Scotland - North

The North of Scotland is a supportive and social training program, averaging around 14 trainees (roughly 2 per training grade) at any point. We are predominantly based in Aberdeen where we are lucky to have a beautiful beach and fantastic access to the hills of Aberdeenshire. Our TPD is Mr David Cairns and he is supported by our consultants who are all keen and interested in training.

We rotate around 5 hospitals based in Aberdeen, Elgin and Inverness. The majority of training is spent in Aberdeen where we are fortunate to have Scotland’s first Major Trauma Centre, with all surgical specialities on site. We receive complex trauma from NHS Grampian as well as NHS Highland and The Islands. Generally, trainees spend their first year at Raigmore and Dr Gray’s (6 months each) learning the basics of Orthopaedics with a mix of trauma and elective orthopaedics. After this they return to our base in Aberdeen until ST4/5 when we return to Inverness for a year before returning to Aberdeen to complete the training program.

Our teaching program delivers a day and a half of consultant led teaching each month, covering the whole curriculum over 2 years. Due to Covid-19 we now deliver hybrid teaching, allowing involvement for those on remote placement, and record sessions for later revision. In addition to this we run practical sessions including tendon repair workshops, spinal cadaveric days and ExFix workshops.

In addition to our own teaching Aberdeen also hosts an ATLS course, The Aberdeen MRCS Revision course (RCSEd), The Aberdeen Shoulder Meeting and The Aberdeen Cadaveric Hands Course (RCSEd).

For those who have an interest in research, we have Grampian Orthopaedics – Research and Education with links to The University of Aberdeen for opportunities to do laboratory as well as clinical research projects. We host an annual research meeting providing medical students, foundation doctors and registrars the chance to present their work at a regional meeting as well as get together for a celebratory dinner.

The Medical School is based at the Suttie Centre on the same site as ARI, providing opportunities to teach Anatomy, examine in OSCEs and participate in ward based teaching for medical students of all years.

We are very proud to have established CAN DO, Clinicians of Aberdeen Nurturing Diversity and Inclusion in Orthopaedics. This is a forum to ensure everyone knows they are welcomed and to inspire all of our medical students to consider joining us in Orthopaedics.

Finally, socials are an important aspect of the North of Scotland training program, and we host an annual Summer Welcome Dinner and Christmas Party as well as yearly consultant vs registrar sports matches – table tennis and bowling. This is all in addition to informal registrar drinks, dinners and afternoon teas!