Education
for all

< BACK

Majid Mukadam: RCSEd Council Member and SASLC Committee Chair

Karthikeyan Parthasarathy Iyengar: Specialty Doctor

The annual SAS Surgeons’ Educational Day at the RCSEd Birmingham Centre on 20 October 2023 was a resounding success. It enabled the RCSEd to showcase its unwavering and enthusiastic support for the academic, professional and wellbeing development of specialist, associate specialist and specialty doctors (SAS) and locally employed doctors (LEDs).

This group of doctors is increasingly being recognised as a pivotal cog in the delivery of quality patient care in the NHS. Recent data suggest that as many as 32% of surgeons in the UK are either SAS or LED doctors. Being in the non-training pathway, they do not always have the access or knowledge of development pathways to enable a fulfilling professional career.

Career progression

The College spearheaded its vision of developing careers, upholding professional standards and promoting patient safety by empowering this group of surgeons to attain excellence in teaching, training and academic opportunities.

The College’s SAS survey results guided the RCSEd committee for Specialty Doctors, Associate Specialists and Locums (SASLC) in preparing the Educational Day’s programme with oral presentations and interactive workshops.

The day started with a welcome and introduction by the Chair of the SASLC committee, Majid Mukadam, followed by College Vice-President Professor Tim Graham highlighting the role of the College in the development of SAS surgeons.

“The College spearheaded its vision of empowering this group of surgeons to attain excellence”

The first themed session was aimed at colleagues who aspire to become substantive consultants in the NHS as well as those who wish to progress towards being examiners. Elizabeth Swatkins, Head of Specialist Applications at the General Medical Council, discussed the proposed changes to the CESR application being implemented.

Deepa Bose, Consultant in Orthopedic Trauma and Limb reconstruction at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, presented the assessors’ viewpoint on the CESR applications and talked about common pitfalls. Professor Graham then touched on eligibility criteria to enable SAS/LED surgeons to become examiners for MRCS surgical examinations.

Focus on specialist grade

The next session was ‘SAS – A viable career choice’ with focus on specialist grade, results of the SAS survey, aspects of wellbeing and setting up a new service for patients. Amit Kochhar, Chair of the BMA’s SAS North Western committee, spoke on what to expect from the new specialist grade post and outlined the criteria for appointment.

Plastic surgeon Avinash Deodhar explained how he was appointed to Specialist Grade. And Catherine Diver, Specialty Doctor in ENT, presented the results of the RCSEd-led SAS Survey. This was followed by an uplifting presentation by Dr Emma Plunkett, Consultant Anaesthetist and advocate of doctors’ wellbeing, emphasising the need to prioritise work-life balance.

Russell Boulton, General Manager of Transplant Services, explained how to prepare a business case for setting up a new NHS service. Then Locum Consultants Lasitha Samarakoon and Anish Pushkaran shared their experiences of setting up endoscopy and andrology services, respectively. All of the experiences inspired colleagues.

Getting practical

The afternoon session featured interactive practical workshops on three topics: how to collect evidence for successful CESR – clinical and non-clinical by ISECSN Co-Chair Rickaz Raheem and Renol M Koshy; how to be an academic publisher by Professor K P Iyengar, Associate Specialist in T&O, and Professor Graham; and how to set up autonomous practice by Associate Specialist in Urology S S Murali and Majid Mukadam.

We were pleased with the response to this event, which was fully subscribed within days of announcement and saw delegates from all over the UK braving the weather and travel chaos to attend.

Catherine Diver thanked the speakers, workshop contributors and delegates for their monumental efforts in making this event a resounding success.