the 80 bulletin
SCTS-Ionescu NTN Travelling Fellowship 2019 – Adult cardiac surgery at The Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane, Australia Eshan Senanayake
W
as it a dream? Having returned back to Birmingham, it now sure feels like it. My fellowship in adult cardiac surgery at The Prince Charles Hospital (TPCH) in Brisbane, Australia (Feb 2019 – Feb 2020) has provided me with great fulfilment clinically and personally, and it has also provided me and my family with a full year of fantastic out-doors Australian living. I am eternally grateful for being awarded the SCTS-Ionescu NTN Travelling fellowship in 2019, which has helped fund this fellowship, and I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Mr. Marian Ionescu and the SCTS for creating this opportunity. During ST6 I was acutely aware that there wasn’t much time left before the next step of being a consultant; the key question I had was if I was ready to be a consultant? First and foremost I wanted to get the basics right! This led me to arrange a fellowship that allowed more independent operating within the generality of cardiac surgery but also give me the scope to sub-specialise in my area of interest within the fellowship year. I decided to do this as an OOPE after passing my FRCS (C-Th). I had firmly decided to go abroad for a fellowship. After a lot of research and speaking to colleagues here and abroad there was little hesitation that Australia was going to be the preferred destination to provide both a comprehensive training experience and also for a better quality of life. The Prince Charles Hospital (TPCH) in Brisbane, Queensland, is one of the biggest public units in Australia offering all aspects of cardiac surgery; > 1000 conventional cardiac cases/ year, aortic surgery programme, heart & lung transplantation, mechanical support, and
ACHD programme. The state of Queensland has the best quality of life Australia has to offer (I say this with bias now, but I’m sure many will agree) with year round sunshine, extremely mild winters (with baby blue skies), easy access to both the Goldcoast and Sunshine-coast and, of course, the Great Barrier Reef (should be on everyone’s bucket list). Therefore the decision to target TPCH was easy! TPCH was able to offer me in principle a fellowship with greater independence as a first operator and scope to develop in aortic surgery and transplantation. With this knowledge I took a great leap of faith and committed to this fellowship. I had to formally apply through their national recruitment process in June 2018, with an intention to start in Feb 2019 (to stay in line with their recruitment schedule). Having secured this fellowship and obtaining all the
mandatory regulatory approvals, my family and I were ready to embark on this journey. We arrived in Brisbane in the middle of January 2019. It was the height of the Australian summer; sun was shining, it was 30°C and parks were full of families enjoying the great outdoors. Prior to starting work we headed to the coast to experience the awesome coastline, enjoy the sunshine, play on the beach and swim in the fresh Pacific Ocean; the kids, my wife and I all loved it and as far as lifestyle goes, we had made the right choice! This lifestyle continued throughout the year in Brisbane. The Prince Charles Hospital is set within its own acreage with manicured lawns and driveways lined with palm trees. The cardiothoracic surgery department is a big unit with 10 consultants (8 cardiac, 1 thoracic and 1 mixed practice). There was a lot that was different from the NHS. The feel was a
“The Prince Charles Hospital is set within its own acreage with manicured lawns and driveways lined with palm trees. The cardiothoracic surgery department is a big unit with 10 consultants (8 cardiac, 1 thoracic and 1 mixed practice). There was a lot that was different from the NHS. The feel was a hybrid between the American and old British systems.”