Another jewel in the crown for our College with the success of last years’ event for the SAS and LED surgeons held on 18 November. RCSEd President Professor Rowan Parks reinforced the Colleges’ well known resolve to support this important workforce by travelling to Birmingham and participating actively all day. He did this despite a very busy work schedule particularly as this was his first week in office as the President of RCSEd.
The theme of the day was ‘how best to support overall development of SAS/LED workforce’. The program was studded with numerous important topics and delivered by experts in their fields. After a brief welcome by the Chair of SASLC committee Mr Majid Mukadam, the proceedings were kicked off by the President who outlined the overarching contributions of SAS surgeons to NHS and the need to support them at every stage of their career. This was followed by an inspiring talk on leadership by Mrs Chetna Modi, head of Leadership and Lifelong Learning at NHSE. She eloquently highlighted the role of effective leadership during the COVID pandemic and signposted the areas where SAS surgeons can adopt leadership roles. Next talk was on ‘support for CESR applicants’ and was delivered by none other than Mr Krishna Kumar, orthopaedic Surgeon who is a passionate supporter of CESR process and has developed a formal and structured program for candidates. He outlined the different ways in which he offers bespoke support to applicants, assesses their qualifications and experience followed by advice on the way forward to a successful application. Mr Ajay Bojaria, chair of this session facilitated the discussions. Each session was chaired by different members of SASLC committee and included Ms Catherine Driver, Mr Lasitha Samarakoon & Mr Karthik Iyenger.
After the coffee break, former Vice President Mr Pala Rajesh explained how the cardiothoracic surgical society teamed up with RCSEd and supported the SAS/LED surgeons. Few surgeons eventually were successful with their CESR applications while most have developed their niche and acquired eminence in their institutions and their area of expertise. Mr S S Murali, an eminent Urology Associate Specialist shared his experience of setting up autonomous practice and getting recognition through coding at his institution. He highlighted the obstacles he faced, how he overcame them and advised how this can be achieved at other centres.
Everyone enjoyed the lunch and utilised the break to network with colleagues and faculty including the attending RCSED council members. Post lunch session was devoted to surgical/system errors with particular emphasis on human factors and mechanisms available to support the affected surgeons. Mr Andrew Garnham, chair of Vascular Surgical Board touched on the RCSED’s NOTTS course and enumerated areas where errors are possible and discussed circumstances that breed them. Mr David Alderson, consultant ENT surgeon & author of numerous human factors related articles used novel ‘artwork and Poems’ to stress the effect that surgical errors can have on surgeons and talked about ways to mitigate these effects. Delegates were mesmerised by this session and generated lively discussions.
Final session concentrated on SAS surgeons as Trainers and Assessors. Mr James Tomlinson, chair of Faculty of Surgical Trainers outlined the importance of upholding high standards of surgical training and the need for supporting and developing trainers. He further highlighted the excellent role that college plays in enhancing the standards and encouraged all to get involved as trainers. It was fascinating to hear Mr Garnham and Chris Sanderson who explained the wide variety of roles of that Assessors are involved with and the training offered by the college. These assessor roles are open to senior SAS surgeons. Mr Aidan Fitzgerald, head of Education applied the finishing touches and further reiterated the need to encourage and support this NHS workforce. He declared that all courses/workshops organised by RCSEd will be open to SAS/LED surgeons and not restricted to trainees.
We have received excellent feedback with few suggestions to improve, overarching theme was to organise such sessions more often and on a regular basis.
Look out for our next SAS Day here: www.rcsed.ac.uk/events-courses/sas-surgeons-development-day
Or view our upcoming courses and events here: www.rcsed.ac.uk/events-courses