Report from the UK
A. Catterall - President, British Orthopaedic Association
The British Orthopaedic Association was pleased to host the second EFORT Travelling Fellowship from January 14 to 21 1996.
The national orthopaedic associations from nine countries had nominated
14 representatives to visit the UK. The group met in London on the evening of Sunday, January 14 1996 at a welcoming reception hosted by the BOA President.
The following day they travelled to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital at Stanmore for a full-day programme of papers clinical presentations, and departmental visits arranged by Professor George Bentley. The Travelling Fellows were given an official dinner on the evening of Monday, January 15 in the prestigious Council Chamber of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. The BOA
President was the host for the evening and other guests included Mr Michael Freeman, Immediate Past-President of EFORT and his wife, Professor Bentley, and David Adams and Eileen Amold of the BOA
Secretağat.
On Tuesday they travelled to Birmingham where Mr Paddy Mulligan had arranged visits to centres in Birmingham, Stoke, Nottingham and Oswestry. The group was split into smaller numbers and the visits were therefore on a more personal basis. On Thursday, January 18 1996 they travelled to Stoke and over the following two days participated in the British Orthopaedic Association Annual
Instructional Course for Trainees.
A number of issues were covered including clinical problems in childhood related to developmental dysplasia of the hip and slipped upper femoral epiphysis and
more general aspects relating to education, medicolegal, communication and patient-orientated problems.
The Fellows were guests at the Course Dinner on the Friday evening.
Duréng their time in Stoke they had the opportunity to meet many surgeons in training from all areas of the UK.
They returned home on Sunday, Januaç 21 1996.
The overall impression was that the Fellows had foé-med a cohesive group who related well to each other and had gained much from their tour.
This has been borne out by subsequent coğespondence from individual Fellows which testified to theirenjoyment of the experience.
Travel Report of the second EFORT Travelling Fellowship R. M. Batlle, Barcelona, Spain
The second group of EFORT Travelling Fellows visited England last January (14
to 21). EFORT and the British Orthopaedic Association had supported this
new venture with much enthusiasm and had prepared an excellent programme.
The atmosphere was excellent and colleagues from many different countries
had the opportunity to meet, to compare and discuss orthopaedic training and to
establish close friendships.
We visited the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and the Institute of
Orthopaedics at Stanmore where we met Mr Catterall and Professor Bentley.
There were very interesting sessions on the advances in peripheral nerve injuries
(Mr R. Birch), ultrasonic cement removal (Mr B. Bradnock), new polymers (Pro-
fessor M. Braden), anter or reconstruction for thoracolumbar fixation (Mr B.
Taylor) and also clinical conferences from the Paediatric Unit and Bone
Tumour Unit. Finally, we visited the Research Laboratories of Biomedical
Engineering (directed by Professor P. Walker).
On Tuesday we travelled to Birmingham where we visited the Royal Ortho
paedic Hospital. Mr P. J. Mulligan as local host, was extremely kind, taking care of every detail related to our two-day
Mr Michael Freeman, EFORT President from 1993 to 1995 (centre) with Dr Pedro Mir from Barcelona (to his left) and Dr Gonzalo Mora from Navarra (to hås right).
visit. We had excellent clinical conferences, clinicopathological conferences,case presentations and clinical attachments in the theatre. On the Wednesday
some of us visited the Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham.
On the Thursday we split into two groups, one of which visited the North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary and Hartshill Hospital, Stoke-on-Trent
(Professor J. Templeton) and the other the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital, Oswestry. There we had the pleasure to meet Professor J. Richardson and visit the Unit for Joint Reconstruction, the Gait Laboratory, the Centre for Spinal Studies, the theatres and the wards. We had tea in the Institute of Orthopaedics and absorbed some of the history of the hospital.
On the Friday and Saturday we attended the British Orthopaedic Association's 25th Instructional Course in Stokeon-Trent which is an annual event of instruction for registrars and senior registrars. It was an opportunity to meet British orthopaedic surgeons in training and to form friendships. Different specialists in each subject were invited. Dr J. Roberts of Shriners' Hospital, Springfield, Massachusetts was the Guest Lecturer on congenital hip dysplasia and slipped upper femoral epiphysis together with well-known national experts (Mr A. Catterall and Mr M. K. D. Benson). We had an excellent speech by Mr A. G. Apley on `How to write a paper'. There were four symposia on the relationships between doctors, patients, trainees and lawyers.
Simultaneously, we had an exciting social programme.
The BOA gave us an official dinner in the Council Room of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (London) where we met Mr Freeman and appreciated the atmosphere of British surgical history (especially the painting of John Hunter). We also had a reception with the Lord Mayor of Birmingham in the Council House. On the Friday we attended the Course Dinner with an after-dinner speech by Mr N. J. Barton (Nottingham) on the history of the Instructional Courses.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who made it possible for us to travel as EFORT Travelling Fellows.
It is essential to co-ordinate European attitudes so that we may all profit from major developments in Europe. We pay special tribute to Mr M. Freeman (Past-President) and Professor J. Duparc
(First President), both co-founders, who have made an enormous contribution to the development of the Federation.
We also thank Mr A. Catterall, Mr D. Adams
and the BOA Secretariat for their superb organisation which made our visit a huge success.
We are planning to constitute the EFORT Travelling Fellowship Club so that we can all meet together at the third EFORT Congress in Barcelona and at future EFORT Congresses. I look forward to meeting all my new friends in Barcelona.
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Created on 21-11-1996 at 19.00 by Nicola Vachaviolos
