Until 1996, Senior Registrars (SR) were the most experienced grade of trainee in all NHS specialties.
Competition for these posts from the available pool of lower grade Registrars was hot. SRs could, after some time, apply for Consultant jobs. Due to the low number of consultants at the time, SRs often spent 6-7 years at that level, staying within one of only about 18 Plastic Surgery units. Even then, some never made it to Consultant.
Partly in response to the blockage, and to provide senior trainees with a forum for discussing matters relevant to them, BAPS agreed to the formation of a “Senior Registrar’s committee”. They met for the first time at the BAPS research meeting held at Wexham Park Hospital in April 1969. However, the concept did not take off, meetings not being well attended. There was general dissatisfaction with a body seen as “too political”. When David Evans and John Lendrum learned about the Neurological Senior Registrar’s Travelling Club, the concept was quickly adopted as a similar Plastic surgical affair. Under the chair of Roy Sanders the “Senior Registrars Travelling Club”, or SRTC, proposed twice yearly, stand-alone meetings with the aim of, seeing life and alternative techniques practiced by consultant colleagues elsewhere, as well as keeping an eye towards political developments. Graham Lister quickly organised the first gathering at Canniesburn, Glasgow in 1972.
Who's who at the 1971 meeting
Attendees, some Consultants in the unit, numbered in a direction order starting at the rear left corner:
1. Arthur Morris, 2. Tim Milward, 3.Martyn Webster, 4.Iain Jackson, 5.? 6. John McGregor, 7.Chips Browning, 8. John Lendrum 9. ??, 10. Tom Gibson,, 11. Bill Reid 12 & 13 ? Staff members at Canniesburn, 14. Jack Mustarde, 15. ?, 16 Mike Poole
17. Mike Green, 18 - 21 ? all fellows at Canniesburn, 22. Ken Paton, 23. Mike Gipson, 24. ? John Bowen, 25 ? , 26. Graham Lister (who convened the meeting), 27.?, 28. David Evans, 29 Henry Goldin 30 31 & 32 ??
Can you fill in the blanks?
Typically, the meetings were held over a weekend, with 18-22 participants. They comprised both live operating sessions and lectures. The BAPS president was often invited to give a political view on the current outlook for the specialty. There was too, plenty of socialising, the dinners being particularly good, often becoming quite lively.
Attendees remember it as a very valuable experience, a happy period from which they learnt a lot about what was going on in the other units. They could see and quiz other consultants on their approach to similar clinical problems. Everyone got to know each other very well, the SRs becoming a tightly bonded unit. Somewhat of a hallmark in plastic surgery.
The second meeting was held at Mount Vernon in 1972, organised by Roy Sanders, then Stoke Mandeville and Oxford in 1973, organised by Phil Sykes and David Evans.
The SRTC ran until the mid 1990s, being disbanded when it became increasingly difficult to obtain study leave and the Registrar and Senior Registrar grades were combined to become “Specialist Registrars” by the Calman training reforms in 1996.