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Thoracic forum The Thoracic forum has been an event which is eagerly looked forward to by all practising thoracic surgeons and the trainees of the British thoracic fraternity. In the last two decades the event has evolved from a political talk shop to incorporating the needs and necessities of the thoracic surgical community. Sri Rathinam, Consultant Thoracic Surgeon, University Hospitals of Leicester
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ver the years with improvement in engagement with the society, as well as the Department of health, the forum has become the hub of discussions which have driven agenda for change with regards to Thoracic practice. The event always starts with the networking dinner on Friday followed by six hours of CME, political issues, service development and finishing with the AGM. The unique nature of the Forum is that it only has terms of reference, with no written constitution or an elected council. The hosting surgeon chairs the event and collates the collective opinion, concerns and views of the thoracic surgeons in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The first event started in Birmingham and was hosted by David Waller the newly appointed consultant thoracic surgeon in Leicester. The story of its inception goes that David Waller, Joseph Marzouk and Pala Rajesh were discussing the need for a thoracic fraternity forum in Hong Kong, whilst attending the VATS symposium. They felt Thoracic surgeons needed a platform to voice opinions and to engage with the SCTS, which had a significant cardiac presence, and the BTS. David, a Birmingham trainee just appointed in Leicester, took the challenge and hosted the first event in the Forest of Arden.
The event has since then moved between UK units taking into consideration the commute after the Fridays work to ensure large attendances and the balancing act to rotate around the country. Some units have hosted the event more than once; each unit host has given the forum his or her own perspective depending on
The event is always on the first weekend in February so that the surgeons have the date in the diary with the only exception being the event in Dublin which was held in January to be held alongside the BTOG meeting. Members of the forum have debated and driven various issues varying from the national selection drive, specialist thoracic appointments, service expansion in thoracic surgery, as well as service specifications. From being a minority voice which needed a collective resonance with the forum, thoracic surgery has a significant presence with the current President and SAC Chair being Thoracic surgeons. This led to an interesting debate at the last forum in Leeds which raised the question whether there is still a need for the forum and the consensus was that there was still a need for the forum in the current format.
“Members of the forum have debated and driven various issues varying from the national selection drive, specialist thoracic appointments, service expansion in thoracic surgery as well as service specifications.� what was the flavour of the nation that particular year. Some events have had interesting Fridays, Cambridge held a large multidisciplinary education day alongside the thoracic forum attracting a large number of students, nurses and doctors. Eric Lim, Babu Naidu and I as Registrars offered the concept of the forum as a hub to popularise collaborative research in the Nottingham event. This was in a way the precursor to the UK Thoracic Research Collaborative under the leadership of Eric Lim and Babu Naidu. Ed Black in Nottingham invited a Martial arts expert and brought out the karate kid in us to break wooden boards, which to our surprise all of us did. Southampton had Joseph Marzouk talking at the dinner about his journey in thoracic surgery.
Thoracic Forum Leicester 2018 I had the privilege of hosting the 20th Forum, on behalf of the Leicester unit which was involved in the first forum in Stapleford Park, Melton Mowbray.
UK NETS SCTS Satellite meeting We were approached the UK NETS to have a joint meeting with the Surgical fraternity to streamline pathways. We decided to have the SCTS-UK NETS
