By Jess Leighton
The days of the barber surgeon are well and truly gone in Newcastle; not only do our hospitals provide more surgical services than anywhere else in the North East, but are striving for even better results with ground-breaking research.
Newcastle has long been at the forefront of surgical development, from first single lung transplant in Europe (in 1987, before Google even existed!) to the Freeman Hospital’s Institute of Transplantation- the first in the UK. Newcastle doesn’t limit itself to transplant technology; 2 of only 10 surgeons in the UK who can teach laparoscopic (keyhole) surgery are based here, and the RVI was the first centre in the UK to offer ‘iodine seed localisation’ surgery to allow women with breast cancer to keep as much breast tissue as possible.
Research and training are central to Newcastle-upon-Tyne Hospitals’ services, ensuring patients get the best possible treatments from competent staff. The Newcastle Surgical Training Centre allows training for groups (which can include videolink around the world) right down to one-to-one teaching of highly specialised procedures.
Mani Ragbir is a consultant plastic surgeon with almost 30 years of experience, spanning head and neck cancers, microsurgery and facial palsy. He is the Northern Deanery’s Degree Programme Director for Plastic Surgery, and is actively involved in research. He will go through the current cutting edge technologies being explored in Newcastle, including robotic surgery, stem cell research and tissue engineering.
Mr Ragbir will be speaking on Thursday 9th November from 3-4pm in the David Shaw Lecture Theatre. Find out more about the surgical services in Newcastle here.
