On 20th January I am flying to Chicago to begin a round the world tour looking at Surgical Training.
Since the late 1990s surgical training, in the UK, has undergone several necessary changes. Some of these changes were a result of the widely publicised failures of some individuals and departments to uphold the trust placed in them by the public and the government. There have also been changes in legislation which have changed the shape of the working week, no longer is the surgeon in training expected to stay on duty for over a hundred hours a week. As well as this there have been changes in society, the young doctor expects to have a life outside medicine.
The old patterns of training, where a Registrar was expected to work alongside their boss for years, as a type of apprentice, has gone. There is disappointment over this and a scepticism about the alternatives, a programme based training programme.
However elsewhere they have long recognised that training can be delivered in a programmed mannner, but it needs careful and constructive management.
I have long wanted to see how training was delivered elsewhere, and with the help of Jonathan Meakins, Nuffield Professor of Surgery, Oxford, and several old friends around the world, I put a trip together.
In outline it is as follows:
22nd January Chicago: Northwestern University, American College of Surgeons, University of Southern Illinois
29th January Toronto, Wilson Centre, The University of Toronto.
5th February Stanford
12th February University of California, San Francisco (where I was a research fellow in the 1980s)
19th February Auckland (20-22 Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, Melbourne)
28th February Port Douglas (holiday!)
4th March Brisbane
10th March Sydney
15th March Melbourne
19th March Adelaide
28th March Blantyre, Malawi
5th April Nairobi
10th April London
It is around the world in 80 days, provided Swiss Airways manages to keep to schedule on the final leg of the journey!
Tony Jefferis
Sunday 14th January 2007
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