Location

The department is based at St Johns Hospital and the Royal Hospital for Sick Children but as a service, we cover all the hospitals in Lothian, various sites around South East Scotland and the Highlands (Inverness).

Outpatient Services

Outpatient services are also provided at:

Lauriston Buildings, Dermatology department (Skin cancers, Ear Recon)
ERI in OPD6 (Sarcoma)
WGH in Breast Unit (Breast) and Oncology Centre (Melanoma)

Children

In general all patients under 16 are treated at RHSC. However for various reasons a few children are seen and treated at SJH. In rare cases, children over 2 years old can be operated on at SJH.

Peripheral Hospitals

There is no resident plastic surgery presence in ERI or WGH but our department provides the plastic surgery service for all Lothian hospitals and this may necessitate visits to other hospital to see or operate on patients there. Most of these will be combined cases with orthopaedics, general surgery, O&G and neurosurgery.

Offices

The main departmental offices are located on West end of the first floor of St Johns Hospital within the Educational Suite. The consultant’s offices, secretaries and trainee’s office and our meeting room are located here.

Personnel

The department normally comprises:

15 Consultants
1 Staff Grades
10 SpR and ST trainees and sometimes one orthopaedic hand trainee
4 FY2/CT1-CT2
4 FY1

There are secretarial staff at SJH and RHSC, and other specialists such as SALT, Dieticians and Physiotherapists attached to the main inpatient clinical sites.

Associate Specialist

None at present

Staff Grades

SJH
Mr Riyadh Almasharqah

Transport and Parking

For the most part, only the registrars and consultants will routinely have to visit peripheral hospitals or transfer between SJH and RHSC during the day.

Parking at ERI is privately run and expensive. If you are visiting on official business, any one of the departmental secretaries can arrange a ‘Virtual Pass’ for you. This will allow you to park for free at ERI. Simply buzz the parking attendant on arrival and departure from the main ERI car park. Virtual passes should be arranged at least 2 hours in advance and cannot be arranged at the weekends.

At RHSC, there are a limited number of ‘Essential Users Permits’ available to be signed out at the front reception desk for those who do not have staff permits. These allow parking near the hospital in the S1 zone on single yellow lines or in pay controlled zones, free of charge. Parking at RHSC is a nightmare and the traffic wardens are ruthless!