I boarded my flight from Heathrow on an overcast Monday and off I went eastbound to God’s own country, otherwise known as Kerala in South India.

The moment I touched down I could feel the warmth, not just of the sunny paradise but of the most helpful and hospitable people I have yet to come across, despite having lived and worked in several countries across the globe.

The second of April dawned and the RCSEd examination team, led by Kirsten, Anna, Nicole and Craig, had already started work well before we arrived. Our local host Dr Krishna Kumar, Consultant Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon from the Baby Memorial Hospital (BMH), had done all the heavy lifting with the competent examinations team and all was set to go.

The MRCS part B OSCE from RCSEd in Calicut consisted of four full days of examining 160 candidates. All under the watchful eyes of ICBSE Assessor Dr Uma Krishnaswamy, Lead Examiners Judy Evans and Simon Middleton and, of course, the general behind the mission, Professor Tim Graham, Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon and Vice President of RCSEd.

Thanks to our local hosts and the examination team’s hard work, examining never felt like ‘work’. The candidates were of an excellent calibre and it was a pleasure to examine them. I wish all the best to tomorrow’s surgeons of India – the future of surgery is in very good hands.

After a busy day of examining, we enjoyed a traditional Keralan meal on plantain leaves, organised by our local host. It brought back fond memories from my time in Sri Lanka and, for most of the examiners from the UK, it would have been an unforgettable experience to immerse oneself in the local culture and cuisine – fabulous!

On the evening of 3 April, the RCSEd team, led by Professor Graham, hosted a felicitation event for Dr Kumar and his team, all the Fellows who had been successful in the previous MRCS examinations as well as the local and visiting examiners. Professor Graham said no other profession in the world gives its valuable time in such an altruistic manner to train and mentor the next generation. It is truly amazing to see the dedication and commitment of the surgical fraternity to paying forward and advancing the profession. It is, indeed, truly humbling to be part of such a noble profession.

On 4 April we enjoyed a reception hosted by BMH – what a talented team of surgeons! All the performances were by the residents and consultants from BMH. The highlight of the evening for me was the little girl who performed for us. She was operated on by Dr Kumar and had a reconstruction for a mangled limb following a road-traffic accident. If it had not been for Dr Kumar’s skills, she would have lost her limb and would have never danced again. It’s a testament to what the NHS and RCSEd stand for – by training surgeons throughout the world, every passing second a capable surgeon somewhere will give back life to a patient, enabling them to see another day dawn. The legacy of healing hands continues and that is exactly what we were doing in Calicut.

On that note, our gracious host even took the trouble to present all of us with a beautiful memento to remember Calicut, a thoughtful gesture much appreciated by all of us.

The end of a busy and hugely successful examination came on 5 April but the RCSEd team had one more mission planned. Under the watchful eye of Professor Graham, we conducted the first RCSEd-accredited Train the Trainer (TTT) course for the BMH faculty. In the days before this event, Professor Graham, Mr Raaj Prassedom and Dr Kumar had laid the foundations to start the first core surgical training (CST) in Calicut. The TTT course was an integral part that initiative. It was amazing to see how far the local team had come from the inception of the idea: they had an electronic portfolio system up and running and had laid the foundations for a programme similar to CST in the UK. What impressed me the most was the local faculty’s enthusiasm. Most of them were senior surgeons with years of teaching experience but they approached the task with a curiosity that took us all by surprise. Their dedication to improving training and mentoring was tremendous. I am sure the CST programme will become a model for many institutions to follow.

Last but not least, we had two Professors of Anatomy, Gordon Findlater and Ross Jones, conduct the Wade Anatomy Study Day. This was a brilliant session to help students gauge the width and depth of the knowledge of anatomy expected for the MRCS. Professor Jones subsequently conducted a session for the senior trainers on outlining the Wade programme and the anatomy stations in the MRCS OSCE. This session had excellent feedback from the faculty.

As a very productive week drew to an end, it was with a heavy heart that we said our goodbyes to the local team. Special mentions are in order for the brilliant examinations team led by Kirsten; Dr Kumar and his wife, Vandana, who dazzled us with amazing hospitality; and Professor Graham, who was the guiding force behind everything the team achieved. 

As they say, every sunset is a sunrise somewhere else. Even though we left Kerala, the Members and Fellows we had inducted will carry on the good work and continue the legacy of healing hands and RCSEd.

Every March, the wake-up call comes to start preparing for the exams in the first week of April. This year, the call was even louder as our exam team leader, Kirsten, informed me that the exams would last for four days and involve 160 candidates and 40-plus examiners. Although we have been running the exams since before the pandemic, this time we all had to put in that little bit extra.

Baby Memorial Hospital (BMH) was 100% supportive of the College and all its activities. They gave me a free hand to go ahead and provide whatever was necessary. I would be doing an injustice if I did not thank our CMD Dr Alexander, our directors Dr Vineeth Abraham and Dr Anju Alexander, our Group CEO Harish Maniyan, our CEO Dr Ananth Mohan Pai and our whole team for their unstinting support. 

The whole plastic surgery team rolled up their sleeves and began work to get everything sorted within the month. Putting up and setting up the cubicles, arranging pick-up and drop-off, arranging refreshments and a hundred other things – it was a pleasant challenge that all of us enjoyed. In addition, we organised a College night, to which we invited candidates who had passed out from our centre over the past few years, and the Exam Banquet, which was hosted by BMH. 

After the four-day exam, we conducted a continuing medical education (CME) session to train the BMH consultants to run the core surgical training programme that BMH and RCSEd are planning to start by the end of the year. We also had an anatomy CME, run by our esteemed Edinburgh anatomy Professors Gordon Findlater and Ross Jones, which around 50 surgical trainees participated in.

It was a very gratifying experience and everything panned out without any major glitches. Importantly, the team had a very enjoyable week with an extra day of double CME.