UKAAPS surges on into 2020
BY PROFESSOR JAMES FRAME, THE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, ANGLIA RUSKIN UNIVERSITY
From its conception at The Reform Club, St James Place, London in 2010, UKAAPS has steadily progressed from a small cohort of NHS and a larger cohort of over 60 like-minded consultant plastic surgeons working as independent practitioners, into a seriously good and independent association dedicated to improving standards of aesthetic surgery, consistently good clinical outcomes and most importantly maintaining and improving patient awareness and safety. The high standard of surgery performed by its members means that there is no requirement to include major international speakers, with the attendant costs.
From the outset the intention for UKAAPS was to marry up to our sister organisation ISAPS because it too was an organisation exclusively open to plastic surgeons. We arranged with ISAPS to make all of the initially paid up members of UKAAPS full members of ISAPS through its membership fee structure. Within ISAPS we helped establish Sure Insurance services via our role on the ISAPS Medical Procedures Abroad Committee and incorporated the ISAPS safety diamond into UKAAPS policy. Foad Nahai, President of ISAPS, travelled to the UK and after detailed presentation to ISAPS Management Committee, the Anglia Ruskin University / UKAAPS Fellowship Training programme was approved. This programme mentored individual, fully accredited plastic surgeons in aesthetic medicine and surgery with an exit qualification of a Certificate, a Diploma or a Masters in Surgery (MCh), dependent on the credits received in the programme. UKAAPS had an infrastructure including holding an Annual General Meeting at Lena Andersson’s Harley Street Office and was one of the first national groups to be recognised by ISAPS as a ‘Global Partner’.
In 2015 Shailesh Vadadoria and UKAAPS were approached by David Hicks and Wigmore Medical to hold the UKAAPS AGM and Annual Meeting at the Aesthetic Medicine Live Annual Conference at Olympia in Kensington, London. We have now just completed the 5th annual event, with an excellent programme organised by UKAAPS President-Elect Shailesh Vadadoria.
The format always starts with the Faculty Dinner the evening prior to the main meeting, either at The Westbury, Mayfair or Chandos House, The Royal Society of Medicine. The dinner has been supported by Peter Cranstone (Eurosurgical) and by Fourth State Medicine. UKAAPS, until now, has been exclusively funded from membership fees and the benefit to our Membership is complimentary admission and exposure to major advances, plus the latest in technology for medical and surgical aesthetics and includes CPD merits. The after-dinner speaker topics included the now legendary ‘topical’ poetry from Tariq Ahmad and a very meaningful presentation with anecdote on the dangers of making false accusation against a vulnerable individual, without due diligence and proper investigation of the facts, from Homicide Barrister Sailesh Mehta. More followed at the next day’s presentation at Olympia where he explained the importance of seeking early counsel should there be a serious incident or fatality in theatre. The facility or clinic will be the first to distance themselves and even to commit you to attend unrepresented at an internal inquiry that could produce unredacted comments that could be used against you in Court. In addition, the surgeons’ malpractice insurers will thoroughly check that you are fully subscribed and especially that previous income declarations were accurate. Apparently, the insurance companies will be trying to abrogate their responsibility to a minimum or altogether. Legal counsel should be present for you from the start.
The programme this year was exceptional and the lecture hall was full to bursting with very few attendees leaving seats for fear of missing out on the rich content provided by short presentations from 29 speakers. The topics engaged with the speakers’ experience and showed their tricks and tips and avoidance of complications. The first session was superb and included advice on the use of fat dissolving deoxycholate, male neck skin excision, and chin augment with implants (James McDiarmid); a vignette of development and fun within the 30-years ‘ experience of a leading, progressive, aesthetic surgery practice (Brent Tanner); hugely important advice on the prevention and management of occlusive filler embolism and vascular occlusion ‘The 20 minute window’ (Dalvi Humzah); the importance of clearing out the post auricular conchal sulcus and avoiding conchal reduction or anterior scoring techniques (Tariq Ahmad); the risk and responsibilities in eyelid surgery and logical approach to correction (Jonathan Britto); and facial rejuvenation with fillers and toxins (Shank Shanker).
The first lecture in the second session explained the toxicity of local anaesthetics (Sylvia Karcheva); the Riaz “R lift” (Mohammed Riaz); an overview of publications on BIA-ALCL and literature on silicone associated illness (Shameem Haque); an excellent talk of the benefit of cosmetic dentistry (Manrina Rhode); and instructional advise on chemical peeling (Rana Das Gupta).
The pre-lunch session included Ros Hannen, PhD explaining the potential for the ‘Keratify’ skin model and its import role in investigative medicine, the use of thread lifts and temporary adjuncts to facelift (Ken Graham); recent advances in non-invasive rejuvenation of the female genitalia (Shirin Lakhani); and recent advances in labiaplasty (Nora Nugent).
The afternoon sessions were equally informative and of an extremely high standard with talks on techniques for prominent ear correction (Mohammed Shibu); secondary facelifts (Jonathan Britto); safe-plane injectable implants (Dalvi Humzah); non-surgical lifting (Santosh Bhutta); the challenges of secondary rhinoplasty (Stephano Cortufo); and a high quality, validated study challenging the proposed CQC mandatory implementation of pre-cosmetic surgery psychological assessment of the patient (Atul Khanna). Then followed vaser lipolysis for gynaecomastia (Santosh Bhatia); techniques for reducing areola size (Tariq Ahmad); improving the appearance of gynaecomastia surgically (Navid Jahal); and the second part of Brent Tanner’s fascinating presentation of his wonderful 40 years at the top in advancing the specialty. ‘Ear Fold’ correction of prominent ears has limitations and these were beautifully explained by Walid Sabbagh, then the final presentation (although last far from least) by Shank Shankar. He described the organisation of a self-help and advisory group of 60 or so plastic surgeons who benefit from their collective experience by subscribing to a WhatsApp group.
Our thanks go to Vicky, Jennifer and all the AML staff, including Arron James the computer ‘boff’ for engaging so positively with UKAAPS. UKAAPS also thank Shailesh Vadadoria for his tireless efforts that made such a huge success of this meeting and to congratulate him on his appointment as President-Elect of UKAAPS.
This is an end to 10 years of my Presidency of UKAAPS and I feel that this has been 10 of the most enjoyable of my 36 years in plastic and aesthetic surgery. Many UKAAPS Members trained alongside me in Billericay and Chelmsford and I have worked alongside many others who work overseas. I consider them all as great friends and colleagues and I have been privileged to work amongst them in our great specialty. I have always felt that succession planning is the key to the success of a unit, or society, and from the evidence of this meeting I know that Shailesh will make a huge success with UKAAPS both nationally and internationally. For the immediate future UKAAPS need to publish the validated data presented within this meeting and encourage the postponement and removal of the requirement for mandatory psychological assessment for CQC accreditation. This is merely a licence for inexperienced psychologists and ‘chambers’ of psychologists to join the gravy chain and does not protect the patient. For our own protection we also need to assimilate and incorporate the WhatsApp group into UKAAPS and have a more collective responsibility that includes continuous medical education and training programmes for plastic surgeons. UKAAPS provides this.
In the meantime, UKAAPS has already expanded to provide a regular Aesthetic Cadaveric Training Programme in Chelmsford at the ARU School of Medicine and we must continue to support the excellent lecture and training programme provided by Rana das Gupta at the University of Coventry. We must also encourage plastic surgeons working in a UK practice to join UKAAPS because there is more influence with a large membership.
http://www.ukaaps.org/
