Urology
Introduction
Thank you for your interest in Urology Training in London. We are delighted that you are considering a career in Urology and considering the opportunities in the London region. We are fortunate to have nationally and internationally renowned teaching departments and excellent district hospitals all geographically close together.
Training in London is centred in one of three regions, North West, North East/Central and South. We are the largest training region in the UK with 70 National training numbers out of approximately 290. Each year around 10-15 commence training and as the most popular region usually have ranked very highly in National Selection.
According to the ranking, successful trainees will be offered a post in their preferred sector. It is then assumed that training will continue in that region until completion of training. There can be some limited movement between regions to accommodate specific training requirements.
We are also hosting the IST run-through pilot in Urology. 5 of our trainees have been appointed at ST1 level and it is anticipated that we will have dual entry at ST1 and ST3 level in the future.
Weekly teaching occurs every Friday afternoon in 3 academic terms. It is consultant led and at present is predominantly online. Research is encouraged and a number of our trainees take an Out of Program Research period after discussion with their TPD. We have a dedicated Academic lead, Professor Caroline Moore, who supports those on OOPR along with trainees in ACF/CL positions.
At the end of training and the award of CCT, our trainees are highly competitive at consultant interviews.
The Program is run from within the London School of Surgery by the Specialist Training Committee. The core members are:
Chair: Professor Nick Watkin,
Training Program Directors: Mr John Peters, Miss Tina Rashid, Mr Paul Cathcart
Academic Lead: Professor Caroline Moore
Simulation Lead: Professor Prokar Dasgupta
Education Lead: Mr Ben Ayres
Head of School
Ms Celia Theodoreli-Riga is the Head of School of Surgery.
Deputy Head of School
Mr Dominic Nielsen is the Deputy Head of the London Postgraduate School of Surgery. Mr Nielsen is a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at St George’s Hospital in London. His clinical interests are foot and ankle surgery and complex lower limb trauma. He is a keen advocate of surgical education and was previously the Training Programme Director for Higher Orthopaedics in South London.
Training Programme Directors
North Central and East London
Shailesh Kulkarni -
South London
Miss Rashmi Singh – BSc (Hons); MD (Lon); FRCS (Urol)
Consultant Urological Surgeon, Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Rashmi qualified from Guy’s and St Thomas’s in 1994 and completed her post-graduate urology training on the South Thames Urology Rotation. She did an MD in prostate cancer genetics at The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden Hospital.
She was appointed as a Consultant at Kingston and St George’s NHS Trusts in 2006.
Rashmi has a general urological practice with a subspecialist interest in Endourology and Stone Disease. She is an elected member of the BAUS Section of Endourology Executive committee. She has been a principal investigator in key NIHR funded National trials in Endourology.
She is the Clinical Governance Lead for her department and also one of the lead Endourologists on the South West London Urology Area Network committee (GIRFT initiative).
Rashmi is actively involved in teaching and training of undergraduates and urology trainees.
She is TPD for the Foundation Programme at Kingston Hospital and became the TPD for specialist urology registrar training in 2022. She is looking forward to supporting both trainees and trainers as they embrace the new urology curriculum.
In her spare time, Rashmi enjoys travelling, running and being a mum.
North West London
Mr Alvan Pope
South West London & Academic TPD
Professor Nick Watkin
Professor Watkin has been the Chair of the Pan London Urology Training Committee since 2017 and prior to that was the London South Sector Training Program Director. He is based at St George’s Hospital and is a practicing urological surgeon with a specialist interest in genito-urethral surgery. He is also the Academic Training Program Director for the London School of Surgery with responsibility for the ACF and ACL program and those trainees on Out of Program Research. He is very happy to have informal contact with any trainee wanting to know more about urological training in London or the wider Academic program (nick.watkin@nhs.net).
Training programme
NCEL – North Central and East London Rotation
Our training rotation covers the central and eastern part of North London. There are three teaching units in the rotation at Royal London, Royal Free and UCH and we have six district general hospitals (Queens/King Georges, Whittington, North Middlesex, Barnet/Chase Farm and Whipps Cross). The opportunities from having a large number of specialist complex centres allied to large busy acute units means we can provide a flexible training to cater for core ST3/4/5 trainees and more specialist opportunities in pelvic, renal, andrology and reconstruction. Paediatric subspecialist opportunities are available at Whipps, Queens, North Middlesex and the Whittington amongst the DGHs. The last ten years have seen changes in hospital configurations which have resulted in high volume Renal surgery (400+ cases per yr) at the Royal Free and centralisation of all Pelvic (Bladder and Prostate) at UCH.
There is a rotation meeting twice a year called URAM ( Urology Regional Audit Programme ) when there is an opportunity to present audit and QI projects and there is a strong track record of this leading on to publication and presentation and national and international conferences. Research is strongly supported with strong link s to UCL and QMUL academically. There are strong links with the North West and South London rotations and movement between the three rotations is a common event to support training opportunities.
NWLU - North West London Rotation
NWLU offers training opportunities for 16 trainees (ST3-7) across 7 hospitals:
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust is a large teaching hospital which offers 6 training posts in all urological sub-specialties. It is a high volume centre for pelvic, renal and prostate cancer, offering training in open, laparoscopic and more recently robotic-assisted techniques. It hosts an internationally renowned focal therapy service for prostate cancer. The endourology service offers PCNL, mini-PCNL, ‘hot’ ureteroscopy, ESWL and all options for BPH including Rezum, HoLEP and Urolift. It is the only NHS Trust in the UK to offer feminising genital surgery and offers a world class fertility service. ICHNT has a sacral nerve stimulation service and provides prosthetic surgery for urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction. There are plenty of opportunities for academic progression linked to Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.
The Royal Marsden Hospital offers 2 posts in pelvic, retroperitoneal, renal and prostate cancer surgery. Training is offered in open, laparoscopic and robotic-assisted techniques. This unit offers high quality urological cancer management training and the opportunity to be part of cutting edge clinical trials.
There are 7 high volume core urology posts shared between Wexham Park Hospital (2 posts), Northwick Park Hospital (2 posts), Chelsea & Westminster Hospital (1 post), West Middlesex Hospital (1 post) and Hillingdon Hospitals (2 posts). These posts are supervised by experienced Education Supervisors who have a passion for training.
The post at Northwick Park Hospital offers the chance to be involved with complex reconstruction under the St Mark’s Colorectal Team. Paediatric training opportunities have been developed with the Paediatric Surgeons as part of the rotation with Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.
The annual regional meeting offers potential for networking with peers and presentation of research and quality improvement projects. Each year, we choose a theme for the meeting and invited speakers share their experiences and knowledge with our trainees. Examples of previous themes are ‘Innovation’ and ‘Leadership’. The NWLU trainees run their own mentoring group to offer each other career advice and support.
We are proud to help our motivated and innovative trainees reach their full potential.
Specialty Training Board Information
The London Specialty School of Surgery holds Specialty Training Board meetings three times per year. The purpose of this group is to bring together specialty leads from postgraduate medical training programmes across the three London local education and training board areas to consider issues of mutual interest in relation to surgical training, and to foster and share good training practice on a pan London basis.
Vision
The vision for the London School of Surgery is to provide the highest quality of training using the vast wealth of clinical resources across London. London has a population of almost eight million. With its rich variety of cultures, nationalities and social backgrounds, the capital offers any trainee a full and rewarding experience in emergency medicine.
The London School of Surgery also seeks to provide:
- World class education for world-class healthcare
- Excellence of postgraduate training and education
- Producing clinical leaders of tomorrow
Useful Information and Links
Curriculum - https://www.gmc-uk.org/education/standards-guidance-and-curricula/curric...
ePortfolio - https://www.iscp.ac.uk/
Exams - https://www.jcie.org.uk/content/content.aspx?ID=1
JCST Guidelines and Checklists - https://www.jcst.org/quality-assurance/certification-guidelines-and-checklists/