Practical training in Plastic, Cosmetic and Aesthetic surgery skills is becoming increasingly difficult to undertake if you are on a State funded plastic surgery training scheme.
This has been cited by Sir Bruce Keogh in the “Review of the Regulation of Cosmetic Interventions Committee” in 2013, and the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS) education committee.
The NHS doesn’t offer patients “cosmetic surgery” and so the practical skills that could be taught and supervised by skilled Consultants, is limited to engagements in the private sector, outside of the State training schedule.
Practical teaching in Aesthetic Surgery is now the responsibility of individual trainees to seek out and is carried out by individual Plastic surgeons working in the private sector, or small locally organised Aesthetic Surgery training schemes. These are largely unfunded and involve a “watch and learn” process, after all, these are operations funded by fee-paying patients.
Mr Paul Levick, a senior plastic surgeon with over 30 years of experience in the private sector, summed up the situation in his “An open letter to young plastic surgeons (from an old UK plastic surgeon)” that was published in PMFA News in October 2015. You can download the PDF here.
This situation is likely to get worse, as the NHS and other state funded surgery contracts further and reductions to reconstructive surgery are even suggested. At the same time, the world is getting smaller with the aid of the internet, YouTube, Google and other Social Media connections.
How can the power of the internet benefit the training of aesthetic and cosmetic surgeons? Webinars are not new and several exist in the medical and surgical fields; however, until now there has been no site to link expert trainers in Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery, the professional plastic surgery organisations such as ISAPS and UKAAPS, with trainees, other plastic surgeons, nurses and manufacturers, through a global medium to a worldwide audience.
That is the aim of www.thewebinarsurgeon.com
We will bring practical live surgical teaching videos, webinars from leading experts, edited highlights of professional meetings, and updates from surgeons and industry, to subscribers and visitors.