News Stories

Awards underline Northumbria Healthcare’s commitment to training next generation

A surgeon at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has been named both regional and national trainer of the year for his specialty.

In the summer, consultant orthopaedic surgeon Tim Petheram landed the prize for Orthopaedic Regional Trainer of the Year in the Northern Deanery, which covers all of the hospitals in the North East and North Cumbria, and is voted for by the dozens of trainee surgeons themselves.

He then followed this up last week (Thursday, November 24) by winning the prestigious National Trainer of the Year award at the British Orthopaedic Trainees Association’s (BOTA) annual Congress in Liverpool.

“I was humbled and deeply honoured to receive the Regional Trainer of the Year award,” Tim said. “To now also be chosen as National Trainer of the Year is truly amazing.

“Training surgeons in hip and knee replacement surgery, and trauma surgery, does take energy and time. I thoroughly enjoy the experience and get great satisfaction from passing on the huge enthusiasm I have for my job. Watching junior surgeons grow in their skills is very rewarding.

“I have to acknowledge the excellent training I received while a trainee in Northumbria, which I am sure in part taught me some of the training skills I now use. Finally, I have to thank the entire team we work with, in clinic, on the ward and in the operating theatre, who contribute to the experience our trainees have in Northumbria.”

The trust’s three general hospitals at Hexham, North Tyneside and Wansbeck are centres of surgical excellence, following a series of enhancements in the wake of the opening of the Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital (NSECH) at Cramlington in 2015.

This model has meant a separation of emergency medicine from elective and non-urgent operations, which proved its merits during the pandemic. NSECH was the designated Covid hub, enabling the trust to continue a significant quantity of elective and non-urgent operations at the general hospitals.

Alongside other innovations and investment, this is supporting the ongoing efforts of staff to tackle the backlog in planned operations and bring down waiting times as much as possible at a time when this is a key national focus for the NHS.

Training and teaching also play a key role in this overall strategy, according to Marion Dickson, Northumbria Healthcare’s executive director responsible for surgery.

She said: “Obviously we want to ensure that knowledge and skills are passed onto the doctors of the future, but we strongly feel that a culture which supports trainees also provides an environment that staff want to work in and where patients receive high-quality care.”

Strong performance across the trust

This positive picture from orthopaedics is supported by another strong performance by the trust this year in the General Medical Council’s (GMC) annual training survey, which is completed by trainees and trainers across the UK.

Northumbria Healthcare’s overall trainee satisfaction rate was the second highest of the North East’s seven acute hospital trusts, while it was the top performer based on trainer satisfaction rate.

Speciality areas which saw no scores in any sections of the survey in the bottom quartile nationally include anaesthetics, cardiology, clinical radiology, emergency medicine, endocrinology and diabetes, intensive care medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, palliative care and respiratory.

Media contact

Ben O’Connell, media and communications officer, Northumbria Healthcare

Benjamin.O'Connell@northumbria-healthcare.nhs.ukor 07833 046680.