What does your role as Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon involve?
My role is multi-faceted, and it involves quite a few responsibilities. These are to see patients, diagnose problems, and help them; to ensure that they have a safe journey, the best treatments, and the best outcome; to work within a team collaboratively and effectively; to be aware of new and effective treatments; and to be up to date with current practice to ensure patient safety.
I co-chair a multidisciplinary team (MDT), which means I work with surgeons, radiologists, and other healthcare professionals to provide my patients with a comprehensive opinion. That gives them the confidence they need to make informed decisions about their treatment.
What attracted you to specialising in orthopaedic surgery?
I like the fact that patients have a good outcome in orthopaedics. For example, a patient could come in with hip arthritis, have surgery, and be cured. From my experience, hip and knee patients usually have the very best outcomes of all orthopaedic patients.
In my opinion, orthopaedics is the most satisfying surgical specialty in medicine – in addition to the fact that it’s very interactive and very technical, you must be on your toes and you’re always thinking and planning.
What does a day in your life look like?
In the morning, I’ll come in, hold a clinic, and see my patients. Then, after that, I’ll be doing admin work – for example, completing booking forms for radiology requests. Later in the afternoon, I’ll visit my pre-operative patients, and then I’ll be in the operating theatre from 1.30pm to 9pm. After I’ve finished, I’ll write up the operation notes and then visit my post-operative patients before I leave the hospital. I usually finish up around 11pm.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
There are two things: the first is the positive feedback I receive from patients. I have a good rapport with my patients, and they engage very well with me, which is always very satisfying and rewarding.
The second is the operations themselves – there is a finesse and an art to it. You have to be very accurate in the way that you do things.
What do you like to do outside of work?
As we get older, it’s important to do exercise. I go to the gym and see a personal trainer three times a week, I try to take 10,000 steps a day where I can, and I also like to go swimming and play tennis.
Outside of work, I look after my kids and I recently enjoyed a holiday to Cos in Greece. It’s very important to take a break and travel, especially with my family.
I also like to attend and co-chair conferences – I recently co-chaired at the International Musculoskeletal Society conference in Beirut, and at the Isokinetic Conference in May.