Budding surgeons from the West Midlands have been learning valuable lessons about becoming a consultant during a prestige event at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.

The medical students, most of whom are trainees at QEHB, were invited to attend a regional meeting of The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

The ‘Preparing to be a Consultant Surgeon’ seminar on 3 November 2011 was held within the new hospital’s Education Centre.

And there was a separate opportunity on the previous day for the trainee surgeons to put their abilities to the test in a regional heat of the Lister Surgical Skills Competition.

The contest is open to students in their third, fourth or fifth year of medical school, with Mark Mobley from the University of Warwick now going through to compete in the Grand Final in Edinburgh in February 2012. The runner up was Samantha Chambers, also from the University of Warwick. 

The overall two-day course was organised by Mr Rajiv Vohra, Consultant Vascular Surgeon at QEHB, who is also Regional Surgical Adviser for the Royal College.

He said: “This was an important meeting as both the President and Vice-President of The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh were in attendance.

“It was also the first big regional meeting in our new Education Centre. The event the day before was the first Surgical Skills competition in which medical students from the three medical schools - Birmingham, Warwick and Keele had participated.”

The main event attracted an audience of around 40 people to the lecture theatre, largely comprising trainee surgeons but also including guest speakers, including the Royal College’s President, David Tolley, and Vice-President, Ian Ritchie.

Other speakers included consultant surgeons from within QEHB as well as invited specialists from outside Birmingham.

A spokesman for the Royal College said: “This was the first time we have held a regional meeting specifically for trainee surgeons. We just felt there was a need for it.”

She added that subjects ranged from avoiding litigation in surgery and selling yourself with your CV to simulation in surgery and updates on a number of clinical trials.