GENERAL SURGERY

The general surgery departments at Ipswich and Colchester hospital provide high-quality surgical care for a wide range of surgical conditions of the upper GI tract, lower GI tract and hepatobiliary system. In order to gain CCT in general surgery, all trainees will acquire the knowledge, clinical and technical skills to obtain the competency levels defined for ST8.

Ipswich Hospital

There are 3 main surgical wards at Ipswich Hospital - 2 for emergency care and 1 for elective care. There is a new purpose-built surgical assessment unit where new admissions to the surgical department are reviewed.

The Ipswich surgical unit has subspeciality interest in inflammatory bowel disease/pouch surgery, pelvic floor surgery and colorectal cancer surgery including laparoscopic complete mesocolic resections and laparoscopic TME surgery for rectal cancers.

Colchester Hospital

There are 3 higher specialty trainees with national training numbers at Colchester Hospital. There are also ICENI surgical fellows who are involved in surgical simulation training and clinical care (click here for more information).

The Colchester surgical department is a national training unit, undertaking around 200 laparoscopic colorectal resections per year. This work has been facilitated by the installation of 2 elective main theatres and one emergency state of the art, high definition, 3D ready laparoscopic theatre.

There are 3 main surgical wards with outliers and surgical inpatient referrals. In a typical week registrars usually cover ward rounds, theatres and clinics (minimum 4 sessions of theatre per week).