Mr. Michael Hii
Supervisor Pre-SET Training
Welcome to Pre-SET 2023. I’m pleased to welcome back our previous SVH staff and keen to meet the new members of our surgical team – of which there will be quite a few this year.
I love to be able to start the year with a good dose optimism (real or imagined) and I genuinely feel (hope) this is going to be a good year. As we slowly settle into this new COVID existence we’ve become comfortable with a modified approach to meeting, training and education. There have been some positive changes which have come out of the last couple of years which would not have happened without a pandemic. 2022 provided us with an opportunity to live with COVID - and to train and operate and learn in new ways. I hope 2023 will allow us to push forward with this.
In terms of our training program, we will continue our approach of tweaking and improving our teaching stalwarts. Our perennial aim is to provide and develop the best, most comprehensive Pre SET education and preparation. We want to look after our trainees, produce better doctors and get them onto the training programs of their choice – as good quality registrars.
The GSSE, Reg Ready and weekly teaching programs will continue and will continue to evolve. We are very keen to strengthen and deepen our relationships with the St Vincent’s Surgical Academy and the St Vincent’s Surgical Students Society. Hopefully, a better mix of face to face and online contact will enable us to bond better as a training hub. As always, we are keen to hear your thoughts and feedback. I encourage you strongly to contact myself, Nicole Winter or one of your Pre-SET committee members if you have ideas on how we can do things better.
We’re going to continue pushing with our SET preparation program, as led by Nicole Winter; and there will be a drive to extend this to as many specialties as possible. We’d like to map out a clear path for interested trainees to streamline the process and ideally make the journey a little bit shorter. This is another area where closer ties with the surgical academy will be fruitful.
The newer aspects of our program will develop, and we are particularly keen on getting some feedback here. Specifically, we will be looking to move the GSSE course to an online program, we want to really expand the surgical TOP GUN competition and push the opportunities for research projects and collaborations. The surgical TOP GUN will be in its third year. Following on from previous Top Guns Dr Jade El Mohamed and Dr Marc Chia we are keen to see where we can get this competition. Even though it’s been a lot of fun so far, we will be looking to broaden the appeal of this event and reach out directly to some of the surgical specialties in 2023.
We were pleased with the five (as far as I am aware) successful SET applicants from 2022. I congratulate them on their hard work and subsequent success and look forward to working them as they become Registrars. We look forward to similar success this year.
I want to thank the outgoing chief surgical resident, Henry Badgery. Henry’s two years in the chief role were very impressive. As a hospital, for us to have such great leadership, two years in a row and during the hot COVID years was very fortunate. Henry helped us stabilise the program in a very tough period and he made some strong changes that will be remembered. Henry will complete the second year of his PhD this year before starting general surgical training in 2024.
That leads us on to the Pre-SET committee. It was a great pleasure working with the team in 2022, one of the benefits of my supervisor role is the opportunity to engage with these motivated, passionate, high achieving young doctors. I thank them for their very hard work and look forward to working with many again.
Finally, welcome back to Adrienne Lui as the 2023 chief resident. It’s great to have Adrienne back after her brief sojourn across the park. Adrienne is now a 4th year resident with an interest in cardiac surgery. She has been a terrific young doctor and has previously been really impactful as a Pre-SET committee member. I’m excited to have the possibility to work with her and see her develop her leadership skills this year.
Here's to a productive, technically perfect, high volume surgical year.