The West Midlands is the largest region geographically in England and has large and well evaluated training programmes in all surgical specialties. Many of the surgical specialties have the ability to undertake sub-specialty training. The School of Postgraduate Surgery covers ten surgical disciplines.
Outline of Training
All surgical specialties require a period of basic training, this varies among the specialties. General Surgery, Trauma & Orthopaedic surgery, Plastic surgery, Otolaryngology, Cardiothoracic surgery and Paediatric surgery all require two years of basic training called core surgical training. Some of these programmes may be themed to a particular specialty with certain specialties having mixed recruitment i.e. some run through and some core with further selection later.
Following core training, specialty training is then given for a variable length of time dependant on the specialty. Further details on this and the specifics of specialty training can be found here on the Intercollegiate Surgical Curriculum Project website.
Training Details
The new surgical curriculum is an output based curriculum and requires trainees to achieve agreed competencies to allow progress to the next level. The assessments used in the curriculum are similar to those used in the Foundation programmes but are enhanced to deal with surgical issues. Assessments can be found here on the ISCP website.
Along with these assessments there will be an annual ARCP (annual review of competence performance) which will look at an individual trainee’s portfolio of evidence of training, which will include their logbook and various assessments they have undertaken. Progress to the next level of training will only be achieved on satisfactory completion of this ARCP.
Quality Assurance and Governance
At the heart of the school of postgraduate surgery is the Board. This consists of the Postgraduate Dean; Armed Forces Postgraduate Dean; Chairs of the ten Surgical Training Committees; Chair of the core surgical Training committee; West Midlands Royal College Council member; Deanery HR staff; Royal College Regional co-ordinator. The Board of the School of Surgery sits once every three months and oversees all surgical training in the West Midlands. The board is answerable to the Postgraduate Dean and the West Midlands Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education Board. This latter committee is made up of the Heads of the various Schools of Postgraduate Medical Education.
The School of Surgery participates with the HEE to ensure the quality of training within all posts according to GMC (General Medical Council) guidelines. This involves a process of Quality assurance through trainee questionnaires and triggered and validation visits to units across the West Midlands.
Key Personnel
Specialty |
|
Programme Director |
Head of School |
|
Andrew Garnham |
Core Surgery |
|
Mr Senthurun Mylvaganam (Lead)
Ms Claire Pattenden
Mr Sanjiv Bhimrao
Ms Deborah Markham
Mr Usman Ahmed
|
Cardiothoracic Surgery |
|
Mr Shilajit Ghosh |
ENT |
|
Mr Duncan Bowyer |
General Surgery
|
|
Mr Andrew Garnham (Lead)
Ms Rachel Bright Thomas (Cov &Warwickshire
Mr Ravi Marudanayagam (Final Years)
Mr Bala Piramanayagam (STaffordshire, Shropshire, Stoke))
Ms Sarah Addison (Birmingham Central)
|
Neurosurgery |
|
Mr Guirish Solanki |
OMFS |
|
Mr Jason Green |
Paediatric Surgery |
|
Mr Andrew Robb |
Plastic Surgery |
|
Ms Elizabeth Chipp |
Trauma & Orthopaedics
|
|
Mr Nigel Kiely
Mr Khalid Baloch (Birmingham)
Ms Anna Chapman (Warwick)
Mr Rob Banerjee (Oswestry)
Mr Shree Deshpande (Birmingham Teaching)
|
Urology |
|
Mr Hemant Ojha |
Vascular Surgery |
|
to be confirmed |