a family.

Q: Greatest achievements outside that role?

To my surprise, I’ve been able to develop myself and my career in a way that has been very enjoyable. This has meant that as I leave I’m looking forward to expanding my role at Oxford and continue to try to make a small difference. My wife would say that holding the marriage together in a busy job is the greatest achievement.

Q: Any favourite stories/memories from your time as Head of School?

There are lots of moments. Residential days with the programme directors and college tutors where we worked hard but it was fun. The school conferences and dinners. Welcoming new trainees to the programme. And seeing some spectacular successes and appointments. We have graduates at the Mayo Clinic, MD Anderson, Toronto General, Vancouver, Auckland, Sidney, to name a few, as well as many major centres in the UK. But my favourite story is leaving the School of Surgery dinner and turning back to see the medical director of the BRI sharing stories with a whole group of surgical trainees.

Q: You are famously diplomatic, personable and well-spoken. Have you ever considered a career in politics (though there’s certainly a lot of that in the NHS!)?

(Laughs) No, I have never considered a career in politics. I don’t have a face that’s easy enough on the eyes for politics.

Q: I’ll never forget the time at a board meeting you said, “I’d like to make five points about that” and then immediately went into five well thought out points, eloquently spoken with no “ums” and “uhs”. It was one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen; the kind of thing people talk about Bill Clinton being able to do.

I’m not aware of this at all. But I am aware that the more senior your role in an organisation, the simpler it becomes. You just have to keep your focus on some quite basic ideas. Maybe that’s what you noticed.

Q: I’ve heard you’re quite an accomplished musician and a great lover of jazz?

Yes, I love music. I played the piano all my life and still do. I’ve taken up the trumpet again and am about to join Bath Spa University Big Band. I have noticed that if I practice a lot I have a sense of being able to think more clearly. I may be kidding myself but it gives me an excuse to do it.

Q: You’ve been a mentor to so many surgical trainees over the years. Any advice for trainees trying to stand out in an extremely competitive programme?

Well, I’m careful about giving generic advice. If you really want to be a surgeon, it’s yours for the taking because you’ve already passed the initial test of getting into medical school. You proved you have the intellectual horsepower that you need, but you need the energy to get there. As Churchill said, “Success is going from failure to failure without losing your sense of enthusiasm.” Bruce Keogh told me that he applied to 14 medical schools before he got into medicine and look what happened to him!

Q: Your Leadership & Management courses have been extremely popular. Are you planning on doing any more of those?

Yes, I would like to. I’ve found it extraordinarily helpful in gaining insights into the everyday difficulties trainees encounter. I thought I had a good understanding of life as a trainee and believed that trainees would comfortably raise issues with me, but listening to their stories has made me realise that there is much happening to them that I’d failed to appreciate.

Q: So, what’s next for Professor Richard Canter?

For some years now, Sir Muir Gray and myself have wanted to work together and we started to do that this year. He is one of the most enlightened and interesting people I have ever met and I’m very much looking forward to collaborating with him on a major piece of work this year.

Q: Any parting words for the consultants, trainees and staff of the Severn School of Surgery?

If I’m honest, I will miss a large number of delightful colleagues and trainees. And thank you for the interview. It’s made me realise what fun it was. Thanks, Chad.

Maybe I won't miss you that much!

(C. Elliott)

Calling all surgical trainees!

This year the annual Association of Surgeons in Training (ASiT) conference will be held in Belfast from 28-30 March, 2014. It is an ideal opportunity for trainees from all of the surgical specialties to meet, present their work, listen to the latest updates in clinical practice and have the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of educational courses.

Belfast is only a short, cheap flight from Bristol (less than an hour) and renowned for its hospitality. The Charity Gala Dinner party at the Titanic Banquet Hall is not to be missed!

Abstracts summarising audits, original research, pilot-projects, case reports, systematic reviews or meta-analysis are invited from trainees. The closing date for abstract submissions is Midnight, Sunday 12th January 2014. Further details are available on the conference website: http://www.asit.org/events/conferences/2014/about

There are multiple prizes to be won and the highest ranking abstracts will be published in an indexed supplement of the International Journal of Surgery.

This is an ideal opportunity to add your CV!

Best wishes,

David Messenger
ASiT representative for Severn

The Bristol Surgical Trials Centre (BSTC) is part of an exciting new initiative led by the Royal College of Surgeons of England. The overall aim is to increase the number and quality of randomised trials (RCTs) in surgery which will ultimately improve patient care. You are invited to submit ideas for new trials and to work with us to develop these proposals into full and fundable ideas. All proposals for RCTs in any type of surgery will be considered. Proposals should contain the following information in no more than 500 words:

• Name of lead and other team members, including specialty and grade
• Background and rationale for the RCT, including existing literature reviews
• Hypothesis to be tested
• Trial design including suggested primary and secondary endpoints and details of intervention(s)

Submissions will be anonymised and judged by a panel of methodologists and surgeons. The main focus will be on the feasibility and deliverability of the idea rather than specifics of trial design.

Authors will be informed of the outcome by February 18th 2014. Shortlisted individuals/teams will be invited to present their ideas in a Dragon’s Den, which will be held during the Bristol Surgical Trials Centre launch event on 28th March. A meeting will be held beforehand to provide support and guidance for this process. The winning team will have the opportunity to help write a proposal to obtain funding to run the trial. Submissions should be emailed to CSR-Bris@bristol.ac.uk as a Word file. You may submit as many ideas as you like and work individually or as part of a group.

The deadline for submissions is 31st January. Please email CSR-Bris@bristol.ac.uk if you have any queries. Good luck!

Additional Bristol Surgical Trials Centre details

Date: Friday, 28th March, 2014. 10am to 4 pm

Location: Mshad, Princes Wharf, Wapping Road, Bristol BS1 4RN

Chairs:

• Professor Jane Blazeby, Professor of Surgery
• Professor Ashley Blom, Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery
• Dr Chris Rogers, Reader in Medical Statistics

Key note speakers:

• Professor Freddie Hamdy, Nuffield Professor of Surgery, Oxford
• Professor Dion Morton, Director of Clinical Research, Royal College of Surgeons of England
• Professor Matt Costa, Professor of Trauma and Orthopaedics, Warwick

There is no charge to attend, but registration is required at  www.bristol.ac.uk/surgical-research/events. First come first served. Surgeons, trainees, methodologists and anyone involved in trials are welcome.

(C. Elliott)

Entitlement for study leave days

Trainees are entitled to up to a maximum of 30 days Study Leave per year.  The year's allocation is calculated from the date of commencement of an appointment or rotation, which normally includes 15 days per annum for in-house educational activities.

If you require any additional days you must take this up with your Trust or take them as Annual leave.

See the following link for further information: http://www.severndeanery.nhs.uk/about/policies-and-procedures/study-leave-policy/ 

Severn Core Trainees are encouraged to submit audits to the BAUS FY & CT Audit Competition 2014. The first authors of the two audits judged to be the best nationally will be invited to present their work at the BAUS Annual Conference in Liverpool on 23-26 June, 2014 where they will also be awarded a certificate of merit. BAUS will offer guest registration to the two winning first authors as well as a grant towards the cost of attending the meeting.

The entry criteria is as follows:

• First authors of the audit must be a Foundation Trainee or a Core Trainee at the closing date (31 March 2014).
• The audit must have been completed within the last two years (ie after 31 March 2013).
• The audit may be process or outcome or both.
• The audit must be urologically based.
• If required, ethical approval should have be obtained and evidenced.
• Audit supervisor must be a urological surgeon.
• Ideally a re-audit should also have been completed to show how the changes have improved care or service provision, but this is not essential for entry.

Please also observe the following guidance:

• The report should be submitted with a separate cover letter (addressed to Mr Ian Pearce, BAUS Lead for Medical Students). The cover letter should include the name of the first author, the deanery / hospital where the first author works, contact details (phone and email), names of all the authors who have contributed to the audit report & give details of all the authors individual contributions (note – all authors should have contributed).
• It is regretted that only the first author will qualify for the award of a certificate and additional certificates, for any other contributors, will not be available.
• The name of the institution and authors should be in the cover letter and not in the report.
• The report should be no more than 2000 words (excluding title, authors and references).
• All references should be in the Harvard style.
• The report should be in Arial font, size 11 and double spaced.
• Write-up should be in the format – Introduction, Aims, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions and Recommendations.
• See the following link for a submission checklist http://www.baus.org.uk/Resources/BAUS/Documents/PDF%20Documents/Education%20and%20Training/2014%20Audit%20Competition%20Checklist.pdf

Audits will be judged on:

• Relevance to clinical practice
• Comparison with existing literature
• Originality
• Clarity of the report
• Appropriateness of methodology
• Understanding of the audit cycle
• Analysis of findings
• Suitability of recommendations
• Impact on patient care

For additional information, contact Ian Pearce (BAUS Lead for Medical Students) via Margaret Joyce at mjoyce@baus.org.uk. Cover letters and reports (in Word format) should also be submitted to Margaret Joyce at mjoyce@baus.org.uk by no later than 4.00 pm (GMT) Monday, the 31st of March, 2014.

Received reports will be acknowledged. If you do not receive an acknowledgement email please contact the BAUS Office.

Additional competition details can also be found on the BAUS website at http://www.baus.org.uk/

(C. Elliott)

Congratulations to General Surgery registrar John Bunni who has had a textbook published.

"The Essential Clinical Handbook for ENT Surgery" was written for medical students and junior doctors. The book begins with preclinical science and then leads into the basics of clinical assessment: history, examination and special investigations. It then goes into the common pathologies and ends with "What to do in an OSCE". The book also includes a chapter on facial plastic surgery written by a leading American professor.

John is a senior General Surgical trainee who has published over a dozen papers and is currently on out of programme research following receipt of a Wellcome Trust grant.

(C. Elliott)

The Federation of Infection Societies is proud to present "Action on Infection," its national premier Conference aimed at all health professionals concerned with the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of infection. The second day of the programme includes a surgical theme, including sessions on prosthetic bone and joint infections, rapid diagnostics, along with an afternoon mini-course: "How to do it! A short course on quality improvement."

Not surprisingly, many of the most innovative quality improvement initiatives are being initiated by surgeons. To encourage surgeons to attend the conference, educational grants are being offered to 40 surgical trainees from across the UK.

Each sponsored place, worth £250, comprises:

• Registration at the conference from 1500hrs on Wednesday 11 November - 1800hrs on Thursday 12th November
• Entrance to the Welcome Reception, Trade Exhibition and Poster Gallery, refreshments and lunch during catered breaks 
• A grant of up to £50 towards travel

To apply, please email the following details to Esme Carruthers at ECarruthers@bsac.org.uk:

• Title and name
• Organisation and trust
• Address
• Email
• Dietary or other requirements

(You will be contacted to confirm your place within 48 hours or sooner of submission)

For additional details, see also the following link http://www.actiononinfection.com/

(C. Elliott)

Research in surgery is challenging and requires multi-disciplinary collaboration with methodologists and clinicians to design and conduct high-quality studies. The Bristol Surgical Trials Centre (BSTC) is a new initiative funded by the Royal College of Surgeons of England which aims to increase the number and quality of randomised trials in order to transform care for surgical patients. An important part of this is to provide inspiration and training for future surgeons.

The BSTC, led by surgeons and methodologists, will run a new course during 2013/14. Four separate training days will take place, helping trainees to understand study designs and appraise evidence, with a focus on randomised trials in surgery. Per Professor Jane M Blazeby, Director of BSTC: “The course will be educational, entertaining and productive – it is expected that engaged trainees will learn to understand evidence based surgery and participate in the creation of evidence by attending the tutorials, practical sessions and working with the team to complete systematic reviews to inform the design of new trials in surgery.”

The training days will be held on:

• Friday, November 29th 2013 (Oakfield House, University of Bristol)
• Friday, February 7th 2014 (venue to be confirmed)
• Thursday, April 10th 2014 (venue to be confirmed)
• The final day of the programme will be the Research and Audit Prize Day in September 2014 (date to be confirmed).

Attendance is free. For queries and registration, please contact Amy Collings at amy.collings@bristol.ac.uk

(C. Elliott)

Congratulations to the following recent prize and award winners announced Friday, 27.09.2013 at the Annual School of Surgery Dinner at Bordeaux Quay, Bristol:

Audit Prize
1st prize: Sarah de Courcy
Runner-up: Ceri Rowlands

Research Prize
1st prize: Natalie Blencowe

Quality Improvement Prize
1st prize: Ian Robertson
Runner-up: Alan Jardine

Best Questions during the session
Jonathan Horsnell

Core Trainee of the Year Award
Joint 1st prize: Jessamy Bagenal and Richard Murphy
Highly commended: Greg Pickering, Kapil Sahnan and James Warbrick-Smith

Trainer of the Year Award
Mr. Jonathan Hutter, Clinical Director of Cardiac Surgery at Bristol Royal Infirmary

Outstanding Teacher Award
Mr. Geoff Pye, College Tutor at Weston

In addition, Postgraduate Dean Davinder Sandhu presented our Head of School Professor Richard Canter with a bottle of wine and thanked him for his years of outstanding service.

Many congratulations to this year's winners. The tremendous competition for these prizes and awards is a testament to the quality of our surgical training programme. 

(C. Elliott)

Many congratulations to General Surgery Registrar Katherine Gash who was recently awarded a Royal College of Surgeons Research Fellowship. She received this honour for a research project investigating Colorectal Cancer Stem Cells at the University of Bristol School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. This work will lead to an MD.

This year there were 21 RCS Research Fellowships awarded from 121 surgical trainees who applied. These prestigious one-year fellowships are individually worth up to £55,000 to cover full salary costs and a grant towards consumables. If you are a fellow or member of the RCS and are interested in applying, further information can be found on the RCS website at http://www.rcseng.ac.uk/surgeons/research/fellowships

Congratulations again to Katherine on winning this prestigious award!

(C. Elliott)

For details/registration info, see the following link: http://www.surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events/show/international-conference-on-surgical-education-and-training-icoset/

(C. Elliott)

Dear Doctors of Intrepid Spirit,

We are trying to find a few of you with enough energy and generosity of spirit to help as medical backup for a bicycle ride fundraiser for wounded Grenadiers. The event runs from the 24-27 of September, 2013 and starts in Wellington Barracks, London, concluding in Waterloo, Belgium.

You will be provided with food, a mixture of military accommodation and 3-star hotels, and transport (return via Eurostar). There will be receptions, parties and bands playing among the historic battlefields of WWI and Waterloo. In return, you will help us provide medical backup to the bicycle teams. You will be needed from 1600 on Monday, the 23rd of September until 1400 on Friday, the 27th September. We also could do with more drivers and marshals so your spouse/partner/friends can volunteer to come as well (or instead of you!).

Please go to www.wellington2waterloo.com and click on ‘support,’ then ’calendar of events’ to see the detail. If nothing else, you could watch the films on the website and choose which hapless cyclist you would like to sponsor! You can volunteer and ask any queries via the link above. I can be reached through the telephone numbers on the website if you have more professional queries (Don’t forget, it can go on your CPD).

I am personally looking forward to this event. It will be great fun and very rewarding!

Sincerely,

Dr J Lees-Millais, GP and Event Medical Associate

(C. Elliott)

Please note that the next National IDT application window will be opening on the 1st October 2013 at 4 pm and this window will be open for four weeks and will close on Tuesday 29th October 2013 at 4 pm.

Below is some information detailing the eligibility and process:

A Guide for LETBs/Deaneries to the National Inter Deanery Transfer Process

This document has been written to provide regional LETB/Deanery stakeholders, including Deans, TPDs and Heads of Schools, with an overview of the new Inter Deanery Transfer (IDT) process.

Establishment

The new IDT process and the National IDT (NIDT) team have been created to ensure the management of IDT requests is conducted in a consistent manner throughout England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and to establish a more efficient and robust system for the assessment and progression of these requests.

The NIDT team, which is hosted by Shared Services in London, manages the national IDT process on behalf of COPMeD and Health Education England.

Application process

The IDT eligibility criteria are outlined in the Applicant Guide to Inter Deanery Transfers.

There are now four criteria under which an applicant can apply: Own Disability, Primary Carer Responsibilities, Parental/Guardian Responsibilities or Committed Relationship.

The new process is evidence-based and any applicant who does not submit the required documentation at the application stage will be ineligible to transfer.

Eligibility will be communicated to the applicant by the NIDT team.

Vacancy confirmation

Vacancies will be confirmed to the NIDT team via the central point of contact for IDT matters within each region.

The NIDT team will only be able to allocate vacancies that have been submitted by each region’s IDT contact before the published deadline. The declaration of vacancies for the IDT process subsequent to discussions between an applicant and a regional contact cannot be accommodated if the deadline for vacancy confirmation has passed.

It is not possible for the NIDT team to contact all TPDs within England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in order to request vacancy information.

Allocation stage

The National IDT will allocate vacancies to eligible applicants on behalf of regions. A recognised randomisation algorithm will be used to determine who will be allocated if there are more eligible applicants than available posts.

The allocation stage will consist of two iterations; the first will allocate vacancies confirmed by regional IDT contacts and the second will allocate vacancies created by transfers from the first iteration. It is not possible for the second iteration of offers to allocate any vacancies other than those created by transfers from the first iteration. Regions may decline to participate in the second iteration.

Offer process

All offers made by the NIDT team to applicants will be made on a conditional basis and will be dependent on final confirmation of specific post details being sent from the receiving region to the applicant.

Less than Full-Time (LTFT) training

LTFT posts should be declared as part of the vacancy confirmation stage as these can be allocated to applicants.

‘Swaps’

It is not possible for ‘swaps’ (i.e. applicants from different regions exchanging NTNs) outside the IDT process to take place as this will compromise the transparency of the process.

Communication with trainees

Trainees are required to inform their current LETB/Deanery of their intention to apply for a transfer and discuss their circumstances with local supervisors before applying. This will give early indication of possible gaps in rotations if transfers occur.

Trainees are advised not to contact personnel in regions they wish to move to before a conditional offer has been made by the National IDT team. All queries should instead be directed to the National IDT team.

Information sharing

Applicant information is stored in accordance with Data Protection legislation and cannot be shared unless permission has been sought prior to making a request to the NIDT team.

Complaint process

Applicants can not appeal the outcome of the IDT process but may make a complaint if they feel their application has not been assessed in accordance with the published guidelines.

Further Information

For further information regarding the new IDT process, please contact the NIDT team by e-mailing: IDTinfo@londondeanery.ac.uk

The Worshipful Company of Needlemakers is providing 5 bursaries of up to £1000 each in the 2013-2014 academic year. The bursaries are available to trainees who are members of the College or an affiliate and wish to attend one of the RCS Education courses listed below.

Eligible courses:

• Basic Surgical Anatomy of the Head and Neck
• Basic Surgical Skills (Intercollegiate BSS) Course
• Clinical Skills in Spinal Assessment and Management
• Communication Skills for the IMRCS Exam
• Common Elective and Acute Problems in the General Surgery of Childhood
• Core Skills in Hand Surgery
• Core Skills in Laparoscopic Surgery
• Operative Skills in Ear, Nose and Throat Surgery
• Operative Skills in Neurosurgery
• Specialty Skills in Cardiothoracic Surgery
• Specialty Skills in Emergency Surgery and Trauma (SSET)
• Specialty Skills in Vascular Surgery
• STEP® Core (Surgical Training Education Programme)
• Urological Anatomy for Surgery

In order to apply, you must:

1. Be a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England or an affiliate; and
2. in stages CT1-CT2 of a recognised UK training programme.

Judging criteria (equally weighed):

1. Completion of the application form
2. Answer the following question: ‘What is the relevance of the Needlemakers to modern-day surgery?’
3. Reasons for applying for the bursary
4. Academic achievements
5. Commitment to education/educational activities

Closing date for applications is Sunday, the 18th of August, 2013.

For more information please visit: http://www.rcseng.ac.uk/courses/education-bursaries/theneedlemakers-company

Date: Friday 27th Sept 2013. Venue: Engineers House, The Promenade, Clifton Down. Bristol BS8 3NB

Morning: Secrets to becoming a successful surgical trainee Some surgical trainees seem to progress smoothly through training whilst others seem to find it less straightforward. It is not all about working harder, but often a question of working smarter. The aim of this session is to gain insights into ways of achieving success as a surgical trainee and beyond.

9.00 Registration and coffee

9.15 Introduction to the day (Professor Richard Canter)

Personal perspectives of what is needed to be a successful trainee in surgery

9.30 Surgical trainee (Miss Natalie Blencowe)

Programme Director (Mr Mark Crowther)

Surgical trainer (Mr Andrew Hollowood)

Surgical training in Foundation Years (Mr Tony Ward)

10.15 Plenary discussion

10.45 Coffee

Enhancing your CV-opportunities

11.00 Education Qualifications (Miss Katrina Butcher)

Management/ Leadership Qualifications (Mr Amit Parmar)

Research Qualifications + SPARCS (Mr Sean Strong)

Becoming a Cochrane Reviewer (Professor Richard Canter)

12.00 Questions to faculty

12.15 Lunch

13.00 Welcome and introductions (Professor Jane Blazeby, Professor of Surgery, University of Bristol and Honorary Consultant Upper GI Surgeon)

Audit Presentations (Chaired by Ms Shelley Potter, NIHR Clinical Lecture and Honorary SpR, General Surgery)

13.08 Sarah de Courcy--An audit to assess the value of routine post-operative blood tests in the urology department

13.16 Leonie Giesen--An audit of oxygen prescribing on surgical wards

13.24 Oliver Gosling--Impact of a change in antibiotic prophylaxis on acute kidney injury in fractured neck of femur patients

13.32 Andy Grazette--Surgical training experience in a district general hospital

13.40 Tristan Page--Time to discharge from hospital following TURBT related to time of administration of Mitomycin C

13.48 Ceri Rowlands--Surgical ward rounds: do we comply with national standards? A trainee-led multi-centre study

13.56 Sabina Barbur--Does a Friday ward round plan provide enough information for timely discharges and care of patients over a weekend?

14.12 Overview of Quality Improvement Projects (Ms Anne Pullyblank, Clinical director and consultant colorectal surgeon, North Bristol NHS Trust

Quality Improvement Projects (Chaired by Ms Anne Pullyblank, Clinical Director and Consultant colorectal surgeon, North Bristol NHS Trust)

14.20 Matthew Doe--Electronic discharge redesign group

14.28 Amy Greenwood--A quality improvement project to improve patient flow and safety through the use of a weekend planning tool

14.36 Alan Jardine--Bring on the weekend – improving the junior doctor weekend handover of surgical patients

14.44 Greg Pickering--Service improvement of primary and secondary care communication concerning patient discharges

14.52 Ian Robertson--Blood trolley quality improvement project

15.00 Andrew Cumpstey--Improving the safety and efficiency of IV fluid prescribing for adults on medical and surgical wards

15.08 Tea and coffee

Keynote presentation (Introduced by Professor Ashley Blom, Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Bristol)

15.32 Professor Matt Costa (Professor of Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Warwick)--Clinical trials in musculoskeletal trauma: pitfalls and progress

Followed by questions from the audience

Research presentations (Chaired by Mr Michael Whitehouse, Clinical lecturer and SpR in Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery)

16.12 Natalie Blencowe--Which outcomes are important to patients and surgeons? Core information prior to oesophageal cancer surgery

16.20 Jonathan Horsnell--The use of Raman spectroscopy for the intra-operative assessment of axillary lymph nodes in breast cancer

16.28 Sean Strong--Oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma feasibility study

16.36 Richard Murphy--Rotator cuff tendinopathy: immunohistochemical changes across the spectrum of pathology

16.44 Lucy Simmons--The PICTURE study

16.52 Julia Blackburn--Lysophospholipid-functionalised titanium – a dual action surface supporting human osteoblast maturation whilst deterring bacterial attachment

17.00 Close of meeting (Professor Jane Blazeby)

Evening: 7.00 for 7.30 Postgraduate School of Surgery Annual Dinner (Invitation Only). Black tie. Bordeaux Quay, Bristol. http://www.bordeaux-quay.co.uk/ INCLUDES PRESENTATION OF PRIZES

Guest Speaker: Professor Michael Horrocks, Council Member South West and Vice President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England

Please Register with: Chad Elliott. chad.elliott@southwest.hee.nhs.uk by 8 a.m., Friday, 20.09.2013

(C. Elliott)

Submission guidelines can be found here http://www.peninsuladeanery.nhs.uk/files/File/deanery/poster_session_guidance_for_website.pdf

The closing date for abstracts is the 13th of September, 2013. For additional information, contact rose.hill@southwest.hee.nhs.uk

Conference details

The meeting will cover a number of topics relevant to postgraduate medical education in the NHS. Confirmed speakers include:

• Sir Peter Rubin (Chair of the GMC)
• Patrick Mitchell (Director of National Programmes, HEE)
• Dr Chris Roseveare (President of the Society for Acute Medicine)
• Dr Vicky Osgood (Assistant Director, Postgraduate Education, GMC)
• Dr Sarah Wollaston MP (Member of Parliament for Totnes and member of House of Commons Health Select Committee)
• Paul Jones (South West Employer Liaison Adviser)

There will also be a number of workshops during the day on a variety of educational topics and a poster session for Peninsula and Severn trainees.

The conference aims to be an enjoyable and valuable interactive experience for all those involved in clinical postgraduate medical education. It will be of particular interest to Associate Deans, GP Associate Directors, Regional Advisers, Heads of School, Training Programme Directors, Directors of Medical Education, Clinical Tutors, Foundation Leads and College Tutors, as well as Clinical and Educational Supervisors.

All the speakers have an interest and considerable experience on the topics they will be presenting and there will be an opportunity for interactive discussion throughout the day.

CPD recognition with the Royal College of Physicians will be applied for.

Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis. There will be no charge to those involved in educational roles in the footprint of Health Education South West. A full programme is in development, but in the meantime register for the conference using the following link http://www.peninsuladeanery.nhs.uk/forms/edu_conf.php

(C. Elliott)

Don’t miss Europe’s biggest medical leadership event!

The Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management (FMLM) is delighted to announce that their Annual Conference "Leadership: Evidence into Action" will be held on 14-16 October, 2013 in Edinburgh. The 14th of October will be a competitively priced education day, while the annual conference will take place on 15th and 16th.

Once again an annual conference poster competition will also be open to all pre-CCT members. This year they are looking for abstracts which focus on post-Francis quality improvement, technology in healthcare and culture change. The 60 best entries will go on display in Edinburgh at the conference.

The very first conference was held in Manchester and was attended by 730 delegates. The 2013 conference will take place at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. Plenary speakers include: Professor Chris Ham, Chief Executive of The King’s Fund; Professor Michael West from Lancaster University Management School; and Dr Richard Heron, Vice President Health and Chief Medical Officer for BP.

Conference attendance and entry to the annual poster competition are free for FMLM members and associates at the time of registration (17th of July, 2013). Annual membership starts at £10 for medical and dental students and £67 for trainees. After the 17th of July, 2013, all new trainee members will pay the annual membership fee, plus £50 to attend the conference.

This year they will explore the evidence base for medical leadership along five themes:

• Leadership and clinical outcomes: show me the evidence!
• One version of the truth – managing risk and safety
• Practical steps to change culture
• Medical leaders: set up to fail?
• Standards of medical leadership

Additional information is available at the conference website www.fmlmconference.com/ and the poster competition webpage www.fmlm.ac.uk/about/updates/call-abstracts-fmlm-2013-annual-conference-poster-competition

(C. Elliott)

The Royal College of Surgeons, in partnership with the Society of Academic and Research Surgery (SARS), is trying to establish an annual forum for academic surgical trainees from the UK. The first such forum is set for the 8th of January, 2014.

They are currently compiling a list of academic surgical trainees (Academic Clinical Fellows and Academic Clinical Lecturers) across the UK so academics can contact each other about forthcoming meetings, etc. Again, this is principally aimed at ACFs and ACLs, but may also be of interest to trainees who have done, or intend to do, a higher degree or a Cochrane Review.

If you are interested in getting involved with this project, please contact Sarah King at sking@rcseng.ac.uk

(C. Elliott)

Recent JCST requirements for CCT have indicated the need for a course in surgical leadership and the Severn School of Postgraduate Surgery has developed a Deanery recognised one day course to fulfil this need. Dates for four courses (n=15 delegates) have been organised and we invite you to apply to take part. We will be looking to have a cross section of experience from CT to ST6 in each course. Subject to demand it is anticipated that there will be further courses planned.

Delivery of the programme

The guiding principle is to introduce some key theoretical concepts and then where possible link them to actual examples of clinical and management practice. There will be a variety of teaching styles including didactic lecture, small group discussions, large group discussions and role-play. All delegates will be expected to prepare and contribute some examples of leadership and management issues relevant to their everyday experience before, during and after the course.

Topics Covered

• Brief history of leadership and professionalism

Relationships

• Social and political styles in organisations
• Communication
• Appreciative Management
• Effective negotiation
• Power models

Improving Outputs

• Elements required to make things happen

Strategic Direction

• Key questions to ask yourself when invited to change
• Understanding your Environment
• Stakeholder Analysis

Educational Outputs

The talks will be short and pithy because surgeons like pith. More seriously, the aim of the one day course is to equip you with some simple, easy to remember and apply, "heuristics" or rules of thumb you can keep in your head and immediately draw upon and apply when confronted with organisational difficulty or even in your personal life. This includes a wide range of situations from dealing with an angry patient, to difficulties with management and colleagues, to becoming more effective in changing practice in your organisation, to becoming more effective as a clinical leader, to negotiating your holidays within a difficult rota etc etc etc.

Tutor

Richard Canter is currently Associate Dean and Head of the Severn School of Postgraduate Surgery in Bristol and visiting Professor of Surgical Education at the University of Oxford since 2007. After appointment as a consultant surgeon in Bath he completed a PhD in Management at the University of Bath. This led to appointments on the Intercollegiate Surgical Curriculum Project reforming surgical education and an appointment as Deputy Director (curriculum development) of Surgical Education at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He has undertaken reviews of surgical training in the UK for the Royal College of Surgeons and Kosovo for the European Agency for Reconstruction after the Balkan War and made recommendations for improvement. An interest in professionalism and leadership led to research grants on clinician/management engagement. He is Lead Tutor for the Introduction to Surgical Management and Leadership module of the Master’s in Surgical Science and Practice at Oxford University and responsible for the leadership component of the Cochrane Courses on Critical Appraisal for ACFs and ACL at Balliol College, Oxford.

Who can come and Cost

The course is only available to surgical trainees currently in the Severn Deanery and is free. We anticipate significant interest in this course so any trainee who accepts a place and fails to turn up will not be looked upon favourably.

IMPORTANT: How to get a place on the Course

Use the appropriate link(s) below to register your interest via the School of Surgery website. Be sure to include your speciality and current training grade (failure to do this will prevent you from getting a spot on the course). 15 trainees will then be selected to attend on each day. (You will be notified as soon as possible by the Deanery whether or not you have received a place) Of note: if you are given a course spot you will also be asked to provide a short description (250 words each) of one good and one bad leadership or management experience.

To register for the 9th of September, 2013 course, use the following link http://www.surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events/show/introduction-to-leadership-and-management-for-surgical-trainees/

To register for the 10th of September, 2013 course, use the following link http://www.surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events/show/introduction-to-leadership-and-management-for-surgical-trainees-2/

To register for the 7th of October, 2013 course, use the following link http://www.surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events/show/introduction-to-leadership-and-management-for-surgical-trainees-3/

To register for the 8th of October, 2013 course use the following link http://www.surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events/show/introduction-to-leadership-and-management-for-surgical-trainees-4/

Don't miss out on this exciting new course, taught by our own Head of School Professor Richard Canter!

(C. Elliott)

A very warm welcome to Severn's new Plastic Surgery Training Programme Director, Mr. Sherif Wilson, who has succeeded the outgoing TPD, Mr. Antony Fitton.

Wilson is a consultant in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery based in Frenchay Hospital in Bristol. He was born in Alexandria, Egypt and studied Medicine at Alexandria Medical School where he graduated with Honours. He then won a place in the University Hospital in Alexandria and completed four years of plastic surgery training. He was also awarded his Master of Surgery degree at this time.

Wilson came to England in 1998 and was accepted onto the six-year training programme in Bristol and Belfast and underwent fellowships in Paris and East Grinstead before becoming a Consultant Plastic Surgeon in 2005. He is a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, British Association of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, and The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons. He is also a tutor for the Royal College of Surgeons and teaches on Plastic Surgery courses.

We thank the departing Antony Fitton for his years of service and wish Sherif Wilson all the best in his new role.

(C. Elliott)

Severn surgical consultants and trainees are invited to register to attend the two-day President's Day Meeting in Bristol on Thursday and Friday, the 20th and 21st of June, 2013. The event is being organised by the Section of Surgery of the Royal Society of Medicine in association with The Surgical Club of South West England, and includes abstract presentations, guest speakers, along with an evening dinner at the Lord Mansion House.

For full meeting details, including registration information, please see the following link: http://www.rsm.ac.uk/academ/sud06.php

(C. Elliott)

Severn surgical trainees are invited to submit abstracts for the Safe Surgery in the South West Conference, which takes place on the 24th and 25th of June, 2013 at Plymouth Medical Centre, Derriford Hospital. The event is being hosted by the Royal College of Surgeons and Plymouth Medical Centre.

Abstract topics include: Emergency Surgery, Trauma and Patient Safety.

The guidelines are as follows:

• Abstracts should be a maximum of 250 words and be submitted as text and tables.
• Theme of the abstract should be on one or more of the topics listed above.
• Abstracts must consist of four paragraphs (Aims, Methods, Results and Conclusion).
• The abstracts will be judged anonymously and therefore the text must not reveal any institutional affiliation.
• There is no fee for making a submission.

The trainees with the 12 best papers will be requested to give a six minute oral presentation at the Safe Surgery Conference on Tuesday, the 25th of June, 2013 from 2pm onwards.

The deadline for submissions is the 31st of May, 2013. For further details or to request a programme, please email suecoleman1@nhs.net or phone 01752 792 733.

(C. Elliott)

Chad Elliott works full-time and looks after - Core T&O, Core Surgery, General Surgery, Plastics, Urology, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Neurosurgery and OMFS.

Marcelle Hardy works 2 days, normally Wednesday & Thursday and looks after - Trauma & Orthopaedics ST3+, ENT and Paediatric Surgery.

Please contact the relevant Support Manager with any queries regarding the website.  We are also interested to hear about any suggestions you may have for the websites improvement.

This year's deadline has now been extended to the 22nd of July, 2013.

Also of note: This year's Research and Audit Day is being combined with the Annual School of Surgery Conference. A full programme for the day will be announced soon.

Call for Abstracts

Trainees and medical students from all surgical specialities in the Severn Deanery are invited to submit abstracts for consideration for presentation at the annual Research and Audit Day, which will be held on the 27th of September, 2013. The submission categories are as follows:

1. Research abstracts (Prize: £1000 of additional study budget)

2. Audit abstracts (Prize: £500 of additional study budget)

3. Quality improvement abstracts (Prize: £250 of additional study budget)

If medical student abstracts are selected for presentation (they will be considered anonymously and competitively with all submissions), there will be one £250 prize for that group.

Please submit your abstracts in TWO formats with one including all details, and the second omitting authorship and institution information (to allow for anonymised marking).

1. Title of project.

2. Authors with presenting author underlined and responsible author highlighted in bold.

3. Details of the department from where the work originated.

4. Structured within 250 words or less (see below).

Research abstracts - abstracts should take this format: ‘Introduction and aim, methods, results, conclusion and interpretation.' Please also submit evidence of research ethics approval or justification for absence (from the ethics committee). Abstracts submitted without this evidence will be rejected.

Audit abstracts - abstracts should take this format: Audit standard and aim, methods, results, conclusion and clinical relevance’. Please also submit evidence of audit registration in the appropriate NHS Trust. Abstracts submitted without this evidence will be rejected.

Quality or service improvement abstracts - abstracts should take this format: ‘Context, problem, assessment of problem and analysis of causes, intervention, strategy for change, measures for improvement, effects of change and lessons learnt.’ Quality improvement projects do not compare practice to current standards (audit), and do not involve interventions or measuring outcomes that are not routine practice (research). Quality improvement is about reliably applying evidence based medicine to routine clinical care. This should be achieved by applying quality improvement methodology i.e. small cycle tests of change (PDSA cycles) aiming for 95% reliability which ultimately bring about an improvement in patient safety or quality of clinical care.

All trainees who successfully submit an abstract conforming to the above regulations will be offered a free ticket to the evening dinner at Bordeaux Quay on the 27th of September 2013.

The deadline for submission is the 22nd of July, 2013. Abstracts should be submitted to Mr Sean Strong at Sean.Strong@bristol.ac.uk (please contact directly if further details are required.)

(C. Elliott)

Dear Colleagues,

Due to the transition from the SHA to Health Education England, the payment of expense claims is currently on hold at the moment. Please continue to send us your paperwork and we will deal with it as soon as possible. We apologise for the delay and greatly appreciate your patience as always.

Best,

Chad Elliott
School Manager 

Congratulations to Miss Carrie Rodd, Programme Director and Chair for Core Surgical Training, and her surgeon husband Amir Mofid on the birth of their recent twins, Joshua Dariush Mofid (left) and Sebastian Kourosh Mofid. The boys were born on the 5th of November, 2012. You should know that Carrie was still answering emails on the way to the delivery suite! Since then, she has been on a 168 hour working week and you can tell from the photo that they are a mischievous pair. (In fact she has already put them on an ARCP 2 for night time sleeping.) We wish them all well and Carrie wants to reassure trainees that she is continuing her commitment as Programme Director to core surgical training whilst on maternity leave.

Professor Richard Canter

Rodd's Bonfire Night boys

New opportunities to learn and practice health services research methods to evaluate surgery

The Royal College of Surgeons of England Trials Centre in Bristol will run a new course over the next 12 months. The overall aim is to inspire surgical trainees to learn and practice high quality research that will be relevant to surgical care of patients in the NHS.

Research in surgery is challenging and requires multi-disciplinary collaboration with methodologists and clinicians to design and conduct high quality studies. The Bristol Surgical Trials Centre led by surgeons and methodologists based at the University of Bristol will run five separate training days in 2013/2014 which will introduce methods for understanding evidence, study design including randomised and non-randomised trials.

“The course will be educational, entertaining and productive – it is expected that engaged trainees will learn to understand evidence based surgery and participate in the creation of evidence by attending the tutorials, practical sessions and working with the team to complete systematic reviews to inform the design of new trials in surgery." Professor Jane M Blazeby, April 2013.

Day 1 will be Monday, the 3rd of June, 2013. Day 2 will be Tuesday, the 16th of July, 2013. Day 3 will be the Research and Audit Prize Day Friday September 27th 2013. Information about days 4 and 5 will be available soon.

For queries and registration, please contact J.savovic@bris.ac.uk or j.m.blazeby@bris.ac.uk

A very warm welcome to new Severn School of Surgery College Tutors Miss Caroline Burt (North Bristol Hospitals) and Mr. Jamshed Shabbir (University Hospitals Bristol), who are succeeding the outgoing Mr. Najib Kadi and Mr. Zenon Rayter. We thank the departing tutors for their service and wish Miss Burt and Mr. Shabbir all the best in their new roles.

An evening devoted to "How to Succeed When Applying to Core Surgical Training" on the 25th of March, 2013 at the UHB Postgraduate Centre proved a big hit with the audience.

Our Head of School, Professor Richard Canter, was an evening highlight and had everyone rolling about with laughter during his talk. He kicked the night off with an overview of life in surgery and answered some specific questions that had been put to him such as "Is a themed core training post more useful than a generic core training post?". Professor Canter later spoke on the interview from an interviewer's perspective and gave trainees a solid structure to use when answering questions in the different stations. This was augmented with stats from the application process this year to prove that the interview process was not quite as daunting as trainees thought.

Other speakers included General Surgery SpR Alex Humphreys, who gave a well thought out talk regarding the Surgical CV and its relationship with the portfolio. Alex also offered some useful hints and tips on how to develop excellence within the CV during medical school and foundation training. F2 Philippa Leighton, who had recently been successful at CST interview, recalled her experiences of the process with refreshing honesty. AF2 Dan Stevens explained the process of the academic application (having recently obtained an academic clinical fellowship in Urology himself). The evening concluded with CT2 Tom Walker recounting his adventures in South Africa and debating the pros/cons of taking a year out before applying for CST.

The event feedback was excellent and hopefully proved a useful night for all who attended.

The full evening programme was as follows:

18:30 Welcome
18:35 A Career in Surgery (Professor Richard Canter)
18:50 Surgical CVs – Maximising Opportunities (Alex Humphreys ST3)
19:10 Interviews – the Interviewer's Perspective (Professor Richard Canter)
19:30 Break
19:40 Interviews - the Trainee's Perspective (Philippa Leighton CT1)
20:00 Applying for an Academic Clinical Fellowship (Dan Stevens AF2)
20:10 Working Abroad (Tom Walker CT2)
20:25 Closing Questions

Professor Richard Canter

Philippa Leighton

Alex Humphreys

Attendees gather

RCS/J&J Lister Prize

To recognise Lord Lister’s significant contribution to medicine and surgery, the Royal College of Surgeons and Johnson & Johnson last year introduced the new annual RCS/J&J Lister Essay Prize Award. In 2013, participants are asked to submit an essay on the following subject: "The Influence of Lister on Surgical Quality Outcomes in the 21st Century". The winner will receive a medal and £500 paid as a bursary towards an RCS course held at the College.

The award ceremony will take place during the next Dips Day held on 9 and 10 July 2013 at the RCS.

The award is open to Affiliates, Members and Fellows of the RCS who are in core surgical training programmes, specialty training programmes, postgraduate academic programmes and surgical research posts.

Applications should be sent to education@rcseng.ac.uk or by post to RCS Education, 35-43 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PE.

If you have any further questions, please contact RCS Education on 020 7869 6300 or email us education@rcseng.ac.uk 

Closing Date: 21 April 2013

Standards for Children's Surgery

In its new publication Standards for Children’s Surgery, the Children’s Surgical Forum (CSF) provides vital new standards for all those involved in the delivery and commissioning of children’s surgical services. The standards have a strong focus on the delivery of children’s surgery through local provider networks, ensuring care is delivered as close to home as is safely possible.

They have been endorsed by colleges and associations who are members of the CSF, reflect ongoing changes to the NHS and develop previous guidance published by the forum. The standards can be downloaded from our website http://enews.rcseng.ac.uk/rp//387/process.clsp?t=2EAD8ED6DB0421FA9F7F40316EC4E1E6C

Save the Date - The British Pain Society Patient Liaison Committee Annual Seminar

Securing the Future of Pain Services: Harnessing Patient Power

The British Pain Society Patient Liaison Committee will again be holding its annual seminar. Each year, they aim to bring together patients, patient groups, voluntary sector organisations and health professionals to discuss topics around pain. The outcome of the seminar will be used to inform the British Pain Society’s work.

Wednesday, 12 June 2013, 09:30-15:30

Churchill House, Red Lion Square, London

This year topics will include:

• Commissioning integrated chronic pain services and the need for patient involvement in their care and decisions about their care
• The challenge of involvement in a multicultural inner city pain service
• Patient pathways – what difference will they make for patients?
• What 3 things make a quality pain service?

The seminar will qualify for 4 CPD points.

Should you wish to register an interest in attending or have any queries please do not hesitate to contact rsusgaardvigon@britishpainsociety.org

Pre-order Medical Museums Now!

Due out in May 2013, this unique volume brings together curators and scholars from Europe and the United States, opening up new perspectives on the past, present and future of medical museums. We are delighted to offer Fellows and Members a pre-order discount price of £20.00 (RRP £25.00) plus p&p http://enews.rcseng.ac.uk/rp//387/process.clsp?t=2CF05D1ACA087CFC8F9A2AF8BB612A8A6

The book includes contributions from Dr Sam Alberti, Director of Museums and Archives, and is published by the RCS to commemorate the bicentenary of the Hunterian Museum.

Save the Date - Global Surgical Frontiers Conference 2014

Following the success of the second Global Surgical Frontiers Conference, we are pleased to announce that next year's conference has been confirmed to take place at the RCS on Friday, 24 January 2014 - watch this space for further details!

WinS and Exeter University Video Launch

As part of International Women's Day the Women in Surgery team and Exeter University are delighted to announce the launch of their exciting new video podcast, "Surgery: No longer a man's world"to support all current and prospective surgeons. http://enews.rcseng.ac.uk/rp//387/process.clsp?t=21441E8DDA13889AF4F61B8A5D3F7A6FB

See link for BBC news story http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21829540

Many congratulations to the Severn and Peninsula Audit and Research Collaborative for Surgeons (SPARCS) whose audit proposal examining "emergency surgical patients and the recognition and treatment of sepsis amongst new admissions to hospital" was selected as the National Surgical Collaborative Audit for 2013. It will be presented at the ASiT Conference in Manchester on the 5th-7th of April, 2013.

If surgical trainees would like to contribute to this important piece of research (whether designing the study, collecting or analysing data), please email sparcsexec@gmail.com outlining what you would like to do. SPARCS will be organising a meeting for those interested in the near future. (For trainees not interested in this particular project, a second audit project, to be run regionally, will be announced soon.)

Dear colleagues,

We are currently in the process of putting together a book entitled Technical Tips in General Surgery, containing useful tips and techniques for surgical trainees.

Much akin to the ‘technical tips’ section of the Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons, we are looking for short chapters detailing technical tips which would be of use to surgical registrars and SHOs – neither too basic nor too technical. Most, if not all, would be best served with an illustration of some kind (photo/drawing etc).

The best tips will be those that are of use in a variety of surgical operations i.e. not highly specialised.

We are looking for around 100 techniques in total. With the funding for the book already approved, once accepted, your technique will be published as a book chapter.

We welcome pre-submission enquiries to minimise duplication and ensure chapters are relevant and topical.

Guidelines

Please note that the techniques should be relevant to general surgery.

Format

Title
Authors (maximum of 3 authors)
Institution
Contact details of corresponding author
Background
Technique
Discussion
Reference - Vancouver style (as per BJS)
Illustrations as required – please supply as a tiff. or jpeg.
500 words or less, size 12 Arial font with 1.5 line spacing
Also, please state if the technique has been published previously e.g. annals technical tips section.

Please send pre-submission enquiries and submit chapters to jzm3jsc@doctors.org.uk

Technical tips submitted by 31/03/2012 will be given priority for publication.

Best wishes,

Jun Cho
David Bosanquet
Jolene Witherspoon
Mike Lewis

For General Surgery ST3+ trainees

The Royal College of Surgeons of England, in co-operation with Maquet, is awarding 5 bursaries of up to £1,000 each in the academic year 2013-14 for trainees who wish to attend one of the following courses held at the College:

24 – 25 June 2013: Specialty Skills in Vascular Surgery
26 – 28 June 2013: Advanced Skills in Vascular Surgery
January 2014: Amputations (date tbc)

Applicants must be a Fellow, Member or Affiliate of the Royal College of Surgeons of England or currently applying for ad eundum membership, and they must be in stages ST3-ST8 of a recognised UK specialty training programme.

Judging criteria:

• Completion of the application form
• Reasons for applying for the bursary
• Academic achievements
• Commitment to education/educational activities

The closing date for applications is 24 March 2013, and application forms can be downloaded here.

Applications are now open for the National Medical Director’s Clinical Fellow Scheme. The scheme is an exciting and unique opportunity for doctors in training to gain skills in leadership, management and health policy.

Participants spend a year full time, learning by doing, in an extensive range of host organisations, including NICE, NHS Commissioning Board, GMC, BUPA and Medical Royal Colleges. Based on the current fellows’ experiences, the broad portfolio of potential work ranges from organising ministerial seminars to coordinating the national viral outbreak response strategy. This work is complemented by extensive training opportunities and the peer support offered by being part of a cohort with other junior doctors.

Clinical Fellows have the chance to work alongside influential leaders and meet key players in healthcare from the NHS and beyond. The scheme has acted as a launch-pad for further careers in medical management, clinical leadership, public health and policy. Secondment ensures that existing terms and conditions are maintained and the posts are paid a clinical salary with banding.

This year there will be placements across England, including a number of opportunities in the north of the country. For more information please visit: http://www.fmlm.ac.uk/clinical-fellow-scheme

Applications close on 11th March 2013 and will be followed by a shortlisting process, with interviews on 15th and 16th April.

Of note: Two of our Severn surgical trainees, Robert Bethune and Brett Rocos, were previously selected for this prestigious programme. Past success doesn't guarantee future success, but it does show that surgeons' applications are taken seriously.

For all ST3+ Trainees

We are now running a well-established “skills” based training programme for Educational Supervisors.  There are a small number of places available on the events listed below and therefore we would like to extend this opportunity to senior specialty trainees.   All enquiries and bookings for the events can be made by contacting: Tracy Baudains

See the following link for a response from the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management http://www.fmlm.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Understanding%20Francis.pdf

The January 2013 JCST newsletter is now available online. You can read it using the following link: JCST Newsletter - January 2013

There are a range of dates available to book for the Professional & Generic Skills Modules. The workshops are each one day only and are at a variety of venues across the region. Subjects include:

Module 1. Introduction to the Programme and Learning Styles
Module 2. How Understanding Personality Types Can Improve Communication
Module 3. Career Management
Module 4. Patient Safety, Governance and Risk Management
Module 5. Introduction to Medical Ethics and Law
Module 6. Becoming a Teacher
Module 7. Leadership and Management
Module 8. Understanding the Health and Social Care Economy
Module 9. Managing Change and Transitions

Log in to the MLE at http://nhssw.e2train.com/PG/ to book your place before they all go!

The Association of Surgeons in Training (ASiT) Annual Conference will be held in Manchester from 5-7 April, 2013. This is an excellent opportunity for trainees of all specialties to present their audit and research work at a national level.

Abstract submission and registration is now open and closes midnight on Sunday, the 27th of January, 2013. All accepted and presented abstracts will be posted online in the International Journal of Surgery (IJS). The highest ranking of these will be published in an indexed supplement of the IJS. A number of prestigious awards are available to the best abstracts in their respective categories.

A number of pre-conference courses which are excellent value for money are also on offer – laparoscopic masterclasses, anastomotic stapling, plastic surgical reconstruction techniques, how to get published, to name but a few. There will also be a Charity Gala Dinner party (tickets only £25 for ASiT members). More details can be found on the following link to the ASiT website: http://www.asit.org/events/conferences/2013

Dear surgical colleagues,

The Severn School of Surgery is now on Twitter (https://twitter.com/SevSoSurgery) with important alerts for you including....

The Network team (www.the-network.org.uk) have launched a call for submissions for Casebook II. The Casebook is an online repository of over 500 quality improvement projects and audits with impact which are readily accessible and searchable through http://www.forum.the-network.org.uk/page/casebook. The Network Casebook aims to enable members to connect with each other, share best practice and improve patient care.

Submit your abstract at www.the-network.org.uk to be considered for inclusion in a national publication by the 31st January 2013. Shortlisted abstracts will be selected for a national poster or platform presentation in London on 13th March 2013 - NHS Change Day. More details are on The Network website.

This is an excellent opportunity to present your quality improvement project or audit with impact at a national forum. There will be 10 Network Innovation Prizes of £100 awarded to the most imaginative or successful projects, including a prize for an unsuccessful project.

To register for the free event go to http://thenetworkcasebooksecondedition.eventbrite.com  

Many of you have done outstanding audits and quality improvement projects which you have already presented at the Postgraduate School of Surgery research day.

Good luck!

Richard Canter
Professor Richard Canter
Associate Dean and Head of the Severn Postgraduate School of Surgery

Dear Colleagues,

As many of you are already aware, SPARCS (Severn and Peninsula Audit and Research Collaborative for Surgeons) is our research collaborative group in the Severn Deanery (http://www.surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/about-us/sparcs/)

Trainee collaboratives are producing quality work and are now getting national recognition for this (careers.bmj.com/careers/advice/view-article.html?id=20008342). Having successfully facilitated some multi-centre audits in the region, and currently in advanced stages of securing funding for a large-scale RCT, there has never been a better time to get involved!

Over the coming weeks and months, SPARCS aims to embark on some more exciting projects, with a focus specifically on generating opportunities for Core Trainees to get involved in collaborative work and learn more about audit and research.

Future plans include:

• A survey of surgical ward rounds in the Severn Deanery (following recent BMJ recommendations for regular consultant review of all inpatients)
• A ‘Dragons Den’ style competition where Core Trainees bring their ideas for a multi-centre audit project, with the winner getting SPARCS’ support in getting it up and running!
• An introductory night (hopefully with some food and drink) to let everyone know more about what SPARCS can do for you!

If you are interested in hearing about opportunities for Core Trainees to contribute to large-scale projects, taking the lead for your own centres section of a project or to learn more about conducting research and audit then please contact me, with the hospital(s) you are based at, and ideally, the departments you are working in!

Look forward to hearing from you and working with you in the future.

Ceri Rowlands
SPARCS Core Trainee Representative
Surgical Core Trainee Year 1
Bristol Royal Infirmary
rowlandsc@doctors.org.uk
07929 275467

An upcoming Consensus Conference from the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland examines "The 21st Century Surgeon: Challenges and Opportunities." The event will be held Wednesday, the 12th of December, 2012 at the Royal College of Surgeons of Great Britain & Ireland (Lecture Theatre 2).

Programme Details:

9.00-9.30 Coffee and Registration

09.45-10.00 Welcome (President, ASGBI)

Session 1: What Should Patients Expect From Their Surgeon? (Chairman: Professor John Primrose)

10.00-10.15 Surgery As A Profession (Professor John MacFie, President, ASGBI)

10.15-10.30 How Good Is My Surgeon? Results & League Tables (Mr David Mitchell, Consultant, Southmead Hospital)

10.30-10.45 Surgeons As Leaders (Mr Peter Lees, Founding Director of Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management)

10.45-11.00 What Patients Expect From Surgeons And Surgical Services (Christina Patterson, Writer and Columnist, The Independent)

11.00-11.30 Coffee Break

Session 2: What Does The NHS Expect From Surgeons? (Chairman: Professor CP Shearman)

11.30-11.45 Does the NHS Value Research? (Professor John Primrose, Vice President, ASGBI)

11.45-12.00 Training Surgeons For The Future - Whose Job Will It Be? (Professor Sir John Temple, Past President, RCSEd)

12.00-12.15 Contracts And Changing How Consultants Work (Dr Mark Porter Chair Council, British Medical Association)

12.15-12.30 What Do I Expect From Consultants (Dr Jonathan Fielden, Medical Director, UCLH)

12.30-13.00 Discussion

13.00-14.00 Lunch Break

Session 3: What Does The Surgeon Need From Their Employer? (Chairman: Professor John MacFie)

14.00-14.15 Who Is My Employer Going To Be? (Mr Mark Goldman, former consultant surgeon and CEO at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital)

14.15-14.30 The Bare Essentials (Mr John Moorehead, Director of Operations and Company Secretary, ASGBI)

14.30-14.45 How To Incentivise Doctors (Professor Jonathan Montgomery, Chair, Health Research Authority, Department of Health)

14.45-15.00 What Am I Going To Be Paid To Do? (Professor Nick Cheshire, Director of Cardiovascular Division, Imperial College Healthcare)

15.00-15.30 Tea Break

Session 4: Why Do Things Go Wrong? (Chairman: Professor Norman Williams)

15.30-15.45 How To Avoid Adverse Outcomes (Professor Martin Elliot, Co-Medical Director, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children)

15.45-16.00 Support And Coaching Consultants (Dr Iain Simpson, President British Cardiovascular Society)

 16.00-16.15 Patient Safety And Avoidance Of Errors (Mrs Joan Russell, Associate Director of Patient Safety, NHS Commissioning Board Authority)

16.15-16.30 How Can Innovation And Technology Improve Surgical Service? (Mr Colin Morgan, Vice President of External Affairs, Johnson & Johnson & Member of NHS Innovation, Health and Wealth Oversight Board)

16.30-17.00 Closing Remarks, Discussion And Overview Of The Day (Professor Norman Williams, President RCSEng)

For additional information/registration details, please contact Sarah Walsh at sarahwalsh@asgbi.org.uk

Many congratulations to Severn School of Surgery Neurosurgery Registrar Neil Barua who has been awarded the Rosetrees Research Prize by the Royal College of Surgeons for his research project into direct drug delivery to the brain for Alzheimer's Disease. His supervisors are Professor Gill and Professor Love.

Artist Barbara Hepworth's drawings and paintings capture surgeons at work in operating theatres in Post-War Britain. For the full story, see the following link http://www.hepworthwakefield.org/whatson/Barbara-Hepworth-hospital-drawings/

Dear colleagues,

I dont know if this is anything you have thought about but some of you might be interested. It has gone to trainees in the past. Further details can be found at: http://www.rcseng.ac.uk/surgeons/research/fellowships/fulbright-research-award

Good luck. If you get one, they are very prestigious.

Kind regards,

Richard

Professor Richard Canter
Associate Dean and Head of the Severn Postgraduate School of Surgery

Female surgical trainees may want to consider joining the new "Inspiring Women Leaders in Medicine" network at www.linkedin.com/groups/Inspiring-Women-Leaders-in-Medicine-4494986

Background

Why does it matter that women in medicine are enabled to develop, grow and become leaders? Four national reports spell out the reasons:

• The demography of the medical workforce is changing. Women have been the majority of entrants to medical schools for over two decades and make up 38% of GP partners and 31% of Consultants with wide variation between specialties.
• Women doctors are under-represented in senior leadership roles, now mirrored in Clinical Commissioning Groups.
• Action is needed to improve the talent pipeline and overcome often complex barriers that can impede female medical career progression.

Supporting women doctors in their careers will release benefits for patients the NHS, and women doctors themselves. These include optimising the use of potential and talent, improved Board performance, new leadership styles and behaviours, and the creation of a mix of clinical leaders who reflect our patients and communities and inspire the next generation of doctors, the majority of whom are women [Newman P, NHS Leadership Academy, Releasing Potential: Women Doctors and Clinical Leadership October 2011].

A new LinkedIn network to access peer support

To help tackle this issue the NHS Leadership Academy is establishing a women doctors’ peer support network as part of its wider strategy to increase diversity in NHS leadership including the creation of a National Task Force on Women in Medicine. The aim is to enable women doctors to optimise their potential and effectively progress their careers to a leadership role (including in commissioning).

The network will:

• Provide a confidential professional forum to learn from and support each other, share resources, access development and influence policy on line and in person
• Provide access to discussions led by senior medical leaders and stimulated by research and information from other sectors
• Link to other networks and personal development opportunities
• Inform the Academy’s plan and new National Task Force on Women in Medicine
• Explore ways to contribute to women’s health globally
• Be based on distinct ethical principles such as inclusion, collaboration and trust
• Inform the creation of a bespoke women doctors’ network and live events in the future.

The network is open to women doctors at all stages of their career (including at medical school).

• Join LinkedIn and create your own profile http://uk.linkedin.com
• Join the group http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Inspiring-Women-Leaders-in-Medicine-4494986  - click ‘Join Group’
• Contribute to, and start, a discussion
• Put your name forward to host a Topic of the Week
• Disseminate this information to colleagues

For more information, contact Dr. Penny Newman at penny.newman1@nhs.net

Follow us here: http://twitter.com/SevSoSurgery

A team of scientists recently completed what is possibly the first truly accurate reconstruction of a Neanderthal man. Among those who worked on the project was Professor Alice Roberts, anatomist (including teaching anatomy courses to Severn School of Surgery trainees), author and television presenter. 

For the full BBC article, see the following link  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19960748

The make-up date for the cancelled Physiology 1 (from 16.10.2012) course is Tuesday, the 11th of December, 2012. For further details see  http://www.surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events/show/anatomy-module-8/

Please note, if you had previously registered for Physiology 1 on 16.10.2012, you do not need to re-register for the new date. However, if you are unable to attend on the 11th of December, please let me know as soon as possible.

Best,

Chad Elliott
School Manager
chad.elliott@southwest.nhs.uk

Why so few female surgeons? "Inspiring the Next Generation of Female Surgical Leaders," a national leadership and networking event being held from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m., 28th of November, 2012, at the Royal College of Surgeons, London, aims to encourage female surgical trainees and new consultants to aspire to a leadership role, and celebrate the achievements of more senior female role models and mentors.

This event is aimed at junior female surgical trainees (CT1 and above) and new consultants considering how to progress in their careers, along with more senior female consultant surgeons who may like to pass on their wisdom and stories as role models (and potentially mentor in future).

The programme will be chaired by Ms Clare Marx CBE - RCS Council and former President of the British Orthopaedic Association, with a welcome by Professor Norman Williams - RCS President Professor of Surgery and Director of Innovation at the Academic Surgical Unit of Barts and The London, Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry. Speakers will include:

• Prof Keith Willet - Director for Acute Episodes and Care, NHS Commissioning Board and National Clinical Director for Trauma Care, Department of Health
• Helen Fernandes - Consultant neurosurgeon, former President of Women in Surgery
• Rebecca Mills and Charlotte Bendon - Core surgical Trainees
• Trevor Waldock - Managing Director of The Executive Coach and founder of Emerging Leaders.
• Penny Newman - Associate, NHS Leadership Academy and author of Releasing Potential: Women Doctors and Clinical Leadership

Speakers will be followed by "speed dating," providing an opportunity to meet female surgical role models on an informal basis, rotating in small groups. There will be a drinks reception and networking event in the evening.

The day is supported by the Royal College of Surgeons, Women in Surgery, Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management, and the NHS Leadership Academy. Although sponsorship is currently being sought, there may be a small charge to attend. Places assigned on a first come first served basis and are filling up rapidly.

To book your place, click on the following link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6BCC27C

Dear Severn Surgical Trainees,

We are looking for two trainees (from any specialty/grade) to act as examiners for the Royal College of Surgeons' annual technical skills competition for medical students. This is being held on Saturday, the 24th of November from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. here at the Severn Deanery.

If interested, please contact School Manager Chad Elliott at chad.elliott@southwest.nhs.uk

Best,

Chad Elliott

Tuesday 20th November 2012

The Academy, Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton

Managing the needs of bariatric patients & optimising surgical outcome

South West Surgical Training Network

www.swstn.org

Originally run in 2011 as a South West Regional Bariatric Study Day, this informative course is open to all healthcare professionals involved in caring for bariatric patients.

This 1-day course, led by Yasmin Ferguson, Bariatric Clinical Nurse Specialist, will involve presentations from other members of the highly successful Musgrove Park Hospital multi-disciplinary Bariatric Team,
including:

• Richard Welbourn, Consultant Bariatric Surgeon
• Rob Andrews, Consultant Endocrinologist
• Nick Kennedy, Consultant Anaesthetist
• Beth Greenslade, Dietitian
• Vanessa Snowdon-Carr, Clinical psychologist

Delegates will benefit from information and discussion on:

• Surgical Options, Risks, Complications
• Anaesthesia / post-operative analgesia and anti-emetics
• Pre / post operative care
• Diet & Nutrition
• Sensitivity & Psychological considerations

FEES:

Consultants/ GPs: £80
Trainees: £60
Other HCPs: £40

There are a limited number of FREE places available for MPH staff (refundable deposit required)

For more information please contact: SWSTN Admin Office

c/o Yeovil AcademyYeovil District Hospital

Telephone: 01935 384529

Email: elaine.cox@ydh.nhs.uk

Online booking at www.swstn.org

Previous delegates said:

“Excellent day covering both surgical and medical aspects of obesity. Thank you.”

“Really enjoyed the day. Excellent view of patient journey.”

Congratulations to the following recent prize and award winners announced Thursday, 20.09.2012 at the Annual School of Surgery Dinner at Bordeaux Quay.

Audit Prize
1st prize: Sean Strong
2nd prize: Alex Varey

Research Prize
1st prize: Elle Farrelleh

Quality Improvement Prize
1st prize: Ishtiaq Rahman

Best Questions during the session
Alex Torrie
Rachel Cave

Trainee of the Year Award
Philip Clamp

Core Trainee of the Year Award
(Joint first prize) Rebecca Llewellyn-Bennett and William Carlino

Trainer of the Year Award
Mr. Andrew Stewart, College Tutor for Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton

Many congratulations to this year's winners. The tremendous competition for these prizes and awards is a testament to the quality of our surgical programme. 

How much do you know about transplantation?

If you answered "hardly anything," don’t worry; you're not alone! Most trainees have never even met a transplant recipient. And despite lack of exposure to the specialty, trainees are still expected to know about transplantation for the FRCS.

A new website www.tntt.org.uk, written and designed by local trainees Anusha Edwards (a final year renal transplant and endocrine trainee working at Southmead Hospital) and James Smith (a plastic surgery trainee currently working in Exeter) will help shed some light on this subject and bring “transplantation for non-transplant trainees."

“There is a lack of simple textbooks dealing with transplantation,” Edwards said. “The majority of transplant books contain long chapters on complex immunology which most surgeons don’t need to understand. I sat my FRCS last year and was constantly questioned by non-transplant trainees asking about the speciality as they had so little exposure to it.”

The website has been designed with this in mind and deals with the basics of renal, liver and pancreas transplantation. It has been written for the non-specialist FRCS candidate to provide a basic understanding of the specialty and hopefully allow trainees to delve into the more complex text books if necessary.

Just a quick reminder about the upcoming Research and Audit Day (20.09.2012) and the Annual School of Surgery Conference (21.09.2012). For more information about these events (including the full programmes), see the following links:

http://www.surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events/show/research-and-audit-day/ (For the Research and Audit Day)

 http://www.surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events/show/severn-school-of-surgery-annual-conference-2/ (For the Annual Surgery Conference)

Dear Colleagues,

The School of Surgery would like your surgical-related photos to improve the look of our website. This is an excellent opportunity for shutterbugs to show off their creative talents. Take a camera to work and capture your daily life, your trials and tribulations, etc.

Patient confidentiality will, of course, need to be respected. Also you'll have to get the necessary release forms signed (found at http://www.severndeanery.nhs.uk/deanery/policies-and-procedures/photos-and-copyright/) before we can use them on the website.

Naturally, you'd be credited for your work. We may even have a "Surgical Photo of the Year" contest.

Email your photos and release forms to School Manager Chad Elliott at chad.elliott@southwest.nhs.uk

Best,

Chad Elliott

The Moynihan Chirurgical Club, instigated in 1909 by Lord Moynihan of Leeds, President of the Royal College of Surgeons and founder of the British Journal of Surgery, is one of the oldest of the UK Surgical Travelling Clubs. The Club will be visiting Bristol on the Thursday 11th and Friday 12th October 2012. The members of the Moynihan Club are senior surgeons representing most of the surgical specialties and represent the majority of major provincial cities in the UK.

On Friday 12th October, with the collaboration of Severn Postgraduate School of Surgery and the Programme Directors for Surgical Specialties in the region, a joint training meeting specifically for surgical trainees will take place from 0930-1300 at:

Lecture Theatre 1
Education Centre
Bristol Royal Infirmary
Marlborough Street

The format of the meeting will include structured clinical case discussions across the surgical specialties. Sessions will be chaired jointly by local consultant surgeons and Club members, and will be aimed at providing trainees with educational opportunities at MRCS and Part 3 FRCS level. Foundation Year trainees and medical students will also find the morning valuable.

Invitations are open to all trainees at all grade levels from across the region to submit interesting cases for PowerPoint presentation at the meeting. Successful applicants will receive a certificate for their educational portfolios and there will be a prize for the best trainee presentation. All trainees are welcomed irrespective of whether or not their case is selected for presentation. Lunch will be provided.

In the first instance an abstract of the case (of not more than 250 words) consisting of the following headings: Introduction; clinical findings (history, examination); diagnosis; management; learning points - should be sent to: Mr Frank Smith, Consultant Vascular Surgeon at Bristol Royal Infirmary, by email to the following address: Frank.c.t.smith@bristol.ac.uk, deadline - midnight on Saturday 22nd September. Successful applicants will be informed on Monday 24th September.

Selected PowerPoint presentations will be restricted to 10 minutes (7 minutes presentation; 3 minutes discussion. Cases should be structured to include relevant case history, and findings on examination, pertinent investigations, diagnosis and management. The diagnosis should not be revealed in the presentation title. Cases should conclude with one brief overview slide of the condition or case and a summary slide of bulleted learning points.

The Secretary's prize is open to all pre-SpR training grades. The prize will be given for a high-quality Urological audit or novel work on service improvement or organisational change within Urology. The best abstracts will be presented as posters at the Spring Meeting, with the best two applicants being invited to give a short podium presentation on the day. Abstracts should be 200 words in length.

The prize, an RSM award certificate plus £200 will be awarded at the Presidents Day meeting. Non-RSM members are welcome to apply. The submission deadline is Friday, the 1st March, 2013. (The meeting date will be Friday, the 19th April, 2013.)

To apply for any of these prizes please visit: www.rsm.ac.uk/awards. Download and complete the abstract submission form, which should then be returned to urology@rsm.ac.uk or by fax on (+44) (0) 20 7290 2989. Please ensure that the author’s postal and email addresses, telephone, fax numbers and place of work are included.

For further information for any of the above prizes, please contact: Victoria Caine, Academic Department, Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 0AE Email: urology@rsm.ac.uk or the awards website www.rsm.ac.uk/awards

Congratulations to Kumar Abhinav, a Severn neurosurgical higher surgical trainee who, as lead author, has just had a textbook published. The book is aimed at trainee surgeons and medical students.

Abhinav K, Edwards R, Whone A. Rapid Neurology and Neurosurgery. 1st edition. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford. ISBN-10: 0470654430.

The Margaret Witt Scholoarship Fund provides a number of awards of up to £1,000 each to RCS Fellows and Members who hold a national specialty training number to attend a training or educational course at the College.

The deadline is the 31st of August, 2012.

For any further information please contact:

Miss Marie Whitty
Senior Administrator
The Membership and Events Department
The Royal College of Surgeons of England
35-43 Lincoln's Inn Fields
London WC2A 3PE
Tel: 020 7869 6092
Email: membership@rcseng.ac.uk

Dear Colleagues,

I am currently adding the new 2012-2013 Core Surgical Courses to the School website. This may take a few days to complete. The new courses can be found by clicking on the "Events" tab at the top or by using the following link http://www.surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events/

To register for courses, simply click on the course you want, fill out the Registration Info at the bottom and click "Submit". It's easy!

If you are uncertain which courses you need to be taking, I suggest you review the tabs on the Core Surgery section of the website http://www.surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/about-us/core-training/ct-training-programme-2012-13/

If you have any questions, email me at chad.elliott@southwest.nhs.uk

Best,
Chad Elliott
School Manager

The University of Bristol Surgical Society (SCRUBS) is looking for enthusiastic surgical trainees to come and teach at their regular suturing workshops.

SCRUBS' diverse workshops cover everything from the basics (such as interrupted sutures and knot tying) to more advanced procedures (such as bowel anastomosis, tumour excision, tendon repair and z-plasty). This is an excellent opportunity for Severn surgical trainees to really engage with medical students and hone your teaching skills. It is also a great way to enhance your portfolio - at each suturing workshop both certificates and feedback questionnaires will be provided for every surgical trainee that has given up their time to come and teach.

Teaching spots are open to all surgical trainees, core and above. Workshops run throughout the academic year from October to March, usually taking place at the Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI) from about 6-7.30pm. If interested, please contact Events Manager Abby Shaw at as0370@bristol.ac.uk for further details.

Dear Colleagues,

As many of you already know, the Deanery has a really good set of Professional and Generic Skills programmes that are free to all Severn Trainees. They have been so popular that the capacity to attend these has been increased.

You really should look at these, see if any of them interest you, and register promptly for them.

Best,

Professor Richard Canter

Associate Dean and Head of the Severn Postgraduate School of Surgery

Professional & Generic Skills (For all core and senior medical trainees)

Modules tailored to seniority of Trainee:

Modules 1-3 - 1st/2nd Year

Modules 4-6 - 3rd/4th Year

Modules 7-9 - 5th/6th Year

Information about the Professional and Generic Skills Programme

What is the Professional and Generic Skills Programme?

The role of a doctor is complex from being a healer and patient advocate to manager and budget holder. Professional medical training primarily addresses specialist clinical knowledge and skills in diagnosis and treatment.

The Professional and Generic Skills Programme consists of nine one day modules that develop the non clinical knowledge and skills that doctors need to be fully effective – see the other side of this information sheet for the list of these with a brief outline of content.

Why do I have to undertake the Professional & Generic Skills Training?

All medical training curricula from undergraduate syllabi to the end of postgraduate education now include non clinical skills – what the Royal Colleges of Medicine term ‘common skills’ and which are called ‘Professional and Generic skills’ in the Severn Deanery.

In August 2009 the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges published a guide for this, the ‘Common Competencies Framework for Doctors’. It was developed by the Academy Specialty Training Committee to help inform the development of core and specialty curricula of the Royal Colleges and Faculties and supplements the specialty specific competences within the specialty training curricula. This framework identifies the common competences that should be acquired by doctors in core and specialty training in the United Kingdom. For further details see: http://aomrc.org.uk/education-a-training/curriculum-and-framework/framework.html

The Severn Deanery decided some years ago to provide this aspect of postgraduate training through a centralised programme – and that it should be a requirement of all Core and Specialty trainees to cover the common competencies elements of their training through attending this suite of nine modules. These are delivered as far as possible by practicing doctors and medical education specialists and delivered across the area covered by the Severn Deanery primarily in education facilities within Trusts. Although not all nine are delivered from every Trust site all nine modules are delivered in each of the north, central and southern parts of the Deanery area They are constantly reviewed and updated to ensure that they reflect current needs and Royal College curricula requirements.

How do I book onto the programme?

The programme is co-ordinated by the Severn Deanery and delivered locally via the Academies (a network of Learning Centres based on major healthcare sites). Registration, administration and access to e-learning is coordinated on the Managed Learning Environment (MLE) where you can see when and where modules are taking place in each Academy and apply for a place online.

To access the relevant section of the MLE and set up a login, please contact the P&G Skills Administrator through the Deanery website detailed below – who will require your name, date of birth and an e-mail address in order to add your name to the system and issue you with a username.

http://www.severndeanery.nhs.uk/deanery/education-and-training/doctors-in-training/professional-and-generic-skills/administrator

Module 1 Introduction to Learning and Teaching

An introduction to and basis for the whole programme which covers basic concepts in learning and education with personal reflection techniques and learning styles explored.

Module 2 Personality Types and Communication

Insight into personal personality type through the Myers Briggs Type Indicator and its implications for how we communicate and work with others.

Module 3 Career Management

Consideration of the important aspects of your career that you must manage including personal drivers and motivation, portfolio evidence, appraisals, applications, preparing for interviews and keeping healthy.

Module 4 Patient Safety, Governance and Risk Management

How the NHS monitors, manages and reduces errors and complaints, and the role of doctors, primary care, other medical professionals, managers, patients and clinical governance processes in this crucial activity.

Module 5 Introduction to Medical Ethics and Law

Understanding and application of the principles and practice of medical ethics and legal frameworks.

Module 6 Becoming a Teacher

Knowledge and skills overview of training supervision, assessment, feedback and the organisation and delivery of postgraduate medical education.

Module 7 Leadership and Management

Understanding about leadership and management within the NHS, team dynamics and how you can more effectively manage yourself and work positively with groups and teams.

Module 8 Understanding the Health and Social Care Economy

Information and an exploration of how the NHS is structured, current changes and financial issues and management.

Module 9 Managing Change and Transition

An exploration at personal and organisational levels of how change can be best managed and prepared for to enable transition to working as a fully qualified Consultant or GP.

Dear fellow surgeons,

My name is Rebecca Llewellyn-Bennett and I have set up the Severn Women in Surgery website. Our aim is to provide support and guidance for future and current female trainees who want to pursue a career in surgery. We already have the Women in Surgery (WinS) via the Royal College of Surgeons, England, but home-grown support is needed!

I am currently a CT2, and have a baby who is 7 months old. I am passionate about supporting current and future trainees in surgery and empowering them with the knowledge that it is achievable.

• It is apparent that even though at intake of medical school, women make up 57% (2007)[i]
• Only 8% of women become consultant surgeons in England[ii].
• When choosing a career, research from the Royal College of Physicians showed 60% of general practice specialist training posts were women in 2007.
• In 2010, 24% of female doctors were surgical trainees.
• There was also a distinctive difference between male and female first choices at ST1 applications with 8.3% of females wanting to do surgery as their first choice compared to 22.9% of males.[i]
• In 2005, the Annals of surgery published research from Vermont, USA where the majority of women were deterred by surgery due to lack of role-models than work-life balance[iii].
• Flexibility in training also needs to be continually supported in general surgery to continue to gain recruitment[iv].

Women and Medicine, The Future 2009[i] summarised, that for the success of future female trainees, guidance, mentoring and feedback are key for success.

The Severn Women in Surgery has so far set up:

1. NHS Network Severn Women in Surgery

An online forum, designed to enable networking to occur between women who are surgical trainees and consultants in the Severn Deanery. Please use this forum for any career/surgically- related topics.

2. NHS Network Severn Surgical Mums

This is an informal support network for surgical trainees/consultants to contact other surgical women who are mothers/prospective mothers. This is a great forum to allow mothers with a surgical interest to be able to communicate/meet with like-minded people

3. Twitter Severn Surgery @SurgeryinSevern

We need your help to make this website a success! It would be appreciated if you could help with all or either of the below points

1. Sign-up to the NHS Networks via http://www.surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/about-us/women-in-surgery/

2. An E-mentoring scheme: This is currently being developed but in essence will involve email contact whereby you are able to offer guidance for a trainee. Please can you let me know if you are interested so that I can contact you once the scheme has been established.

3. Your story- a page on the Women in Surgery section of the Severn Deanery website where you can include a 250 word summary of your experiences of surgical training (a photo would also be preferred.)

Many thanks for your time, Rebecca Llewellyn-Bennett severnwomeninsurgery@gmail.com

References

[i] Royal College of Physicians Report 2009 Women and Medicine The Future

http://bookshop.rcplondon.ac.uk/contents/9ff69ca9-ad30-436b-b48c-b70781dd0a62.pdf

[ii]http://surgicalcareers.rcseng.ac.uk/wins/research-and-stats/statistics

[iii] Arch Surg. 2006;141(4):405-408. doi:10.1001/archsurg.141.4.405

[iv] Arch Surg. 2006;141(10):977-982. doi:10.1001/archsurg.141.10.977 Ann R Coll Surg Engl 2000;82 ((suppl)) 290- 293

This year's Severn School of Surgery of Conference will be held on the 21st of September, 2012 at Engineers' House, Bristol from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The theme will be "Surgery for the future: Are you ready for it?". Topics of discussion will include:

What’s new in surgical innovation?

• Development of novel surgical techniques
• Crossing from vet to human practice
• Use of technology & social media

How will workforce changes affect us?

• Feminisation of the workplace
• The future of surgery in the NHS
• Specialisation of the workplace

The event is free and open to all Severn trainees from all surgical specialties. To register, contact Chad Elliott at Chad.Elliott@southwest.nhs.uk

Many thanks to Core Surgical Trainees Kapil Sahnan and Jessamy Bagenal who represented the Severn School of Surgery at a Career Fair for fourth year medical students at Bristol University on Thursday, the 5th of July, 2012. Their presentations on life as a Severn Trainee were well-received, and the students had many questions afterwards.

Another successful event for the School of Surgery. Nice job, Kaps and Jess!

We have been offered an MBA placement on an Executive MBA programme at UWE – free! However the lucky person will need to be available to start the placement July 2012.

Details of the MBA are available via the following link: http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/bl/bbs/courses/mba/part-timeprogramme.aspx

The first module to be delivered will be Delivering Customer Value, taking place 9-5 Monday 16th to Friday 20th July inclusive. There will also be a two hour induction session for the new students on Wednesday 11th July 2012, 5.30-7.30pm.

If interested, please contact Anne Elliott at anne.elliott@southwest.nhs.uk as soon as possible (rather than applying to the college at this stage).

Dear Colleagues,

Due to the busy summer surgical assessment season (fair amount of alliteration there!), your study leave applications and expense claims may take a little longer than usual to process. I greatly appreciate your patience and rest assured your application/claim will be dealt with as soon as possible.

Best,

Chad Elliott

School Manager

There are still some places available on Professional & Generic Skills Module 9: Managing Change & Transitions, 17th July 2012, 9.00am - 5.00pm, Education Centre, UHBristol, BS2 8AE.

Please log on to the Deanery's MLE to book a place.

The Surgical Science and Practice Programme

Advanced, part-time modular study, particularly suited to those in full-time employment. The Programme is designed to prepare more senior surgical trainees for life as an independent specialist by providing skills and knowledge essential for modern practice, but which are not fully represented or are omitted from most postgraduate training curricula.

Study options:

• A two-year part-time MSc in Surgical Science and Practice
• A range of Short Courses in Surgical Science and Practice

MSc in Surgical Science and Practice

The overarching aim of the Surgical Science and Practice Programme is to provide the next generation of surgeons with the tools to build and lead successful surgical units delivering safe, high-quality, high-reliability care. This course provides a foundation in some of the most important additional skills which the future leaders of the profession will need to acquire.

The MSc in Surgical Science and Practice is a part-time course designed to be completed in two to three years by full-time surgical trainees. It comprises six intensive week-long modules taught in Oxford during two years, and a dissertation. Access to Oxford’s electronic resources and a virtual learning environment (VLE) provide between-module support.

During the second year, a work-based research project, which builds on material studied in the taught modules, is undertaken and the associated dissertation forms an integral part of the work assessed for the award of the MSc.

Short Courses in Surgical Science and Practice

Each one-week module from the Surgical Science and Practice Programme may also be taken individually as a stand-alone short course.

Modules

The Programme consists of the following six week-long modules (Modules may be subject to periodic change reflecting developments in the field.):

• The Practice of Evidence-Based Health Care (Surgery)
• Quality Improvement Science and Systems Analysis
• Human Factors, Teamwork and Communication
• Introduction to Surgical Management and Leadership
• Becoming a Medical Educator
• Surgical Technology and Robotics

These taught modules will include group work, discussions, guest lectures, and interaction and feedback with tutors and lecturers.

Some activities will be classroom-based, whereas others will utilise specialist facilities within the University, including surgical simulators and operating theatres on one of Oxford’s hospital sites.

Surgical Science and Practice in Oxford

The Oxford Surgical Science and Practice Programme results from a close collaboration between the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences and the Department for Continuing Education.

The Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences is one of largest and most successful academic departments of surgery in the United Kingdom. It has a long tradition of research excellence, and is currently developing a major focus on surgical oncology and robotic surgery under the Head of Department, Professor Freddie Hamdy. Over the last five years the QRSTU (Quality Reliability, Safety and Teamwork Unit) within the Department has developed internationally recognised expertise in research on the mechanisms for achieving excellence in surgical practice.

The Department for Continuing Education has a long and successful record of providing part-time professional development designed to meet the needs of industry in the health and medical sciences as well as many other subject areas.

The Surgical Science and Practice Programme

Course Director: Mr Peter McCulloch

Mr Peter McCulloch is Reader in the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences at the University of Oxford and Honorary Consultant in Upper GI Surgery at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust.

He is Director of the Quality, Reliability, Safety and Teamwork Unit, a research group working on safety and quality in surgery, and co-ordinator of IDEAL, an international network dedicated to improving the scientific evaluation of surgery and interventional therapies.

Contact details

Surgical Science and Practice Programme

University of Oxford

Department for Continuing Education

CPD Centre

Littlegate House

16/17 St Ebbes Street

Oxford, OX1 1PT,

United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0) 1865 286954

Fax: +44 (0) 1865 286934

Email: SSP@conted.ox.ac.uk

www.conted.ox.ac.uk/SSP

Have you performed surgery in between surfing the warm waves off Australia? Operated in a makeshift hospital overlooking a lush South American jungle? De-stressed after a hectic day by wandering the tranquil cornfields of Iowa?

The School of Surgery Website has a new section on working overseas that we are looking to populate with your Out of Programme stories, along with useful contacts and school links to overseas institutions/organisations. Send your travel tales to School Support Manager Chad Elliott at chad.elliott@southwest.nhs.uk

Trainees from all surgical specialities in the Severn Deanery are invited to submit abstracts for consideration for presentation at the annual Research and Audit Day, which will be held on the 20th of September, 2012. The three categories (and corresponding prizes) are:

1. Research abstracts (prize £500 of additional study leave expenses).
2. Audit abstracts (prize £250 of additional study leave expenses).
3. Quality improvement abstracts (prize £250 of additional study leave expenses).

Please submit your abstracts in TWO formats with one including all details, and the second omitting authorship and institution information (to allow for anonymised marking).

1. Title of project.
2. Authors with presenting author underlined and responsible author highlighted in bold.
3. Details of the department from where the work originated.
4. Structured within 250 words or less (see below).

Research abstracts

Abstracts should take this format: ‘Introduction and aim, methods, results, conclusion and interpretation.' Please submit evidence of research ethics approval or justification for its absence (from the ethics committee).

Audit abstracts

Abstracts should take this format: Audit standard and aim, methods, results, conclusion and clinical relevance’. Please submit evidence of audit registration in the appropriate NHS Trust.

Quality or service improvement abstracts

Abstracts should take this format: ‘Context, problem, assessment of problem and analysis of causes, intervention, strategy for change, measures for improvement, effects of change and lessons learnt.’ Quality improvement projects do not compare practice to current standards (audit), and do not involve interventions or measuring outcomes that are not routine practice (research). They do, however, aim to acquire knowledge about local services in order to improve them. Examples include; improving discharge summaries, and improving weekend handover.

Please note that abstracts not meeting these standards will not be considered for shortlisting. The judging panel of surgeons will include:

• Professor Jane M Blazeby, Professor of Surgery, University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust
• Mr Marcus Brooks, Consultant Vascular Surgeon, University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust
• Mr Tim Cook, Program Director and Consultant Surgeon, Gloucester Royal Hospital
• Mr Thomas Pinkney (visiting speaker and SpR in general surgery, West Midlands Deanery)
• Miss Anne Pullyblank, Consultant Colorectal Surgeon, North Bristol NHS Trust
• Mrs Carrie Rodd, Consultant Surgeon, Gloucester Royal Hospital

Abstracts should be submitted to Professor Jane M. Blazeby at  j.m.blazeby@bristol.ac.uk. (Please contact her directly if further details are required.)

The deadline for submission is the 20th of July, 2012. Prize winners will be announced at an evening dinner at Bordeaux Quay on the 20th of September.

There has been a request from the GMC for Orthopaedic and Breast Surgery trainees among others to take part in a revalidation pilot. This is to benchmark the performance assessments used for fitness to practice reviews.

The specialities involved are:

• Old age psychiatry
• Radiology
• Paediatrics
• Child psychiatry
• Forensic psychiatry
• Emergency medicine
• Orthopaedics
• GP
• Respiratory medicine
• GI medicine
• Histopathology
• Care of the Elderly
• Breast surgery
• O&G

Incentives for participation include a modest honorarium, a trip to London and some individualised feedback.

For anyone interested further details can be found at: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/medicalschool/postgraduate/gmc/pilot-information

Please take a couple of minutes to complete a simple survey about your training needs. For every 100 completed responses, there will be a prize draw for a £250 SWSTN voucher.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LTPM35P

Due to rising costs and lack of funding, the annual JCST fee for trainees is increasing to £150. For the full story, see the following link: http://www.jcst.org/docs/trainee_fee_May2012

Highland Surgical Boot Camp is an innovative week-long course for new surgical trainees designed to accelerate the acquisition of key skills at the start of a surgical career.

Housed in the Centre for Health Science, Clinical Skills Centre, Inverness, the course offers a Highland-retreat feel coupled with simulation-rich methods and an experienced and approachable faculty. Skills taught include: bowel anastomosis, tendon repair, polytrauma, and communication and non-technical skills.

For additional information and costs, visit the website at www.surgicalbootcamps.com

The School of Surgery is delighted that all four candidates for the final fellowship in Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery all passed on their first attempt. Congratulations to Puneet Titoria, Stuart Gillett, Andrew Carswell and Philip Clamp.

Extra congratulations to Philip Clamp, who was also awarded the Gold Medal for the Most Outstanding Candidate. This is the first time the Gold Medal has been awarded to the South West Training Scheme. Should be quite some party!!

Aspiring Young Surgeons National Conference held jointly by the Severn Deanery, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the Bristol Surgical Students Association called SCRUBS on 24th March 2012.Judges and prize winners

This was a national conference to support medical students and foundation doctors who aspire to be surgeons
About seventy delegates attended the event with fourty eight presentations covering all the ten surgical specialitires delivered within a day divided into four sessions.
In additon there were two state of the art lectures delivered by Prof George Youngson.

Prizes were awarded to the winner and runner from each session and then an overal winner
who on this occasion was Dr Rasika Singh

 In view of the success and support for this conference for young aspiring surgeons,
a further conference will be held next year building on the close relaitionship between
SCRUBS, Severn Deanery and the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh.

Vice President of the RCSEd Prof George Youngson,
overall winner Dr Rasika Singh and
Postgraduate Dean Prof Davinder Sandhu. 

Dear All Surgical Trainees,

After last year’s success, the School of Surgery would again like to recognise a Severn Deanery Consultant Surgeon as ‘Trainer of the Year’. We will be using the selection methodology provided by the Silver Scalpel, which is a national award. This process is rigorous and fair and we have promised to follow it carefully. It starts by asking any trainee to make a nomination and to include 100-150 words of “reflective writing” in EACH of the following categories:

1. Leadership skills

2. Resourcefulness

3. Training and Development

4. Professionalism

5. Communication skills

6. Other supporting comments

All submissions are scored by a team of trainees and each shortlisted nominee will be interviewed, again by trainees, in their place of work together with a nominated peer, a sister, and a current trainee. This team is being organised by Natalie Blencowe on behalf of the School of Surgery.

All nominated trainers have to be working in one of the Severn Deanery Hospitals. Please email your submission to Chad Elliott, chad.elliott@southwest.nhs.uk, by 9.00am, Monday 2nd July. We plan to present the Trainer of the Year Award at the Severn School of Surgery Annual Dinner on Thursday 20th September.

Yours Sincerely,

Miss Natalie Blencowe, Chair of the Trainer of the Year Selection Committee

Professor Richard Canter, Associate Dean and Head of the Severn Postgraduate School of Surgery

The International Minimal Access Centre for Surgery is the culmination of many years experience in advanced laparoscopic techniques at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust. With over three million pounds of investment in advanced laparoscopic theatres and a state of the art training centre we are able to provide live, interactive video links from Maidstone and our International faculty. The training centre is equipped with the latest advanced High Definition imaging equipment, dedicated seminar and conference rooms and a large fully equipped lecture theatre.

Click here to view the 2012 course programme

2012 is the centenary of Lord Lister’s death. 2011 also marked the 125th anniversary of the founding of Johnson & Johnson. To commemorate these two anniversaries, the Royal College of Surgeons will award an essay prize which bridges Lister’s medical interest in anti-sepsis and the contribution of Johnson & Johnson to healthcare as a leader in infection control and an innovator in antisepsis.

This new prestigious annual award is targeted at the next generation of surgeons whilst commemorating these two significant anniversaries.

The Essay

To enter the award, participants submit an essay on the following subject: “Which advances in surgical standards can be attributed to Lister’s legacy?”

The Award

The winner will receive a Medal and £500 either in educational book vouchers or as a bursary being paid towards an RCS course held at the College.

The Award Ceremony

This will take place during the Dips Day held on 10 & 11 July 2012 at the RCS.

Application Criteria

The award is open to Affiliates, Members and Fellows of the RCS who are in core surgical training programmes, specialty training programmes, postgraduate academic programmes and surgical research posts.

The closing date for applications is the 30th of April, 2012. Further details and application form are available on the College website: http://www.rcseng.ac.uk/surgical_awards_and_grants/rcs-j-j-lister-essay-prize

The upcoming Human Factors courses on 06.06.2012 and 20.06.2012, formerly only for ST5 trainees, are now open to all surgical registrars, ST3+.

Numbers are limited and places are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Don't miss out on this exciting opportunity!

Choose EITHER the 06.06.2012 or 20.06.2012 date:

For the 06.06.2012 course, register at http://www.surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events/show/human-factors-training-3/

For the 20.06.2012 course, register at http://www.surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events/show/human-factors-training-4/

 (To register, simply submit your name, email address and phone number at the bottom of the course page)

Nadine Betambeau, south west surgical trainee, has been appointed as the first female consultant general surgeon to St George's Hospital London. Nadine writes:

"As my HST training in the South West comes to an end in April, I am very excited to have been offered the Consultant Breast Surgeon job at St George's Hospital, London. In July, I will join 2 consultant breast surgeons and will be based at the Rose Centre - a new, purpose built centre on the St George's site for Breast patients. I will be the 10th general surgical consultant at St George's and the first female general surgeon. I have thoroughly enjoyed each and every post and hospital in which I have worked over the past 6 years (from Truro to Cheltenham, via Swindon and Barnstaple) & the training I have received has been fantastic. I will miss the beautiful countryside, fresh air and the West Country accent! But especially the colleagues I have met, worked with and become good friends with during that time. However, strange as it may sound, London will always be home for me."

The School of Surgery is truly delighted to learn of her new consultant appointment and wishes every success in her new post.

Trauma Surgery Skills Day

Date: Thursday, 14th June, 2012

Venue: Centre for Comparative & Clinical Anatomy, University of Bristol

Cost: £75

A one day hands-on practical skills course emphasising the decision-making, access and damage control techniques required for trauma surgery.

The faculty will consist of experienced military and civilian surgeons. The delegates will use fresh animal tissue.

Aimed at CT2-ST5 trainees in General Surgery. Limited places available; priority will be given to Severn Deanery Trainees registering before May 2012.

To book your place, contact jamescoulston@yahoo.co.uk

The University of Bristol has available a Clinical Lectureship in Academic Surgery to commence no later than 30 September 2012. This Lectureship will provide up to four years post-doctoral training for an Academic Surgeon seeking to build and consolidate an academic career in surgery within health services research. The length of the lectureship will depend on your previous experience and your planned trajectory towards gaining a CCT and postdoctoral or clinician scientist award. The post will be eligible for NIHR badging.

The objectives of this clinical lectureship are to: provide an opportunity to develop a substantial and coherent programme of health service research relevant to surgery; consolidate clinical competence and experience as a general surgeon with a sub-speciality interest; prepare a high-quality application for a post-doctoral or clinician scientist research fellowship, and to gain more experience of teaching in a variety of contexts. The post is available either full or part-time.

You will split the work (50:50) between clinical training within the Severn Deanery at hospitals within the region and academic work at the University of Bristol. The appointment will be made at the appropriate point on the clinical lecturer scale. Within the sessions at the University, the main activity will be research.

The Postgraduate Dean confirms that these placements and/or training programmes have the required educational and Dean's approval.

Grade : Lecturer in Pathway 1

Salary : ?30,992 - ?53,663

Contact: ( School of Social and Community Medicine )

Professor J Blazeby

E-mail: J.M.Blazeby@bristol.ac.uk

Tel: 0117 928 7231

Closing Date : 27 April 2012

Interview Date : 08 June 2012

Timescale of Appointment(s) -

Contract : Fixed Term Contract, four years

 Further details and an application form can be found at https://www.bris.ac.uk/boris/jobs/feeds/ads?ID=109251

Alternatively you can telephone (0117) 954 6947, minicom (0117) 928 8894 or E-Mail Recruitment@bris.ac.uk (stating postal address ONLY), quoting reference number 17041.

The closing date for applications is 9.00am, 27 April 2012

An Equal Opportunities Employer.

PEARSON VUE TEST CENTRES

As a reflection of our commitment to simplifying the booking process, candidates are no longer required to book their own test centre. Once they receive formal eligibility/or resit confirmation for the Section 1 examination, the Secretariat will, at that time, instruct Pearson VUE to book candidates into the centre they selected at the time of application. This revised process is effective now and will apply to all Section 1 CBT examinations from June 2012 onwards.

NUMBER OF ATTEMPTS AT FINAL FELLOWSHIP EXAM

The JCIE proposal to increase the number attempts from three to four at Section 2 was approved by the JSCM at its January Meeting. JCIE has therefore ‘revised’ the current January 2012 Regulations accordingly. In addition, a limit on period of eligibility up to a maximum of 7 years to pass all sections of Royal College examinations has been debated and approved.

The revision to the January 2012 Regulations [revised March 2012] will therefore be:

Candidates will have up to a maximum of 7 years to complete the examination process as follows:

Section 1:

Candidates will have a two year period from their 1st attempt with a maximum of 4 attempts with no re-entry.

Candidates who have achieved the required standard in Section 1 and have been granted eligibility to proceed to Section 2 the following will apply:

Section 2:

Candidates have a maximum of 4 attempts and up to one further exceptional attempt (on the basis of providing positive educational evidence*) with no re-entry.

(*The endorsement criteria for ‘positive educational evidence’ will require the approval of the relevant Board and JCIE on a case by case basis.)

We are pleased to announce the winners of the SPARCS competition to find a randomised trial idea to be conducted by general surgical registrars in the Severn and Peninsula deaneries.

Joanne Bennett and Catherine Walter each received £125 in study leave for their proposal "Wound Dressing Vs. No Dressing in Post-Operative General Surgical Patients," while Sarah Richards received £250 for "Impregnated Vs. Standard PDS Sutures for Closing Surgical Wounds."

Many congratulations to these three trainees for their outstanding achievements.

Dear Colleagues,

The Severn Deanery School of Surgery is able to offer an exciting initiative for all core trainees and surgical specialty trainees in year five (ST5).

Funding has been made available to allow us to ensure that all these trainees undertake a human factors/non-technical skills training day at the Bristol Medical Simulation Centre. This interactive course consisting of micro-teaching, simulation/role play scenarios and interactive feedback will introduce our surgical trainees to the key concepts of non-technical skills. We know that up to 70 per cent of all errors in surgical care are not as a result of technical failures or mistakes.

This is a timely introduction of this course. The Royal College of Surgeons of England is considering important training in this area. Specifically, their patient safety and team training course is a potential initiative that they are looking to launch later this year. In the forthcoming years, it may well become a compulsory requirement.

The Severn Deanery School of Surgery have already run this course very successfully with excellent feedback for the core trainees in the region.

We will have two dates for this course to accommodate all year five surgical specialty trainees this coming spring/summer – these being Wednesday 6th and Wednesday 20th June 2012, with the second core trainees’ course being run on 9th May 2012.

This is a unique opportunity for the trainees in the Deanery, with the courses being run by local faculty in conjunction with the expert team at BMSC.

There is also the potential for some delegates to join the faculty once they have completed the course.

We look forward to seeing you at the BMSC

 Best wishes

Steve Mitchell

Head of Human Factors Training

Severn Deanery

To register for the CT2 Course on 09.05.2012, click on the following link http://www.surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events/show/human-factors-training-2/

To register for the ST5 Course on 06.06.2012, click on the following link http://www.surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events/show/human-factors-training-3/

To register for the ST5 Course on 20.06.2012, click on the following link http://www.surgery.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events/show/human-factors-training-4/

Annals of Surgery is currently running a free monthly journal club. This interactive resource allows surgeons to discuss and critically evaluate articles published in Annals of Surgery selected by a monthly guest expert who will review an article each month, offer questions and respond to reader's comments. For more information, see the attached link http://journals.lww.com/annalsofsurgery/blog/annalsofsurgeryjournalclub/pages/post.aspx?PostID=4

Many congratulations to Alice Roberts, doctor, anatomist (which includes teaching anatomy to Severn Core Surgical Trainees), author and television presenter, who was recently appointed professor of public engagement in science at Birmingham University. For more details on Alice's appointment and remarkable career, see The Guardian article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jan/30/alice-roberts-professor-birmingham-university

Congratulations to Severn General Surgery trainees Simon Monkhouse, Donna Egbeare, Lee Humphreys and James Coulston. All four surgical registrars passed their FRCS General Surgery Exams. Well done! 

The Aachen Trauma Experience

By Philip McCann

Background

In July 2011 I had the opportunity to travel to Aachen University Hospital in northwest Germany for a two week OOPE. This 1356 bed unit acts as a regional level 1 trauma centre serving a population of approximately 500,00. The area also has four smaller hospitals which co-operate in a “take” system, alternating basic admissions on a daily basis, with Aachen accepting general admissions on Tuesdays and Fridays. However all polytrauma comes directly to Aachen.

The unit is run in a hierarchical model, with Professor HC Pape leading the department. He pioneered much of the early work into Damage Control Orthopaedics, the systemic effects of reaming in intrameduallary nailing and pelvic ring reconstruction. Under his direction, there are a body of consultants, each of differing levels of experience and with their own sub-specialist interest. Professor Pape assumed ultimate responsibility of all trauma patients, regardless of who they were admitted under.

The training system is similar to the American model, with early specialisation directly following medical school. No deanery model exists and candidates apply direct to the hospital, where they spend the majority of their training, rotating to work under different consultants within the department. Pure trauma practice, elective orthopaedics is a separate training programme and sub-speciality.

Activities for junior staff alternates between theatres, clinic and ward cover. On-call duties include covering all ward work (without a house officer) in addition to managing the admissions. The call runs for 24 hours with the following day off, on a 1:6 basis. EWTD was not applied. No operations were performed out of hours independently by trainees. A consultant must be present before the patient can be anaesthetised. Consultants also work 1:6.

The Daily Routine:

0715 ITU/HDU: Multi-disciplinary ward round with the intensive care physicians on every patient under the trauma team. Many patients are under shared care with the general surgeons and neurosurgeons, for the management of complex multi-system trauma. I understood that this system was introduced by Professor Pape, after his experience working in North America. I found this the various teams interacted well with each other.

0745 X-Ray Meeting - All admissions and referrals are discussed and each fluoroscopic image taken in theatre in the last 24 hours was critiqued by the Professor and other senior consultants.

0815 Theatres/Clinic - Three trauma theatres to visit. All cases throughout the entire theatre complex (33 suites) displayed on a real time programme on the hospital intranet. The patients were asleep on the table on arrival. No anaesthetic or recovery rooms so long delays between cases. Time used to return to office to complete administrative tasks.

One theatre mainly dealt with spinal trauma, whilst the other two for general limb trauma. No laminar flow.

Fracture clinic also ran in the morning session. Staffed by a consultant and two trainees. Approximately 20-30 patients.

1600 X-Ray Meeting - Update on the admissions that day and in depth review of current inpatients. Juniors asked to present cases and justify management plans. Often accompanied by brief ward round with team reviewing outstanding issues and checking patient suitability for the following days list.

1800 Finish

Travel Arrangements & Accommodation

I flew from Heathrow to Cologne, and from there took a direct train (approximately one hour) to Aachen. I had the opportunity to stay with one of the consultants working in the Trauma unit, Dr Richard Sellei. He very kindly put me up for the duration of the visit, and also acted as my guide both in and out of the hospital.

Summary

My experience in Germany was extremely interesting. It was a privilege to witness how a modern European Level 1 Trauma Centre operates. Generally speaking, the management of most injuries was very aggressive, following AO principles with most fractures treated operatively. I encountered surprisingly little circular frame work, with open reduction and internal fixation the treatment of choice for many fracture patterns (after emergent spanning monolateral external fixation if required).

Operatively, it was not as intense as I expected, with 2-3 cases performed per theatre per day. The admissions ranged from 5-15 per day. However, the staff were very knowledgeable about every aspect of trauma, which enabled me to explore some of my questions regarding specific injuries and management algorithms.

The hospital also has both a biomechanical and cadaveric laboratory, so I had the opportunity to attend a teaching session for the trainees on pelvic fracture management, placing external fixators and practising surgical approaches. The department has an enthusiastic research ethos, so there is the option to get involved with a project or two if you wish.

Overall, I would definitely recommend visiting Aachen to any trainee who wants to incorporate a significant trauma practice into their future job plan.

To read, please click on the following link http://www.jcst.org/docs/jcst_newsletter_jan2012

Congratulations to Severn Deanery core surgical trainee Rebecca Llewellyn-Bennett and her husband Emmanuel Bennett. Rebecca gave birth to a son, Louis Neal, on 11/11/11; a special set of numbers that only comes around every 100 years. Rebecca tells us he came in at "an eye-watering weight of 8lbs and 11oz!"

Rebecca plans to return to surgical training in April this year and in the meantime she will be working significantly longer than the 48 hour working week. Good luck, Rebecca!

Dear All Severn ST3+ trainees,

If you are a surgical trainee in the Severn Deanery at ST3 and above then this message applies to you.

The financial year for study leave budgets runs from April to March. You need to act on the following:

1. If you have any OUTSTANDING study leave claims TO SUBMIT for reimbursement (NOT including the ones you have already submitted and are awaiting payment), then you must submit these for processing by 9.00 am Monday 16th January 2012. We will then hold funds for you. Failure to do this by that date creates huge problems for us.

2. If you have plans to go on a course BEFORE the 30th March 2012, then could you let us know also by Monday 16th January and we can hold back funds for you. It is very important that you submit your claims AS SOON AS POSSIBLE AFTER YOU HAVE GONE ON THE COURSE and anyway before the 30th March 2012 so your funds come out of the 2011-2012 financial year. Again failure to do this by the date creates huge problems for us and can result in a reduced study leave allowance for the School of Surgery.

3. School Manager Chad Elliott has contacted many of you regarding missing certificates of attendance, study leave applications and receipts in order to process your claims. Please get him those documents by Monday 16th January in order to ensure these claims are processed. Contact him at the Deanery if you have any questions.

Your allowance for the year is £550 if you are in post for the entire financial year. If you are in post for less than that your allowance will be prorated.

Thank you for your cooperation. Administration can be tiresome, but if you fail to do this properly we end up losing funds which we cannot recover.

Kind regards,

Richard

Professor Richard Canter

Associate Dean and Head of the Severn Postgraduate School of Surgery

Muhamad Azri Muhamad Marican won local heat at Severn Deanery House, Bristol

Muhamad Azri Muhamad Marican, a fourth year medical student from the University of Bristol has won the Severn heat of a nationwide surgical skills competition run by The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd), and will now go to the Grand Final in Edinburgh where he will compete to win a trip to Johnson & Johnson’s skills centre in Hamburg, Germany.

The Lister Surgical Skills Competition has been organised by RCSEd in association with Johnson & Johnson Medical Companies to commemorate the life and contribution of Lord Joseph Lister, 100 years after his death. A former Fellow of RCSEd, Lister was world-renowned for his groundbreaking work in the prevention of wound infection, which contributed greatly to the advancement of surgical standards and led to Lister becoming known as ‘the father of modern surgery’.

The skills competition has brought medical students from across the UK together to demonstrate their surgical skills in a series of heats over the last two months, as they attempted to reach the Grand Final of the competition, which takes place in Edinburgh on 11 February 2012 as part of the Lister Centenary Celebrations. Azri and the other regional heat winners are being provided with a travel and accommodation package to come to the College for the Final. As the principal sponsor of the Lister Centenary Celebrations, Johnson & Johnson is offering the prize of a trip to its European Surgical Training Institute in Hamburg for the overall winner, with The Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) awarding the runner-up with free student membership until they qualify as a doctor.

At the Severn heat, 10 students with an interest in pursuing a career in surgery competed in four surgical skills tests: knot-tying, suturing, cyst removal and surgical instrument identification. Selina Khan was the runner-up, winning a year’s student membership of RSM. All participants received a year’s student affiliation to RCSEd.

The Severn heat was run by Professor Davinder Sandhu, who is RCSEd’s Regional Surgical Adviser for the area and is the Postgraduate Dean for Severn. Explaining more, he said:

“To improve patient outcomes, we need to nurture the next generation of champions who hopefully will become the leaders of our profession. To this extent I am pleased that The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh created the Lister initiative and the Bristol medical students and local faculty responded enthusiastically.”

Commenting on his victory, Azri said:

“I believe this competition will help my career by the early exposure to surgery it has given me in terms of developing suturing skills and knowledge of some of the instruments used in surgery. Although it was challenging being unsure what criteria were being assessed and what to expect from the competition, I really enjoyed it and made new friends.

A benefit of affiliating with RCSEd is being kept informed on what opportunities are available and offered to medical students to help me with future surgical career ambitions and I’m really excited to have the opportunity to continue to the next round - it is motivation for me to work hard and hopefully win the Grand Final!”

Wednesday 21st March, 2012

Yeovil Innovation Centre BA22 8RN

This one day masterclass will cover the challenges for management of patients with an ileo-anal pouch and is aimed at consultant surgeons and gastroenterologists, senior surgical / GI trainees and colorectal nurse specialists. The multi-professional expert faculty will include:

Professor John Nicholls, Surgeon, London

Zarah Perry-Woodford, CNS, London

Dr Simon McLaughlin, Gastroenterologist, Bournemouth

Mr Tony Dixon, Surgeon, Bristol

Mr Paul Sylvester, Surgeon, Bristol

Mr Rob Longman, Surgeon, Bristol

Mr Mark Lewis, Surgeon, Dorchester

Angie Perrin, CNS, Oxford

Mr Ian Daniels, Surgeon, Exeter

Mr Steve Mansfield, Surgeon, Exeter

Mr Chris Vickery, Surgeon, Taunton

Mr Tom Edwards, Surgeon, Taunton

Julie Burton, CNS, Yeovil

Mr Nader Francis, Surgeon, Yeovil

Delegates attending this course will benefit from:

• Interactive seminars covering patient selection and managing expectations

• Debate with the expert panel covering laparoscopic vs open surgery and single vs multi stage techniques

• Demonstrations of expert technique with edited surgical video

• Multi-disciplinary discussions covering enhanced recovery and management of complications

• Management of pouchitis and pouch failure

• Patients perspectives of their varying experiences of ileo-anal pouch

• Expert discussions on national data collection and research questions

Fees:

Consultants: £100

Trainees: £75

Other healthcare professionals: £50

For more information or to book a place, please contact the SWSTN Admin Office

Phone: 01935 384529

E-mail: elaine.cox@ydh.nhs.uk

www.surgicaltrainingnetwork.org

Very many congratulations to Neil Barua who has just enjoyed astonishing academic success these last three months.

In September he was awarded the 2011 Young Investigator Prize by the International Society of Hydrocephalus and CSF Research at the Conference Hydrocephalus 2011 in Denmark. This research was into outcomes in paediatric shunt surgery was co-authored with Mr Kristian Aquilina under the supervision of Mr Richard Edwards. Then in October 2011 he was awarded an EPSRC Pathways to Impact Award (£18778) by the University of Bristol for a research project into delivery of amyloid-degrading enzymes to the brain for the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease. This project will be under the supervision of Professor Seth Love and Professor Steven Gill.

Finally, in November 2011 he was a co-applicant on a successful application to the MRC's Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme (£747 000) for a project developing chemotherapy nanoparticles for brain tumours. The principal investigator for this study is Professor Steven Gill, and this is a collaborative project with the Universities of Bristol, Bath and Nottingham.

Academic life doesn't get better than this and as a Postgraduate School of Surgery we are immensely proud of the achievements of Neil and his colleagues.