Hand Therapy Unit
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital offers specialist Hand Fellowship opportunities within its busy, high-volume tertiary orthoplastic hand service, providing trainees with extensive clinical and operative experience across the full breadth of hand and wrist surgery.
Photo: Members of the Hand Therapy Unit team
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital offers specialist Hand Fellowship opportunities within its busy, high-volume tertiary orthoplastic hand service, providing trainees with extensive clinical and operative experience across the full breadth of hand and wrist surgery.
Working alongside experienced hand surgeons, fellows develop their skills in patient assessment, clinical decision-making and operative management, with exposure to acute trauma, elective surgery and paediatric and congenital hand conditions.
Clinical and operative experience
The fellowship offers an average of seven operating sessions per week, divided between trauma and elective lists.
Daily dedicated hand trauma lists provide experience in soft tissue reconstruction, including tendon repairs and microsurgery, alongside fracture fixation involving the distal radius, metacarpals and phalanges.
Elective operating covers a broad range of procedures, including arthroscopy, arthroplasty, Dupuytren's disease and osteotomies. Dedicated paediatric lists provide exposure to congenital hand surgery, including syndactyly release, polydactyly excision and reconstruction.
Previous fellows have typically completed between 250 and 300 cases during a six-month placement.
Training, teaching and research
The department provides a supportive training environment, with opportunities to participate in research, including laboratory-based projects.
Fellows lead weekly departmental teaching sessions and are encouraged to organise local and regional journal clubs.
Several consultants are tutors for the British Society for Surgery of the Hand (BSSH) Hand Diploma, providing opportunities to gain experience across the diploma syllabus.
Fellowship arrangements
The department offers two fellowships, one of which includes orthopaedic middle-grade on-call duties.
Placements usually last six months and are open to plastic surgery and orthopaedic trainees from the UK and overseas.
Based in the heart of Chelsea, the hospital also offers easy access to central London's cultural attractions, restaurants and transport connections.
How to apply
Fellowship positions are normally advertised and interviewed for in August, with placements beginning the following February and August.
Applicants should look for upcoming fellowship vacancies on the NHS Jobs website.
Previous fellows
The Chelsea and Westminster Hand Fellowship has welcomed trainees from the UK and overseas, many of whom have continued their careers in specialist hand surgery and related disciplines.
Previous fellows include:
- Sarah Abbott
- Magnus Arnander
- Christopher Bano
- David Bodansky
- Gavin Brigstocke
- Carol Chan
- Ella Darveniza
- Daniel Dreyfuss
- Michael Elvey
- Sabhat Gurdezi
- Tim Halsey
- Sammi Hassan
- Alistair Hunter
- Riem Johnson
- Jenny Lane
- Yueyang Li
- Will Lumsdaine
- Robert MacFarlane
- Melissa Mahoney
- Claire Middleton
- Ben Miranda
- Arvind Mohan
- George Murphy
- Vishal Patel
- Vijay Patil
- Chris Peake
- Jeremy Rodrigues
- Gavin Schaller
- Bernard Schick
- Daniel Shaerf
- Omer Slevin
- Francesco Smeraglia
- Kapil Sugand
- John Tawfik
- Sarah Tolerton
- Matthias Vanhees
- Pieter Venter
- Anna Watson
- Rupert Wharton
- Anna Loch Wilkinson
- Lil Xu
- Sarah Yong
- Ian Yuen