North West School of Surgery - Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery, East Sector (North Western)

Key Contacts

Mr Mike Woodruff,
Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery Training Programme Director
for Greater Manchester, Lancashire and South Cumbria

Based at Royal Preston Hospital
Email: mike.woodruff@lthtr.nhs.uk

Overview of Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery

Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery is one of the largest and most popular surgical specialties. It covers the surgical management of disease, deformity and injury of the musculoskeletal system. Most consultants contribute to an emergency trauma workload managing bony and soft tissue injuries admitted through their local Emergency Departments. The vast majority of Trauma and Orthopaedic surgeons also have a specialist elective interest in orthopaedic conditions, often based on an anatomical region of the body including the following:

— Lower limb joint reconstruction (hip and knee replacements and associated procedures)
— Knee surgery (bony and soft tissue)
— Foot and Ankle
— Upper limb (shoulder and elbow)
— Upper limb (hands and wrist)
— Spinal Surgery
— Bone tumour surgery
— Paediatric surgery
— Complex trauma surgery

Orthopaedics is also a rapidly developing area with extensive opportunities in research and academic surgery. Exciting progress in tissue engineering, materials and biomechanics as well as clinical trials of techniques and implants opens up exciting opportunities for the future.

Will a career in Orthopaedic Surgery suit me?

Trauma and Orthopaedic surgery requires a combination of manual and spatial skills. Communication skills are also vital, both with patients and colleagues.

With such a broad spread of sub-specialisation, there are branches of trauma and orthopaedic surgery to suit everyone regardless of height, physical strength or gender!

What does the training involve?

The Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery curriculum is governed by the Intercollegiate Surgical Curriculum Programme (ISCP).

After basic medical qualification and successful completion of a two years foundation programme, interested trainees will apply for Core Training (CT) in Surgery, with a focus on orthopaedics. Trauma and Orthopaedic surgery offers uncoupled training posts, with two years of core training (CT1-2), in which the trainee will rotate through a Trauma and Orthopaedics post and posts in related specialties (Plastic Surgery, Vascular Surgery, General Surgery). On completion of this training period and after successfully passing the Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS) exam, trainees can proceed to apply for higher training posts (ST3+). This is by another competitive application process.

The Trauma and Orthopaedic curriculum is a competency based curriculum which has a robust appraisal system. As a trainee your performance will be reviewed twice yearly at the Annual Review of Competence Progression (ARCP) and the interim progress review, the CCT is awarded on the proviso that you have demonstrated all the expected competencies.

The North West (East Sector) Trauma and Orthopaedic Training Programme

The East sector Trauma and Orthopaedic Training Programme covers a wide geographical region with training units located throughout Greater Manchester, Lancashire and South Cumbria. Trainees should expect to rotate throughout the region. The region includes three Major Trauma Centres,  two regional spinal centres, two regional pelvic surgery centres and a regional Paediatric surgery centre.

In the first four years of training, every trainee will rotate through all eight subspecialties: Spine, Paediatrics, Hip, Knee, Foot and Ankle, Shoulder and Elbow, Hand and Wrist and Major Trauma, ensuring their eligibility to sit the FRCS (orth) examination. This means that as a trainee you will have had a broad exposure to the breadth of trauma and orthopaedic surgery before the exit exam and more importantly before your sub-specialisation training starts.

The final two years of training are focused on subspecialist training with trainees invited to request specific training posts to facilitate their chosen subspecialty career interest.

Many trainees choose to do a post CCT Fellowship before applying for consultant roles. Pre CCT Fellowships may be considered in exceptional circumstances and after discussion with the TPD, however they are not encouraged.

Trainee Support

All ST3 trainees will be allocated to an AES (Approved Educational Supervisor), who will remain as their AES for the six years of training.

There is a strong cohesive Training Committee to support the delivery of local training with a number of leads including: education lead, research lead, academic lead, simulation lead, EDI lead, mentor lead.

In addition, the School of Surgery has a well-established Mentorship Scheme and an excellent SuppoRTT scheme.

Teaching and Education

There is a weekly teaching programme that runs within the region on a Friday afternoon. The teaching sessions are themed into speciality blocks and are delivered by consultants with expertise in the relevant areas. The programme incorporates a mixture of lecture based teaching and clinical examination practice with the ultimate aim of ensuring success at the FRCS trauma and orthopaedic examination.

An FRCS Orth standard Viva examination is run twice a year on a Friday afternoon for all pre-exam trainees.

Research and Audit

Trainees are required to participate in research, audit and service evaluation regularly during the programme.

There is a thriving north west orthopaedic research collaborative (NWORC), with affiliations to Edge Hill, The University of Salford and Manchester University. Trainees are encouraged to consider spending a period of training out of programme pursuing a higher research degree.

The best trainee research is showcased annually at the NWOTA Research day with the winning presentation being put forwards for the annual Best of the Best research at the BOA’s annual conference in September.
 

Links

 Health Careers - Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery - Specialty Registrar “Real-life Story”

 Health Careers - Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery - Working Life

 “How competitive is entry into Orthopaedic Training?”

Competition Ratios:  2017  2016

 The British Orthopaedic Association

 North West Orthopaedic Trainee's Association

Hospitals on the Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery East Sector Rotation

GMC Programme Code: NWE1126 (was NWD913) and NWE1162 (run-through - was NWD4215)

Page Last Updated 6 November 2023