Jul 2007
BAPS council meeting report
24/07/07 22:09 Filed in: INFO from
Trainee Reps
General Paediatric Surgery
There has been a decline in the number of Adult General Surgeons intending to take on general Paediatric Surgery as part of their practice and the way to address this shortfall has been contentious for some years. A document due to be released this week suggests that service provision stays predominantly with adult surgeons with the option to bring them to tertiary Paediatric Surgical centres for 6/12 to train.
An alternative is for the work to be undertaken by Paediatric Surgeons. This may involve working in a “hub and spoke” post (ie based at a tertiary referral centre but with a formal appointment and therefore, commitment to, a recognised DGH). It was suggested that children may receive optimal care if looked after by Paediatric Surgeons. Formal links between the DGH and Teaching hospitals would benefit the DGH (not shipping out as much work) and the teaching hospital (better handle on the management and audit of surgical practice within a larger area). A hub and spoke configuration would prevent trained Paediatric Surgeons working in isolation in DGHs.
It seems that 86% of adult surgical trainees don’t want to pursue a paediatric surgical post. From the information you provided for Richard Lindley’s survey last year, approximately 2/3 of people felt that ideally we should provide both elective and emergency cover in DGHs. Furthermore, 75% of respondents in that survey would consider working in a DGH for at least part of their career. The view put forward as your representatives was that we would support the second approach – the provision of paediatric surgery by paediatric surgeons as far as possible, and within a hub and spoke configuration. We felt that this system would be optimal for patient care and would also potentially facilitate an expansion in consultant numbers if this were needed to accommodate the expansion in numbers of CCT-qualified surgeons in the next few years.
On that note, Professor Thomas, Chair of the SAC said there had been an increase in consultant posts over the last 3 years and felt that this is likely to continue, making a significant mismatch in numbers unlikely. Mr Drake suggests that other potential sources of expansion include
i) increased consultant time devoted to training and teaching (MMC).
ii) the stated aim to reduce all consultants to 10 PA Job Plans
iii) the potential to expand numbers of paediatric surgeons performing the general surgery of childhood
Nevertheless, we feel that keeping a close eye to see that these jobs actually materialise seems sensible.
Run Through Training
The position for ST1 and ST2 trainees in terms of whether their appointments will lead to run through training to CCT needs to be clarified. We will appraise you of further developments in Paediatric Surgery as we hear about them.
-Trainee Representatives
There has been a decline in the number of Adult General Surgeons intending to take on general Paediatric Surgery as part of their practice and the way to address this shortfall has been contentious for some years. A document due to be released this week suggests that service provision stays predominantly with adult surgeons with the option to bring them to tertiary Paediatric Surgical centres for 6/12 to train.
An alternative is for the work to be undertaken by Paediatric Surgeons. This may involve working in a “hub and spoke” post (ie based at a tertiary referral centre but with a formal appointment and therefore, commitment to, a recognised DGH). It was suggested that children may receive optimal care if looked after by Paediatric Surgeons. Formal links between the DGH and Teaching hospitals would benefit the DGH (not shipping out as much work) and the teaching hospital (better handle on the management and audit of surgical practice within a larger area). A hub and spoke configuration would prevent trained Paediatric Surgeons working in isolation in DGHs.
It seems that 86% of adult surgical trainees don’t want to pursue a paediatric surgical post. From the information you provided for Richard Lindley’s survey last year, approximately 2/3 of people felt that ideally we should provide both elective and emergency cover in DGHs. Furthermore, 75% of respondents in that survey would consider working in a DGH for at least part of their career. The view put forward as your representatives was that we would support the second approach – the provision of paediatric surgery by paediatric surgeons as far as possible, and within a hub and spoke configuration. We felt that this system would be optimal for patient care and would also potentially facilitate an expansion in consultant numbers if this were needed to accommodate the expansion in numbers of CCT-qualified surgeons in the next few years.
On that note, Professor Thomas, Chair of the SAC said there had been an increase in consultant posts over the last 3 years and felt that this is likely to continue, making a significant mismatch in numbers unlikely. Mr Drake suggests that other potential sources of expansion include
i) increased consultant time devoted to training and teaching (MMC).
ii) the stated aim to reduce all consultants to 10 PA Job Plans
iii) the potential to expand numbers of paediatric surgeons performing the general surgery of childhood
Nevertheless, we feel that keeping a close eye to see that these jobs actually materialise seems sensible.
Run Through Training
The position for ST1 and ST2 trainees in terms of whether their appointments will lead to run through training to CCT needs to be clarified. We will appraise you of further developments in Paediatric Surgery as we hear about them.
-Trainee Representatives
ISCP news
16/07/07 22:34 Filed in: TRAINING
Visit www.iscp.ac.uk to see Nick Ross launch the ISCP, access your Getting Started Hospital Doctor booklet, a Step-by-Step Guide and all the guidance you need, whether a trainee, consultant trainer, assigned educational supervisor or programme director.
