Trainee
Ran Wei is an ST8 in South West London with an interest in Knee Surgery. He is the current President of BOTA, having previously served as Vice President and SAC Rep. He represents T&O trainees within a number of important forums including RCSEng Council, RCSEng L&A Committee, BOA Council, BOA EdCar Committee, IST Assurance Board, T&O SDG and ATDG.
Training in the independent sector Ran Wei, Rob Gregory, George Holland and Josh Burke
Events over the past twelve months have resulted in the greatest challenge to surgical training that we are likely to experience within our lifetime. Cessation of elective operating coupled with workforce redeployment has resulted in an effective pause in T&O training for most trainees across the UK.
I Rob Gregory is a Consultant and Lead Clinician in Trauma and Orthopaedics at County Durham and the Darlington NHS Trust. Robert has an interest in surgical education and is currently chair of the specialist training committee for T&O. He is quality management lead in the School of Surgery in the Northern Deanery, an examiner at MRCS level and also a Regional Specialty College Adviser in T&O.
42 | JTO | Volume 09 | Issue 01 | March 2021 | boa.ac.uk
n the wake of the first national Survey data lockdown, concerns over the increased morbidity and mortality of patients In November 2020, BOTA began surveying who contract COVID-19 around the trainees across the country in an attempt time of surgery1 led to the guidance to understand and voice the issues provided by both the BOA2 and NICE3 to help encountered by trainees when trying to ensure a safe return to elective operating. The access training in the IS. The survey was requirement for the establishment of ‘Green’ conducted over a three-month period from sites, intended to minimise the risk of patients 16th November 2020. Through the Regional contracting COVID-19 during the perioperative Representative network, BOTA was able to period, meant that many NHS hospitals achieve 150 responses from trainees of all utilised independent sector (IS) hospitals for grades (Figure 1) in all 29 training regions their ever-growing elective workload. Initial across the UK (Figure 2). contracts between the NHS and the participating IS providers did not include any formal obligation to facilitate surgical training4. This led to considerable regional variation in elective surgical training across the UK. Despite further contracts being negotiated between the NHS and the IS providers which included obligations relating to surgical training, and despite the subsequent release of position statements jointly agreed by IHPN, NHSEI and HEE5, and despite guidance set out by HEE6, trainees continue to encounter problems when attempting to access Figure 1: Survey responses by grade. training in IS hospitals.
