This year's revision FRCS hand course at Wrightington hospital has been a huge success and we were particularly pleased to welcome John Stanley, the upper limb units founder to help teach and assess the candidate.
The course is always fully booked with delegates reserving places up to 2 years in advance to get on the course. The course for upper limb is over two days on a Thursday and Friday, whilst days earlier in the week are dedicated to lower limb and the basic sciences.
This first course was the brainchild of John Stillwell, consultant plastic surgeon at Wrightington Hospital. Mike was appointed as a fellow in 2001 and helped steer the course towards being exam specific. Over the next few years as Mike became appointed as a consultant surgeon at Wrightington Hospital, he change the course dramatically removing the majority of lectures and replacing with clinical examination of patients and viva practice.
Over the two days the delegates are exposed to well in excess of 50 patients this gives them huge experience in assessing and examining patients with hand and upper limb problems.
We seem to have an excellent track record of preparing candidates for the imminent exam particularly those that may not have had much hand surgery experience during their basic training.