Location

The department is based at St. John's Hospital and the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People, 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 RHCYP. 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. John's 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:

19 Consultants, 2 Staff Grades, 10 SpR and ST trainees and sometimes 1 Orthopaedic hand trainee, 1 junior Clinical Fellow, 1 hand TIG Fellow, 4 FY2/CT1-CT2 and 4 FY1.

There are secretarial staff at SJH and RHCYP, 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 RHCYP during the day.

Parking at RIE 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 RIE. Simply buzz the parking attendant on arrival and departure from the main RIE car park. Virtual passes should be arranged at least 2 hours in advance and cannot be arranged at the weekends.

RHCYP has three proximity areas (1A, 1D and 1E) with a limited number of spaces for patients and visitors with specific access requirements (see below for details of eligibility and process for patients and visitors to access these areas). These areas are barrier controlled with number plate recognition and are managed by NHS Lothian Facilities Logistics Services via the NHSL FM Helpdesk for bookings. Not all spaces within these areas are bookable as some will be retained for emergency and essential drop off and deliveries.