Download - Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery

The Birmingham Professional
Development Course
July 2010
15
Steven Woolley
Cardiothoracic SpR, Edinburgh
The Birmingham professional development course has now been
running for 6 years.
Over this time it has gone from strength to strength, after starting
as a course for senior cardiothoracic trainees it has developed to
include senior cardiology trainees and junior consultants in both
specialities. The course aims to discuss areas relevant to
consultant practice which are often not well covered during SPR
training. This includes topics such as health care policy and NHS
structure, dealing with the coroner, performance management,
recertification and revalidation and mediolegal issues. The faculty
is one of the strengths of the course being
comprised of senior clinicians, coroners,
solicitors and other invited speakers. Guest
speakers at this year's course included Sir
Donald Irvine (Past President of the GMC),
Professor Sir John Temple (President of the
Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh), and
Professor David Wilson (Professor of Criminal
Psychology UCE). All of the guest lectures were
very well received. The remainder of the
sessions are very interactive with faculty and delegates being
mixed together and discussing issues raised. On the second day
there is a consultants interview practice session which I and all the
delegates I talked to found very useful. I would highly recommend
this course to any senior cardiothoracic or cardiology trainee as it
gives invaluable insight into problems you may encounter as a
junior consultant. The course is accredited to the Royal College of
Surgeons of Edinburgh for 12 CPD points. The course is run
annually in October, anyone interested in future courses should
contact Jane Brindley (jane.brindley@uhb.nhs. uk).
John F Dark
Abdul Deiraniya, Robert Lawson, John H Dark
President of the Society 1983-84, and
Secretary for a number of years before
that, John F Dark died on April 9th 2009,
a few days short of his 88th birthday.
John Fairman Dark (JFD) obtained both the
MB CHB and Part l of the FRCS in 1945. He
trained in general surgery at the
Manchester Royal Infirmary before
embarking on a career in thoracic surgery
in his home town. In 1952 (at the age of 31!)
he was appointed to the consultant staff of
Baguley Sanatorium, later Wythenshawe
Hospital as the TB era was drawing to a
close.
He carried out paediatric closed heart and
very successful surface cooling procedures
in the late 50’s and early 60’s at the Royal
Manchester Children’s Hospital,
Pendelbury and from 1967-1977 led the
open heart surgery programme at the
same hospital. More than 500 children
between the ages of one and sixteen years
were operated on in those ten years.
Thereafter he continued with closed heart
paediatric surgery until 1982. His
contribution to the establishment of the
Cardiothoracic Unit at Wythenshawe
Hospital is immense. He was an
accomplished pulmonary and oesophageal
surgeon with a large number of closed
mitral valvotomies to his credit before he
started the open heart surgery
programme. His career spanned
thoracoplasty to heart transplant
Largely self taught, JFD
honed his skills by visiting
American cardiac surgical
colleagues in US clinics,
counting luminaries such
as Mustard and Cooley
amongst his wide circle of
friends. His excellent
surgical results bore
witness to the success of
these visits and his
determination to remain
fully conversant with new techniques and
procedures.
As Secretary, he ran the whole business of
the Society single handed for many years,
and then Presided over the hugely
successful Dublin Meeting in 1984. He
rarely missed a meeting over four decades
and attended into his 80’s.
JFD was an early advocate of surgical audit,
and was a co-author, with Terence English,
on the 1984 BMJ paper describing the
Cardiac Surgical register. As early as 1976
Wythenshawe Hospital had a surgeon
specific audit of all cardiac surgical
procedures that included 30 day and one
year survival. As young consultants then
audit enlightened and motivated us but
did not hold us back from
accepting high risk patients.
Bob Lawson remembers
“Joining an experienced
cardiothoracic team as a
young consultant in 1977 was
made a much less daunting
prospect by John’s generous
surgical advice and personal
kindness. He scrubbed up to
successfully help me with my
first very difficult emergency
and later offered an impecunious
newcomer with four young children his
holiday home in Dumfriesshire for a
summer break. In recent years when John
visited our home he always arrived with a
bowl of his own home made and very tasty
soup.
Abdul Deiraniya remembers “John’s
enthusiasm was a major factor in getting
the Transplantation started at
Wythenshawe in 1987 and keenly
supported our earlier bid in the early 80’s.
He scrubbed in with me on the second
transplant to be done at Wythenshawe”