ISKSAA MIDLANDS TRAVELLING FELLOWSHIP 2017 REPORT

I and Dr Vishal Shrivastava applied for ISKSAA fellowship at ISKSAA conference 2017 at ISKSAA conference Chandigarh in 2017. Our interview was taken by Prof Lalit Maini who gave us a fair idea about the fellowship and enquired about our own expectations from the fellowship. We were ourselves excited about the fellowship and we were looking forward to getting selected as competition was stiff at the interviews with each candidate having a strong CV. I was taken by surprise by the result and soon got in touch with my co-fellow Dr Vishal who belonged to my own city, Delhi and hence we had a lot in common.

We got in touch with Mr Ved Goswami and he himself asked us when did we want to start our fellowship. We chose different starting dates for our fellowship but both of us had the same end date which was fine with him. We got our invitation from the heartlands NHS trust and got all our documents in order including visa, police clearance and permission from our workplaces.

When I reached the UK Dr Vishal had already been there a week and guided me regarding occupational health clearance and how to go about organising things. The fellowship included visitation to an NHS hospital (Solihull hospital) and 2 private hospitals (Spire Parkway hospital and BMI The Edgbaston hospital). All these places are well connected by public transport and it wasn't very costly to get from one place to the other using day-savers and travel passes. The hospitals are all beautifully set with each located around lush green parks and BMI Edgbastonbeing close to a picturesque canal.

Mr Goswami is primarily an arthroplasty surgeon who has a vast experience of Arthroscopy, trauma and hand surgery as well. He has a roaring practice in Midlands region and he’s popular not just among patients but also colleagues and contemporaries. He allowed us to scrub in all cases once we were through with occupational health clearance. He was not just quick but also meticulous in his surgery. I’ve myself had sufficient experience in arthroplasty at my place of training and work but he was exceptional in my opinion especially with knee replacements where he was very precise with soft tissue balancing and alignment. He followed arthroplasty textbooks to the core with his clever innovations which reflected in his amazing results. He worked hard day in and day out yet was always sweet and humble to talk to. He was assisted in anaesthesia by Dr Su Shilling in his private practice who managed all cases smoothly yet quickly. The transit time between every case was hardly 15 minutes, by this time Mr. Goswami was ready with scalpel for another case. The OT staffs were very punctual and dynamic in coordinating each and every case. Very often Mr.Goswami's OT list had 3-4 TKRs, 1-2 THRs, 1-2 Knee scopies and occasionally reverse shoulder arthroplasties as well.

Apart from work we were invited to a dinner hosted by Mr Goswami where we had a gala time. It was entertaining to listen to his experiences in the UK over the years and how he made himself to what he is today. We also meet
Mrs Goswami who is a consultant gynaecologist working at Coventry. We were also once invited by Ms Shilling to a local pub in the evening where we learnt about English culture and local delicacies. Apart from work we went over to London, Oxford and Stratford upon Avon on the weekends.

The fellowship concluded with ISKSAA Conference at Leeds which had a huge attendance and people not just from the UK but also from back homed flown in for the academic extravaganza. Overall the experience was awesome to sum up and I wish to thank MrGoswami, Dr Lalit Maini, and Dr Pushpinder Bajaj. Long live ISKSAA.

Dr. Ankit Khurana

MBBS (MAMC), MS Ortho (PGI,Chd), DNB
SR Orthopaedics
AIIMS, New Delhi