Personal Profile
In 2021, I have completed more than 31years of just doing orthopaedic surgery and this has allowed me to mature within the profession. I am up-to-date with my sub-specialty which is mainly foot and ankle and knee reconstructive surgery and I feel honoured and privileged to serve my society.
I started my orthopaedic residency at Grant Medical College, Sir J J Group of Hospitals, Mumbai which is the most prestigious and the oldest medical institute in India and involved being on call and doing emergency work every other day from 1989 to 1995.
I got to train in all specialities of orthopaedics and my initial training was focused on trauma and then doing foot and ankle, paediatric and spinal surgery. Once I finished my residency, I got appointed as a Lecturer, which is a coveted and a difficult post to get and during this tenure, I was also in charge of managing the mass casualties which occurred during the major Mumbai bomb blasts and the Mumbai riots in the early nineties.
During my residency, I obtained the following three orthopaedic degrees: MS Orth form the university of Bombay, Diploma in Orthopaedics from the University of Bombay and the Diplomate in Orthopaedics. Overall the experience from my initial orthopaedic stint in Mumbai was something out of the ordinary. I came to the UK in July 1995 and re did my residency in the St. George’s, London rotation. I worked and trained under several known and respected surgeons in and around the London hospitals, including working under the Orthopaedic Surgeon to the Queen at the time.
I rotated around various hospitals in the South of England and I finished my orthopaedics training in 2000, by which time I had obtained 3 more degrees, FRCS from RCS England, M Ch Orthopaedics from the University of Liverpool and the FRCS Orthopaedics which is the orthopaedics exit exam in the UK. I then spent nearly 3 years from 2000 to 2003 learning the advances in knee surgery with Mr N P Thomas at the North Hampshire Hospital, Basingstoke. I learnt all aspects of knee surgery including sports related problems of the knee.
I then went to the Royal United Hospitals Bath as a Senior Registrar and spent most of my time doing hip and knee surgery including revision surgery. This was an extremely important post for me as being the Senior Registrar I was given the responsibility of running most theatre lists and training my junior trainee colleagues. I then did my Foot and Ankle fellowship in the United States where I spent quality time with Mr Mann at Oakland, California, Mr Brodsky at Dallas and Mr Myerson at Baltimore. This allowed me to mature as a Foot and Ankle surgeon under the doyens of world Foot and Ankle surgeons.
I got appointed as a substantive Consultant at the Bucks NHS Trust in 2005 and have been there ever since. As a new Consultant I was asked to set up the Foot and Ankle service in Bucks as there was no service prior to that. Once I established the service, there was no looking backward and the service went from strength to strength, to a point that approximately 5 years ago, I appointed my colleague to share the workload.
I have been the educational lead and Clinical Governance lead in my NHS department and currently also the Clinical Lead for the MSK services in the county.
I feel that considering my breadth of knowledge across all specialties in orthopaedics gives me a better perspective about a patient in general rather than just focus on a part of the body.
