Broken ankle - registrar did op

[togoornot]

I broke my ankle 2 weeks ago. It was a serious break - broken in many places and one bone pushed up into another (pilon fracture). I had an operation 11 days ago to fix it with 3 metal plates and 20 screws! I'm slightly concerned it was a registrar who performed my op, rather than my consultant - is that normal?

Why are you concerned? Is there something wrong with what they did? All consultants used to be registrars you know (to state the obvious). I am sure they wouldn't get a registrar to perform an operation they weren't capable of doing and I should imagine there was supervision available by a consultant if there were any complications above and beyond what they were expecting. It does sound like a nasty break (how did you do it?!) but I'm sure it is pretty everyday stuff to them.
Wishing you a speedy recovery.

Totally normal for registrars to do operations - the consultant will have signed them off to do this type of operation on their own before they are allowed to do it

Absolutely totally normal, especially if it was an evening or weekend.

NO! Scream and panic!

What should happen is that surgeons should go through medical school and then between 6 and 8 years of postgraduate training, watching over someone's shoulder.

Once they're consultants, with an entry in the specialist register, in charge of a team of trainees and PAMs - that's when they're allowed to pick up a knife.

FFS.

Was the operation by a Senior Registrar or a Registrar?
In my many years experience in operating theatres if the Registrars were operating they were overseen by the Senior Registrars or Consultants, and if the Senior Registrars were operating they were often virtually consultants anyway operating with the assistance of SHO's or their registrar minions.
More complicated cases may have the consultant and Senior Registrar
In many cases these Senior Registrars might have already passed their consultants exams and are waiting for the right consultants post for them to come up

There hasn't been a Senior Registrar grade since the Calman reforms of 1995. Your experience in this respect is no longer relevant.

bruxeur - ouch! I think you have a fractured set of manners.

OP - don't worry, a registrar spends lots of time in theatre building up operating experience. All of your post-op x-rays will have been carefully reviewed also.

It's not hard, it's like playing with a giant mechano kit to be honest, they pin and screw the bits of bones back together, it's not heart surgery.

Posted outdated and inaccurate information?

I'm not sure why the tizzy, tbh.

Oh come on bruxeur. I currently work in a hospital and the SpRs are frequently referred to as the senior registrars. Old habits die hard, using the wrong term for something hardly invalidates everything they say!

Using SR as shorthand for an experienced reg is fair enough for those of a certain age, but the difference between a Registrar and a Senior Registrar is Carefully Explained, and this

"In many cases these Senior Registrars might have already passed their consultants exams and are waiting for the right consultants post for them to come up"

hasn't been true for almost 15 years.

[Liz]What are you going to do, just sit there and be wrong?[/Lemon]

I think you mean succinct.

Actually bruxeur, I think your first post was pretty sarcastic. Why the 'ffs' for somebody who clearly doesn't have your experience of the nhs?

What is a registrar? - actually nobody has explained that. So in the circumstances, your explanation of why Bearcat was misinformed will have done nothing to help the OP.

Am inclined to think 'snappy and unfair' was a very generous analysis.

You seem a little misdirected, bosch. My first post was TERRIBLY sarcastic.

Everyone else, including the person you quoted from, was objecting to my second.

Am inclined to think you need another drinky!

err, yes, I just read the whole thread and noticed your first post. (Apols if my comment wasn't quite as rude as yours.) Then I noticed your second post. And then I replied. Had plenty to drink thanks.

Just checked that bruxeur not a troll who arrived today as inclined to be a little nervous of people who come across to me as agressive. Very interesting reading, bruxeur.

PixieonaLeaf - you're spot on.(Though have to admit that I have no medical qualifications whatsoever, am just a member of the human race)

Bosch - don't stalk me, it's a bit needy. Although it is in the finest MN tradition - see also the half-arsed dogpile.

If the OP really thinks that no-one but consultants do operations then a little more thought (or reading of the consent form) is needed.

If Bearcat really thinks there are exit-level surgeons hanging around waiting for "the right consultant posts" doing operations with "registrar minions" whilst their consultants swan off to the golf course in the Bentley, then the "many years of experience" was "many years ago" and is not really relevant, especially as midway through the post she also claims that registrars will be supervised by consultants or [the non-existant] SRs, which is not always the case and thus not very reassuring for the OP.

Blimey togoornot you seem to have stirred up a bit of a hornets nest here. Hope your foot is OK and you got your question answered.

Brux - just a 'yes it's fine' would have sufficed I think. Jeez.

Brux - have avoided joining in odd threads when someone has pointed out that op is new to mn (and potentially a troll). thought it was honest to admit that i suspected you but you weren't. But then realised what i had read in first half dozen of your posts this year. That was interesting. Promise not to stalk you again.

Oh Lordy.
Right now we have a number of tiers of doctor training currently in progress.
We have Junior Doctors (Foundation year 1 and Foundation year 2)
After that they either start specialist training posts (Called ST1, ST2 etc as they go up the grades)
Or they become Core Trainees (Called CT1 or CT2 and then veer off into whatever area they want to go)
At the same time we have the leftovers from Specialist Registrar training. (SpR yr 1-6)
One of my friends is a Yr 6 SpR and calls himself a Senior Registrar. He is currently doing what he hopes is his last rotation and applying for Consultant positions.

All that is beside the point really as the OP just wanted to be reassured that the Registrar doing her surgery was normal.
The answer is yes.

Consultant surgeons do lists, of course but so do Senior Registrars. (Or Specialist Trainees, or Specialist Registrars or whatever you want to call them) And in general they do a good job. They will have been trained in the surgery. And if a case is complex, the consultant will normally come in. (In my experience)