Viking Surgeons Association - Combining Remote & Rural Surgery with Humanitarian Healthcare

20th October 2020

Overview

The Faculty of Remote, Rural and Humanitarian Healthcare have partnered with the Viking Surgeons Association (VSA) to deliver a series of webinars focused on Rural Surgery.

During this webinar we will examine different aspects of combining rural surgery in a humanitarian healthcare setting. Our speakers include David Sedgwick, who will discuss the practicalities and benefits of volunteering for humanitarian work, David Wightwick, who will give an an overview of UK-Med / UKEMT and David Nott who will provide an overview of the David Nott Foundation and specifically the DNF HEST course.

Panellists

  • Angus Watson - Chair

    Angus Watson is a Consultant General and Colorectal Surgeon at Raigmore Hospital, Inverness and a Member of RCSEd Council. He holds honorary chairs at the Universities of Aberdeen, Stirling and the Highlands and Islands. He has a wide range of training and research interests. Angus was the recipient of the RCSEd 2019 Rahima Dawood and Tuanku Muhriz Fellowships.

  • David Sedgwick MBChB FRCSEd - “More than throwing back the starfish!; rural surgeons can make a difference in humanitarian surgery"

    David graduated from St Andrews and Edinburgh Universities. He has been a consultant general surgeon in Rural Hospitals for 28 years. He has been an ATLS and Basic Surgical Skills Course (BSSC) instructor for over 25 years and BSSC Convener for over 15 years on behalf of the RCSEd.. For the past 10 years he has been able to teach trauma care and surgical skills in low-income countries as well as teaching how to teach and mentoring local faculties. He has been part of teams establishing courses in Palestine, Rwanda and Cambodia. Along with some Trustees, he has established a registered charity, ‘Scotland-Africa Surgical training’ to support the Basic Surgical Skills training in Rwanda

  • David Wightwick CEO UK Med - “An overview of UK Med”

    David joined UK-Med in January 2018 as the new Chief Executive of the organisation. He has a background in senior roles in the humanitarian sector, having previously worked as a Senior Adviser in emergency response with WHO, as Global Operations Director for Merlin, Health Director with GOAL, Director of Operations Management at Save the Children International and as a Country Director with IMC.

  • David Nott OBE FRCS"Hostile Environment Surgical Training"

    David gained his medical degree from Manchester University and in 1992 gained his FRCS from the Royal College of Surgeons of England to become a Consultant Surgeon.
    He is a Consultant Surgeon at St Mary’s Hospital where he specialises in vascular and trauma surgery and also performs cancer surgery at the Royal Marsden Hospital. David is an authority in laparoscopic surgery and was the first surgeon to combine laparoscopic and vascular surgery.

    For the past twenty five years David has taken unpaid leave each year to work for the aid agencies Médecins Sans Frontières, the International Committee of the Red Cross and Syria Relief. He has provided surgical treatment to patients in conflict and catastrophe zones in Bosnia, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Chad, Darfur, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, Syria, Central African Republic, Gaza and Nepal.

    As well as treating patients affected by conflict and catastrophe and raising hundreds of thousands of pounds for charitable causes, David teaches advanced surgical skills to local medics and surgeons when he is abroad. In Britain, he teaches the Surgical Training for the Austere Environment (STAE) course at the Royal College of Surgeons.

    In 2015 David established the David Nott Foundation with his wife Elly. The Foundation supports surgeons in developing their operating skills for warzones and austere environments. In 2019, Picador published David’s bestselling memoir, War Doctor.

Recording


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