• Advanced Training Post (ATP) fellows
• UK and EU hand surgery fellows
• BSSH Diploma in Hand Surgery

Advanced Training Post (ATP) fellows

The Advanced Training Post (ATP) fellowship is a central post advertised and interviewed at the Severn Deanery on an annual basis.

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) has trained ATP fellows in hand surgery since 2004. There are currently two ATP posts in Birmingham. The ATP fellow is a post-FRCS orthopaedic or plastic surgery trainee who can gain experience in both the orthopaedic and plastic surgery aspects of hand surgery.

Hand fellows are attached mainly to the more senior lead consultants during their 12-month attachment. However, they have access to work with any of the five orthopaedic and four plastic surgery hand consultants at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) and Royal Orthopaedic Hospital (ROH) and also spend a month with surgeons at Birmingham Children’s Hospitals for exposure in paediatric hand surgery.

In addition to meeting the needs for fellows to complete tutorials for the British Society for Surgery of the Hand (BSSH) British Hand Diploma, ATP fellows also have alternate weekly teaching and journal club sessions allocated within their timetable.

• Birmingham ATP description
• Current and past ATP fellows

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UK and EU hand surgery fellows

The Hand Centre at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) is one of the largest in the UK, with up to four hand surgery lists running per day between QEHB and the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital (ROH). There is ample opportunity to be involved in routine hand surgery as well as the more complex tertiary referral brachial plexus, wrist and trauma work.

In addition to the two Advanced Training Post (ATP) fellows, there are four hand surgery fellow posts in the department. They are officially named junior specialist doctor posts and run for a period of 6 or 12 months.

The positions are training posts aimed at pre-consultant, post-exam orthopaedic or plastic surgery trainees with an interest in hand surgery. There are no on-call commitments.

We have had a mixture of past fellows including UK trainees, surgeons from the EU and one from Australia who had prior UK links.

• Current and past UK and EU hand surgery fellows

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BSSH Diploma in Hand Surgery

The Diploma in Hand Surgery is a validated programme of study partnered between the British Society for Surgery of the Hand (BSSH) and University of Manchester leading, on successful completion, to the award of the diploma.

In Birmingham we support the Diploma in Hand Surgery, and one of our senior Consultants – Mr Michael Waldram – is the current programme director for the diploma exam.

Module teaching is carried out as follows:

Module 1

Basic sciences pertinent to the upper limb/rehabilitation – Mr Waldram

Module 2

Skin and soft tissues/Dupuytren’s contracture – Mr Chester, Mr Titley, Miss Webb

Module 3

Fractures and joint injuries of the hand and wrist, wrist instability – Mr Craigen, Mr Brewster

Module 4

Osteoarthritic and inflammatory disorders of the hand and wrist – Mr Deshmukh

Module 5

Tendon disorders – Mr Jose

Module 6

The child’s hand/tumors/vascular disorders – Mr Jester, Miss Lester

Module 7

Nerve disorders – Mr Power, Mr Tan

Alternate Wednesday afternoon teaching and journal clubs are in addition to modular teaching for the diploma and complement it to provide great support for any fellow undertaking the diploma exam.

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