1) The West Midlands Surgical Society Meeting abstract deadline is next Friday 5th September
2) The Ethicon Laparoscopic Fellowships are due in by next Friday 5th September
West Midlands Surgical Society Autumn
West Midlands Surgical Society Autumn Meeting
DATE: FRIDAY 7th NOVEMBER 2008
VENUE:The Education Centre
Good Hope Hospital
CLOSING DATE FOR ABSTRACTS:
FRIDAY 5th SEPTEMBER 2008
ABSTRACTS - Abstracts should be confined to 200 words in length and should include a clear exposition of the problem or topic for discussion, a description of the methods used or clinical details and a summary of results. Abstracts containing in excess of 200 words will NOT be considered. All abstracts this year will be published on the wmsurgeons.com
POSTERS - There will also be a poster presentation at this meeting. If you wish to present a poster please send details i.e. title of poster together with names and contact details to Lynne Ingram at the e-mail address as indicated below. The owner of the best poster will be asked to give a short presentation of their work. Please submit abstracts by either of the following methods –
You should all get a automated response telling you they have been recieved AND everyone will get a email by the closing date to tell you they have been processed.
ii. Traditional post on a single sheet of A.4 with the title of the abstract at the top and authors and names and address for communication at the bottom.
Please send your abstracts to
Mrs. Lynne Ingram, Secretary, West Midlands Surgical Society, Ward A.6, Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham, B29 6JD Tel.No. 0121.627.8269 (Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays)
UNFORTUNATELY BUILDERS HAVE CUT THROUGH THE LIVE-LINK CABLE SO THE LIVE-LINK IS NOT CURRENTLY WORKING!! THEY WILL TAKE A FEW WEEKS TO FIX IT.
I'M AFRAID THAT THE TRAINING DAY HAS BEEN POSTPONED, BUT I WILL TRY TO RE-ARRANGE FOR EARLY DECEMBER. TO ALL THOSE WHO HAVE EXPRESSED AN INTEREST, I'M SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE . I WILL KEEP YOU ALL POSTED.
You may be aware that the JCST has very suddenly rushed in a new trainee fee of £125 per year due to come into force next week. More details of this can be seen in the statement on the RCSEng website (LINK) , but essentially any trainee registered with the ISCP website as a trainee will soon receive an invoice for their fee (so most SpRs are exempt).
Conor Marron, the current ASiT treasurer and past-president, amongst other members of the ASiT council have been involved in opposing the introduction of this fee ever since it was first proposed. He has asked me to pass on the message below to make everyone aware of what we have done to prevent it from being introduced and what you can do to try and overturn the decision.
Food should be available. I have struggled with the venue this time as places are either booked up or being refurbished, so any ideas for future venues (to hold approx 30 people) would be welcome.
The purpose of the meeting is primarily to iron out any problems which people are having with data collection for CHARMS. Don't worry if you have not achieved as much as you would like with the data collection - it's crucial that you come along anyway to see where others have found difficulties and how they might be overcome.
The second half of the meeting will be to discuss new project ideas. As mentioned at the last meeting, please forward any ideas to the group before the meeting so that we can think of ways of developing them. Sarah Addison has come up with 3 very good, and I think achievable, projects. These will be on our new web site soon.
See you all a week Tues - would be helpful if you could e-mail me to let me know if you're coming.
We have great pleasure in inviting you to attend the launch meeting of the West Midlands Research Collaborative (WMRC) and the WMRC’s first study.
The WMRC is a surgical trainee-led research network within the West Midlands. Its purpose is to capitalise on the natural network we have as rotating trainees, in order to carry out multicentre studies within the region. In fact, the development of this research network could not have occurred at a better time. The Department of Health has outlined its support for innovative ventures, particularly research networks, in the recently published Darzi Report. Being the first research network of its kind, the WMRC will lead the way in this extremely exciting and worthwhile venture.
All studies will be supervised by Professor Dion Morton and the Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit to ensure professional study support. The first multicentre study to be launched will be the CHARM study: Clostridium difficile in Hospitals – ARegional Multicentre Study. The study will be run across 19 hospitals and promises to be the largest ever study into C.diff in the literature.One point that must be stressed is that ALL trainees and consultants are welcome to be members of the collaborative. This is an inclusive group and its success relies on as many people participating as possible. Please e-mail haney@doctors.org.uk if you wish to attend. To find out more, join us at the Clinical Skills Room, Postgraduate Centre on Thursday 10th July at 6.30 pm. Dinner will be provided.
West Midlands Research Collaborative Launch Meeting Agenda
6.30 pmIntroduction to WMRCHaney Youssef
6.35 pmPurpose and Future Directions of the WMRCDion Morton
6.45 pmThe CHARM StudyShelagh Macleod
7.00 pmOther Project IdeasKay Futaba
7.15 pmDinner – Sponsored by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals
West Midlands Surgical Society winners Spring 2008
Poster presentation: David Luke for "Appendicitis in children and young people; a comparative study between a specialist centre and a District Hospital" (View)
Oral presentation: K. Leong for "Improvement in quality of life following parathyroidectomy for primary hyperparathyroidism has no correlation with the severity of pre-operative hypercalcaemia" (View)
Dear all I have just checked with my secretary Linda and with Jenny Murray. We have now had 10 replies in total for the breast endocrine training day on the 10th June and sadly therefore have decided to cancel it due to lack of interest and to avoid a waste of all the speakers time (coming from out of trust, ENT and radiology departments as well as 4 Consultant General Surgeons). We would be delighted to put this on again in the future if there is more interest
Rachel M. Bright-Thomas Consultant Breast and General Surgeon Worcestershire Royal Hospital
I would add that we have been trying to put together 10 training days a year for Specialist trainees in the region. A lot of hard work goes into preparing for them and a lack response from trainees in the region is disappointing. You all have to sit an exam at the end, and these days are a good forum to ask questions and build on your knowledge base.
These training days are for us! They are not for the benefit of those organizing them.
I am sticking my neck out a bit and you may think this is a little harsh coming from me, but please lets discuss whether we all want them or not.(click here for the forum)
Our NHS, our future
West Midlands Surgical Society winners Spring 2008