School of Surgery

Assessing the capacity of patients is an essential skill for all doctors, not least surgeons, as it is intimately related to taking consent and treating any patient correctly.
In one of the most important podcasts from the School of Surgery, Ricky Ellis and Christine Taylor discuss capacity, the Mental Capacity Act, how to assess and enhance capacity and how to care for patients without capacity. The 5 key principles of the Mental Capacity Act are clearly explained as is how to act in the best interest of patients without capacity - for example, the unconscious patient who requires life threatening surgery, with a best interests checklist to help you do thing correctly. How to deal with Advanced Directives or advanced decisions to refuse treatment is clearly explained here too.
Its a long podcast but not knowing about issues related to capacity can lead to charges of assault being brought or omission of care leading to charges of negligence.
This may be one of the most important 20 minutes you can spend, whether you are a medical student, doctor or anyone else involved in the treatment of patients.

Every surgeon needs to obtain informed consent before proceeding with any procedure. Ricky Ellis talks to Daniel Couch about consent, how best to take it and the framework around consent. Essential listening for any medical student and surgeon in training.
Ricky Ellis and Daniel Couch are both training in Surgery in the East Midlands of the UK at the Royal Derby Hospital

"Doctor!" the nurse shouts, "the patient admitted earlier with abdominal pain has a blood sugar of 36! He doesn't look very well! What shall I do?!"
Fortunately, you had listened to this podcast by Naomi Laskar and Roger Stanworth about recognising and dealing with diabetic emergencies on the surgical ward, and you knew exactly what was going on and what to do!
This podcast covers diabetic ketoacidosis (not infrequently presenting to surgery as abdominal pain as the main symptom), the superbly named HONC (now more boringly called HHS), other causes of ketosis and what kind of fluids to give diabetic patients.
Essential listening for all medical students and trainee doctors, you can save a life in the middle of the night.
Naomi Laskar is a doctor at Royal Derby Hospital, UK, and Roger Stanworth is a Consultant Diabetologist, also at RDH.

Diabetes is a common and growing co-morbidity in whatever branch of medicine you go in to. In this audio podcast, Roger Stanworth talks to Naomi Laskar about this condition. Types of diabetes and their aetiology and presentation are covered as well as HbA1c, WHO recommendations, different management plans for each type of diabetes, drugs and their contraindications are also covered.
Roger Stanworth is a consultant diabetologist and Naomi Laskar is a foundation doctor, both at the Royal Derby Hospital, UK

Recorded at the International Conference of Anal Fistula Treatment in Rome 2018, Techniques in Coloproctology interview Phil Tozer, a consultant at the world famous St Mark's Hospital, UK about current treatments for anal fistula. Phil takes us through why not to place a seton in the acute setting, the 5 factors preventing healing of fistulas, and the pros and cons of the whole range of fistula treatment including plugs, fibrin glue, permacol, LIFT, the place of sphincter repair, restoring the contour of the anus, VAAFT (including "palliative VAAFT and delta VAAFT"), FiLAC and finally the promise of stem cells in fistula. Essential listening for anyone who treats anal fistula.