...should really become the new title for this blog. As of 1st November I have been a Consultant General Surgeon in the Kingdom. It’s been an interesting few months settling in and seeing how things work. I feel I’m starting to get a handle on some of the issues and difficulties that reaching Consultanthood brings, particularly in my new hospital. Although the good people of Fife might object, sometimes it does feel that I’ve swapped one Third World Hospital for another in terms of some of the pathology!
My new hospital covers a population about the same size as my Ugandan hospital – about 500,000. However, where in Uganda there are on average seven doctors to run the place, in Fife we have many, many more. In Uganda there were two of us surgeons – I am now part of a team of Eleven Consultants, Fourteen Middle-graders and Sixteen House Officers. And thats just in General Surgery – there are a whole lot of other surgeons looking after Vascular Surgery, Urology, Orthopaedics, ENT, Maxillo-Facial Surgery, Breast Surgery, and Plastic Surgery. And all of us are working full time for more than 48hrs a week...
I’ve been finding my niche within the unit too. I was appointed on the basis of being a very General Surgeon with a special interest in Laparoscopic (Keyhole) Surgery and plans to take on Thyroid Surgery too. While on call I’ll therefore take almost any emergency/urgent patient, but my non-emergency workload has been predominantly hernias, gallbladders, bottoms and bowel problems. I’ve managed to do some advanced laparoscopic work – doing clever things with stones in bile ducts, and I’ve finally found a patient to do some anti-reflux surgery on, an operation I trained hard to learn last year, and which I’ve not had the chance to perform in the last six months! As I’ve not done thyroid surgery for a few years, I’ve been getting some refresher training from the other Thyroid Surgeon in the hospital – It’ll need a few more cases before I’ll feel confident to get on by myself, but I’m slowly getting there.
On the non-surgical side of things, I’ve started to take on some of the role of looking after our juniors. This is mostly rota and admin stuff, but it’s important to look after the doctors of the future, and ensure they’re getting reasonable training. I’m also starting to get involved with some of the Endoscopy administration, which is perhaps unsurprising considering my involvement setting up the unit in Kiwoko Hospital, Uganda.
My endoscopy and theatre staff have been fantastic in collecting old equipment and supplies for Kiwoko. I have boxes and boxes of sutures, suction tubes, gloves and dressings that would all otherwise have been thrown out. They’re now at home filling a corner of my study until I can take them out to Africa with me. I’m planning to go back during some leave at the beginning of May – I think I’m being lined up to help out with the surgical work load at Kiwoko while another surgeon is away! Nothing like a good holiday for relaxation!
So it’ll be back to Steve In Africa soon! I just can’t stay away from my other home, and I’m looking forward to meeting all of my Ugandan family again. Come and visit me soon, either in Fife or Kiwoko – although preferably not on a professional basis!
Steve
