Core surgical training (HEKSS)

Our plastic surgery team is one of the largest in the country and generates a significant part of the surgical activity within the trust.

We have particular expertise in:

• Breast surgery
• Burns
• Hand surgery, including rheumatoid and osteoarthritis, nerve compression and Dupuytren’s contracture.
• Lower limb and general plastics – Lower limb surgery involves both elective and post traumatic limb reconstruction.  We look after a range of patients with lower limb injuries across the Kent, Surrey and Sussex region including elderly patients with pretibial skin loss, open lower limb fractures, patients with infected or exposed joint prostheses and amputees requiring stump adjustments and revisions.  A wide variety of reconstructive techniques are employed in treating these problems from simple wound debridements to free tissue transfers.  A joint orthopaedic and plastic surgery clinic is run monthly for complex cases.
• Skin cancer
• Trauma – QVH accepts referrals for plastic surgery trauma (facial, hand, lower limb, burns) from across the Kent, Surrey and Sussex region.  We have a daily trauma clinic and an extensively used telemedicine service to evaluate and accept referrals.  QVH also has daily CEPOD lists, a dedicated hand trauma list daily Monday to Friday and a dedicated trauma outreach service and operating list for elderly patients with lower limb trauma.

Head and neck surgery is no longer part of the plastic surgery rota as the majority of head and neck surgery is undertaken by the Oral and Maxillofacial surgery Department.   However, there are opportunities for trainees to liaise with the maxillofacial consultants to gain experience in this area and for teaching.  The same opportunities exist with regard to maxillofacial trauma.

Grade:  CT2

Type of Work: The successful applicant will be exposed to elective and emergency plastic surgery patients and will gain experience in how to approach clinical situations in plastic surgery starting from the initial consultant, making the diagnosis, to clerking and preparing the patients for theatre, post-operative management and short, medium and long term follow-up in outpatient clinics.

Name of the position and work needing to be done: Experience will be gained in handling of tissue and managing wounds as well as performing basic plastic surgical procedures particularly in wound debridement and coverage and in hand trauma.  There will be exposure to the team approach within the specialty as well as on multi-disciplinary teams.  This will include attending specialist clinics, assisting in theatre and liaising with other specialities.

Qualifications and professional registration required:

• MBBS or equivalent medical degree
• Level 2 or above at trainee/CT equivalent training
• GMC registration

Anticipated duration of programme: In blocks of six or 12 months. Commencement dates February and August Standard rotation details. The rota is EWTD compliant with registrar support at all times

Clinical lead: Mr Mark Pickford

Outcome of trainee programme i.e. core competencies

Trainees are required to have satisfactorily completed the curriculum requirements as assessed by the annual review of competence progression panel (ARCP).

Miss Anita Hazari

Specialist interests: plastic surgery; breast surgery.

Anita has been a Consultant Plastic Surgeon at QVH since 2006. She is on the specialist Plastic Surgery GMC register. She is a member of the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS) and British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) and Association of Breast Surgery (ABS)

After being the Breast Oncoplastics Lead for QVH (2008-2012), bringing about policy changes such as need for a screening mammogram in breast reduction patients pre-operatively, Anita represented the South East as a BAPRAS Council member 2013-15. Anita was on the PRASIS Board for 3 years (2014-16) and served as its Executive Chair 2017-18. She is currently the National Lead for the cross-speciality UK National Flap Registry (UKNFR), a collaboration between 5 surgical speciality associations. Anita loves to teach and is a member of to JCIE Court of Examiners for the FRCS(Plast) examinations.

In her early years, Anita undertook research in nerve regeneration at the Blond McIndoe Centre, East Grinstead for two years which culminated in a higher degree (MD) from the University of London. The Royal College of Surgeons of England recognised her original work in nerve grafting and awarded a Hunterian Professorship in May 1999. As a specialist registrar in plastic surgery on the pan-Thames /London rotation, she worked in plastic surgery centres in Chelmsford, Royal Free Hospital, Wexham Park Hospital, East Grinstead and Mount Vernon Hospital. Additional training in microsurgery allowed her to develop specialist skills in breast reconstruction. She also spent time at the Christine Kleinert Institute of Hand and Microsurgery, Louisville, USA in 2004 followed by an Upper Limb Fellowship at the Wrightington Hospital, 2005.

She provides a plastic surgery service to East Kent and holds additional clinics in Canterbury. She has a sub-speciality interest in breast reconstructive surgery and provides the whole repertoire of reconstruction including DIEP (abdomen), TUG (inner thigh), Buttock (SGAP), LD (back) flaps in addition to the use of implants.

Anita is keen on all sports in particular running and tennis and has an active family life with her husband and young son.

Qualifications -MBBS,MD, FRCS, FRCS(Plast)

Mr Asit Khandwala

Specialist interests: All aspects of plastic surgery especially hand surgeryMr Asit Khandwala started in Plastic Surgery in 1989. He has trained both in the UK and India. He trained in Plastic Surgery at the St James University Hospital in Leeds, Charing Cross, Chelsea and Westminster, St Andrew’s Centre for Plastic Surgery in Chelmsford and Queen Mary’s, Roehamptom. He also trained at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital. He completed his specialist training and was appointed a Consultant at the Queen Victoria Hospital in 2004.Mr Khandwala is a fully accredited specialist in Plastic Surgery and a full member of the BAPRAS (British Association of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery), BAAPS (British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons) and also a full member of the British Society for Surgery of the Hand (BSSH). Mr Khandwala is also involved with research, audit and education of medical students.

He runs general plastic surgery, skin cancer, breast surgery and hand surgery clinics at Queen Victoria Hospital, and in Dartford and Horsham. He has a special interest in Hand Surgery, especially rheumatoid hands and nerve reconstruction.

Mr Baljit Dheansa

Specialist interests: Burns; scarring; burn reconstruction; skin cancer; leg trauma; breast surgery; vascular anomalies.

Mr Baljit Dheansa was appointed as a Consultant Plastic Surgeon at the hospital in 2003 having trained at QVH as well as several London teaching hospitals.

He also works at Royal Sussex County Hospital to support the major trauma centre there and provides specialist plastic surgery input for complex cases there. He also runs burns clinics at Brighton for adults and children and has recently set up joint clinics with paediatric surgeons based at the Royal Alexandra Hospital.

In addition to the burns service he has a keen interest in managing patients with skin cancer, leg trauma, breast surgery, as well as general plastic and reconstructive surgery. More recently he has also developed a sub specialist interest in vascular anomalies. He is a member of the Sussex Skin Cancer Network and South East Burns Network.  He is involved in many aspects of research being a member of the Research and Development Committee, and in several clinical trials in the field of burns, as well as supporting basic and translational science projects.

In addition to his Queen Victoria Hospital roles he is a member of the London and South East Burn Operational Delivery Network, British Burns Association Research Committee and the Scar Free Foundation Research Council.

Baljit is committed to training the plastic surgeons of the future and takes an active role in developing the skills of the junior doctor team. He is also an examiner for the specialist FRCS (Plast) examination.

Baljit is a key supporter of the innovative technologies developed at the hospital such as the excellent telemedicine system, having presented to the Parliamentary Health Select Committee on its benefits to patient care. He is a founding member of the British Association of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetics Innovation Special Interest Group which aims to help bring new ideas and innovative products to patients requiring plastic surgery.

Mr Charles Nduka

Specialist interests: Facial and breast surgery

Mr Charles Nduka joined Queen Victoria Hospital in 2000 as a Senior House Officer and returned in 2004 as part of his Specialist Registrar programme.

He undertook his surgical training in London teaching Hospitals including the Royal London & St Bartholomew’s Hospital, Charing Cross and Hammersmith Hospitals. He completed his specialist training at the Royal Marsden Hospital. He won the McGregor Gold medal for the Royal College of Surgeons Final Fellowship prize, and one of his research projects won the Hackett prize from the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons.

He undertook further specialist training in France, Brazil and London where he learned modern aesthetic surgery and advanced techniques for facial reanimation following facial paralysis.

Mr Nduka became a Consultant Plastic Surgeon in October 2005 and in April 2006 was appointed as Consultant at QVH. Mr Nduka is a fully accredited specialist in plastic surgery and he is full member of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS). Mr Nduka is also Honorary Senior Lecturer at Imperial College, London where he researches techniques to improve outcomes in plastic surgery of the face and breasts.

Mr Nduka established the facial palsy service at QVH in 2007 which is a multidisciplinary team comprising specialist facial therapy, psychology and surgery. He maintains an active research interest, particularly in scars, and facial shape analysis, with many papers published over the last few years. He is particularly interested in the psychological impact of surgery and supervises a full time post-doctoral researcher.

Mr Nduka helped establish Facial Palsy UK, an organisation which supports people with facial palsy.

Miss Tania Cubison

Specialist interests: Burns; scaring; lower limb trauma reconstruction; microsurgery

Miss Tania Cubison is a military plastic surgeon who first joined Queen Victoria Hospital as an SHO in 1996. Miss Cubison is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Army Medical Corps, and is one of two military doctors currently posted to the trust. As one of a small number of regular army plastic surgeons Lt.Col.Cubison has an operational role and will occasionally be deployed overseas.

Miss Cubison underwent specialist registrar training in East Grinstead and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and was awarded the McGregor Gold medal for the FRCS (Plast) examination in 2006. She completed her training with a specialist burn fellowship at St Andrew’s Burn Centre, Chelmsford and visits to burn centres in the USA.

Specialises in lower limb trauma reconstruction and microsurgery, particularly the surgical management of amputees. She has recently been involved with the new technique of targeted muscle reinnervation, which is producing optimistic results in reduction of phantom pain and general stump pain in the amputee population.

Miss Cubison is the safeguarding lead for the Trust as well as deputy medical director, and is very involved in outlooking at human factors and the influence on patient’s safety of team building and communication.

She is an active member of the British Burns Association and is currently the chair of the Senate for the Emergency Management of Severe Burns in the UK, as well as sitting on the Committee for the Trauma Interface Group. Miss Cubison is also a member of the Specialist Advisory Committee in Plastic Surgery, responsible for the training of the national trainees and has responsibility for less than full-time training, military trainees and also provides external support to the Yorkshire Deanery.

Mr James Blair

Specialist interest: Hand surgery

Mr. James Blair was appointed as a Consultant Plastic and Hand Surgeon in 2001

He graduated from the University of Edinburgh Medical School in 1987. His training in plastic surgery was based in East Grinstead and the Pan-Thames training scheme and was completed by a fellowship in Hand Surgery in the USA.

Mr. Blair is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and is a member of the British Society for Surgery of the Hand. He is interested in all aspects of hand surgery.

Mr Keith Cullen

Specialist interest: Skin cancer

Mr Keith Cullen joined Queen Victoria Hospital as a Consultant Plastic Surgeon in 1991.

Mr Cullen is a General Plastic Surgeon with a special interest in skin cancer. During his time at the Hospital he has also undertaken the role of Deputy Medical Director and was Lead Clinician in Plastic Surgery for five years.

Mr Mark Pickford

Specialist interest: Hand surgery

Mr Mark Pickford is a Consultant Plastic Surgeon, sub-specialising in hand surgery. Within the arena of hand surgery he has particular interest in treating children’s hands, including those with congenital differences. Mark was trained in plastic surgery in the UK, and also during a one year hand surgery fellowship with Harold Kleinert’s group in Louisville, Kentucky.

Mr Pickford holds two hand surgery clinics a week at QVH, one on a Monday for children, and one on a Friday for adults. The general plastics part of his practice covers the Hastings geographical area. He spends all day Tuesday each week at the Conquest Hospital providing outpatient clinic services, and also outpatient surgery for patients with skin malignancies.

Mr Pickford’s interests include hand trauma, surgery for congenital hand differences, management of Dupuytren’s disease including all surgical options and Xiapex/collagenase injection treatment. His work routinely encompasses management of inflammatory arthritic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and also degenerative arthritis (osteoarthritis) which manifest themselves in the hand. He has an interest in wrist pathology including degenerative conditions and instabilities resulting from injury, and routinely performs arthroscopy examinations and treatments. His work routinely involves the management of nerve compression syndromes in the upper limb.

Mr Pickford’s work for general plastic surgery covers a broad scope ranging from skin cancer management to breast reconstruction using all available techniques (tissue expansion, Latissimus flaps and DIEP flaps).

Mr Martin Jones

Specialist Interests: plastic and reconstructive surgery, skin cancer.

Mr Martin Jones graduated from the University College and Middlesex School of Medicine in 1990 with a 1st Class Honours in Anatomy and Neuroscience. After his general surgical training at St. Georges, London, he qualified as a doctor in 1993.

He then undertook research for his doctoral thesis at the RAFT Institute for Plastic Surgical Research, which took him to Mount Vernon Hospital.

Mr Jones was selected to complete three fellowships in clinical areas that he is now a specialist for. These include a Fellowship in Hand Surgery in Sydney Australia, an Aesthetic Fellowship at The McIndoe Centre and lastly a Microsurgical Fellowship at the Queen Victoria Hospital.

He is on the specialist GMC register as an accredited Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon and he is the Queen Victoria Hospital’s Clinical Director for Plastic Surgery.

Martin places extreme importance on putting his clients at ease from their very first consultation.
He grew up as a child less than four miles away from the Queen Victoria Hospital and went to school in East Grinstead. He is married with two children and still lives locally- he prides himself on being a local man.

Mr Simon Mackey

Specialist interests: Breast reconstruction; cancer reconstruction; microsurgery; skin cancer; general plastic surgery.

Mr Simon Mackey is a UK-trained consultant plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgeon. He has been awarded the intercollegiate fellowship in plastic surgery, FRCS(Plast), and is on the GMC’s specialist register for plastic surgery. He is a member of the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS) and the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS).

He graduated from Imperial College School of Medicine at St. Mary’s Hospital,London. After basic-surgical training in the Oxford Deanery, he was appointed to the pan-Thames higher surgical training scheme in plastic surgery. He completed his training with a specialist fellowship in cancer reconstruction and microsurgery at the Royal Marsden Hospital, London.

Prior to his appointment at QVH, he had the opportunity to work as a locum consultant at the Royal Marsden and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. These posts offered Mr Mackey additional experience in cancer reconstruction, particularly microsurgical reconstruction of the breast, and reconstruction of the perineum.

Mr Mackey also holds clinics Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust, and Sevenoaks Hospital.

Mr T C Teo

Specialist interests: Hand surgery; upper and lower limb reconstruction following trauma or disease.

Mr Teo graduated from Aberdeen University in 1982. In 1987 he was awarded a Harvard University Research Fellowship and spent a year in Boston, USA, studying the role of lipid in nutritional support of major burns and sepsis. His MD thesis, based on this work, was awarded with honours together with the Cash Medal in 1991. His plastic surgery experience included oversea fellowships in Taiwan and Australia.

TC is world famous for his pioneering work in the fields of propeller flaps, perforator flaps including the SCIP and post-auricular free flap, and supermicrosurgery. He is one of the first Plastic Surgeons to embrace the supermicrosurgery concept and was a pioneer in this field, together with contempories such as Koshima. He has been invited worldwide to teach and perform “live surgery” on many microsurgery, perforator and instructional courses, and is one of the founding faculty of the International Masters in Microsurgery course.

Recently, as Visiting Professor to the Canniesburn Flap and Perforator Course 2019 he gave special lectures on “Supermicrosurgery” and also on “Propeller and Perforator Flaps”.

He also likes teaching and doing voluntary work in developing countries and has been to operate in Ghana, Malawi, Kenya, Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Brazil and Siberia. He believes that engaging with young surgeons and teaching them techniques which they can then use to treat their own communities has a greater long-term benefit.

Mr Sam Orkar

Specialist interests: Breast surgery including breast reconstruction and breast asymmetry, skin cancers and problem scars.

Kusu Samuel Orkar was appointed Consultant Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon at Queen Victoria Hospital on 1 July 2009.

Sam qualified at the University of Jos in Nigeria and was the best graduating student in his year.  He completed the Nigerian and West African training in General Surgery and Plastic Surgery and worked as a Consultant General and Plastic surgeon in Nigeria.  He undertook further training in Plastic Surgery in the UK at the Canniesburn Unit, Glasgow, St Andrews Centre for Plastic Surgery and Burns, Chelmsford, Queen Victoria Hospital and the McIndoe Surgical Centre both in East Grinstead.

Sam has done fellowships in breast/microsurgery, hand surgery and cosmetic surgery to further hone his skills.

Sam’s subspecialty interests are breast surgery including reconstruction, skin cancer, and problem scars.  Sam runs clinics at QVH and the Medway Maritime Hospital.

Sam is on the GMC specialist register for plastic surgery and is a member of BAPRAS and BAAPS

Qualifications:

• BM BCh University of Jos, Nigeria
• FMCS(Nig) Fellow Medical College of Surgery, Nigeria
• FWACS (plast) Fellow West African College of Surgeons (plastic surgery)
• FRCS Ed Fellow Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh
• FRCSEd(Plast) Royal College of Surgeons Intercollegiate Fellow(plastic surgery)

Ms Nora Nugent

Specialist interests: Burns, microsurgical reconstruction including limb trauma and breast reconstruction.

Ms Nora Nugent joined Queen Victoria Hospital in 2012. She is the Lead Clinician for Burns and is responsible for co-ordinating the multi-disciplinary team that looks after all burns patients at QVH. Along with her colleagues, Tania Cubison, Paul Drake and Baljit Dheansa, she manages all acute burn injuries as well as the reconstruction of burns patients after they have healed.

Nora graduated from University College Dublin and completed specialist plastic surgery training under the auspices of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. She has gained further plastic surgical experience in the USA and Australia. Training in burn care and surgery was undertaken in Shriners Hospitals for Children in Galveston, Texas. Nora has also completed a plastic surgery fellowship at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney incorporating reconstructive (including microsurgery) and aesthetic surgery and a hand surgery fellowship with Victorian Hand Surgery Associates, Melbourne.

Ms Nugent is a fully qualified plastic surgeon holding the FRCS (Plast) qualification and specialist registration with the General Medical Council. She holds an Honorary Consultant appointment with Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals and Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust. She is a Board Member of the London and South East Burn Network and also sits on the councils of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, the European Association of Societies of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery and the Plastic Surgery Section of the Royal Society of Medicine (Past President of the Plastic Surgery Section 2016-2017).

Mr Adam Blackburn

Specialist Interests: Breast reconstruction, microsurgery, acute burns surgery, skin cancer, trauma and general plastic surgery

Mr Adam Blackburn joined Queen Victoria Hospital in 2012. He graduated from Imperial College School of Medicine, London and underwent basic surgical training at the Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford. He completed his higher surgical training in plastic surgery in Newcastle-upon-Tyne where he developed his interest in microsurgical reconstruction. In 2010 he was awarded the Bruce Bailey microsurgical trauma fellowship and spent 2 months at one of the busiest and largest trauma hospitals in Asia (The Ganga Hospital, Coimbatore, India). He has completed his training with a further 2 years worth of specialist microsurgical fellowships in breast cancer reconstruction at St Thomas’ Hospital, London and Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead.

Mr Blackburn is a fully qualified, UK trained, plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgeon. He has been awarded the intercollegiate fellowship in plastic surgery, FRCS(Plast), and is on the GMC’s specialist register for plastic surgery.

Private: Miss Loz Harry

Specialist interests : Lower limb trauma and breast reconstruction.

Miss Harry qualified from Cambridge and undertook surgical training in London and Scotland, followed by specialist fellowships in Australia, Canada and Oxford. She completed a PhD at Imperial College London, where her research into the healing of open fractures has been widely published and has led to prestigious national and international awards.

Her practice is based at the Royal Sussex County Hospital and QVH, where she will help to deliver the lower limb trauma service.