On Tuesday the Plastic Surgery Section at the RSM held an evening on "How to optimise your CV for a consultant post". Barbara Jemec, this year's President, brought together three informative speakers and an unsurprisingly attentive audience of trainees.
First up was Eric Freedlander, Past-president of BAPRAS. He spoke on the BAPRAS workforce survey and the implications for trainees.
The talk was at best sobering and at times made for painful listening. Nonetheless Mr Freedlander provided a transparent and detailed assessment of the current situation and projected figures for the next few years. The reality is that there is little room at the top and this is unlikely to improve in the near future.
Competition to gain entry to the specialty remains stiff. The ratio is 18 applicants for each post at ST3. At the other end there are large numbers of trainees gaining their CCT (projected 35 this year) but few retiring surgeons (4 in 2011). There are approximately 424 consultants in the UK with 40-55 age bracket containing the largest number.
Over the last ten years there has been significant expansion in consultant numbers but this has now come to an end. The current financial climate and rationing will probably lead to further reduction in workload.
Consultant numbers could be expanded a little if fewer consultant worked beyond a full time job and gave these hours to a new post. There might be an increase in part time working as the number of female trainees increases. However, there is no evidence of this with the current work force - female surgeons are working the same number of hours as their male colleagues.
