In our next episode, three surgeon parents discuss the difficulties around getting pregnant and staying pregnant as a surgeon.

Miss Annabel Kemp, an Obstetrics and Gynaecology consultant with a special interest in fertility and recurrent miscarriage, gives us medical advice while our hosts, Miss Victoria Sinclair and Miss Paula Coyle share anonymous stories, practical solutions and their own experiences.

We are grateful to the surgeons that shared their stories anonymously with us. Thank you to @UKWENTs who supported our request to address this emotive and difficult subject on the WENTS & Friends, podcast series. We hope we do so empathetically allowing listeners to feel heard and supported, with advice if you or your colleagues are affected by these issues in any way.

WENTS & Friends is the official podcast for Women in ENT Surgery UK (entuk.org/wents-uk).
Follow us on Twitter @UKWENTs.

Email: wents@entuk.org with any questions or suggestions on topics you may have for future episodes.

This season’s episodes are hosted by Ekpemi Irune, Emma Stapleton, Nina Mistry, Ravina Tanna and Tanya Ta, Paula Coyle and Victoria Sinclair.
Produced and directed by Heather Pownall of Heather's Media Hub Ltd.

In the second part of our focus on training, it’s time for the trainees to have their say! Ravina Tanna and Tanya Ta are joined by three enthusiastic ENT trainees. TalisaRoss is an ENT ST3 registrar in North Thames Deanery and an academic clinical fellow. Stefan Lindon recently obtained his ST3 number in ENT and started working in Edinburgh. He was formerly an educational fellow at Salford Royal Foundation Trust. Sam Dewhurst is an ST8 trainee in the east of England, currently working at Peterborough City Hospital.

We cover a lot of ground in this episode and get some really honest opinions on the contentious issues in ENT training.

We start with an insight into the trainee experience of Covid-19, and the impact this has had on training. There have been positives, such as opportunities to develop a level of expertise and to take on additional responsibilities outside the usual remit of trainees. But inevitably, these are outweighed by the negative effect on the breadth of specialty and operative exposure. The impact of the pandemic is ongoing for trainees in terms of the pressure to balance service provision with training requirements in the face of a huge backlog of work.

We have a frank discussion about the national selection process, core surgical versus run-through training and less-than-full-time training. While some of our panel think the last-minute changes to the national selection process caused stress and anxiety, others point out that elements of an interview should be unknown and challenging to test the core skills for a surgeon of adaptability and dynamic problem-solving. All, however, agree that more structure in the process should be established. The panel also agree that core surgical training is in some ways less fit for purpose than when it was originally introduced. With this in mind, we discuss the pros and cons of run-through training and the potential problems around having two tiers of trainees.

The panel’s heartfelt tips and advice for those who have not been successful in obtaining their ST3 number is essential listening for all trainees. They advise being honest with yourself, planning for different outcomes, and learning from experience and feedback.

We close with our guests’ views on how the training process could be improved. Supportive training is the ideal, with a focus on individual strengths. We also discuss the importance of holding teaching centres accountable for high-quality training provision. Last on the wish list is giving trainees more opportunity to pursue interests in other areas which will ultimately make them more rounded and capable clinicians, educators, and managers.

The final consensus of the panel is that over time the system is realizing what works and things are slowly but surely going in the right direction.

WENTS & Friends is the official podcast for Women in ENT Surgery UK (entuk.org/wents-uk).
Follow us on Twitter @UKWENTs.

Email: wents@entuk.org any questions or suggestions on topics you may have for future episodes.

This season’s episodes are hosted by Ekpemi Irune @ENTmimi, Emma Stapleton @otolaryngolofox, Nina Mistry @nina3mistry, Ravina Tanna, @DrRavinaTanna and Tanya Ta @veggiequallife
Produced and directed by Heather Pownall @heathershub of Heather's Media Hub Ltd.

In our next episodes we will be taking a closer look at surgical training from the perspectives of both trainers and trainees. We’re starting with the trainers, and hosts Ravina Tanna and Tanya Ta are joined by an expert panel of senior ENT consultants, all heavily involved in surgical training around the UK.

Ann-Louise McDermott is a consultant paediatric ENT surgeon at Birmingham Children's Hospital. She has been on the Specialty Advisory Committee (SAC) for six years and the Otolaryngology SAC chair for the last year. She also sits on the Joint Committee on Intercollegiate Exams (JCIE) as the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) representative. She has been involved in national selection for many years.


Taran Tatla is an ENT head and neck surgeon working at London Northwest University Healthcare NHS Trust where he has been a consultant for 14 years. He has been a training program director for North Thames Deanery for ENT higher surgical training for the last four years and clinical research lead for his local clinical research network for the last 10 years.

Samit Ghosh is an ENT consultant at the Northern Care Alliance NHS Trust in Greater Manchester. Having previously been a head neck consultant he now specialises in rhinology and facial plastic surgery. He is the Training Programme Director for North West England and with Taran Tatla he sits on NAPDENT – the National Association of Program Directors in ENT.

We start by discussing the huge impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on surgical training. Much has been heard from the trainee side, but we were interested to hear the trainers’ view. Some ENT services have been disproportionately hit, whilst in other parts of the specialty exposure for trainees increased because of Covid, resulting in different challenges and opportunities for training. Making up for trainees' missed experience requires flexibility and creativity in terms of workforce planning, as well as mentoring and support to build confidence. However, the legacy of the pandemic is not all bad with innovation and teamwork at a national level leading to a wealth of online educational material, as well as new approaches to delivering training and care which we can take forward.

Ravina and Tanya take the opportunity to quiz our panel on the issue of national selection, looking at the pros and cons of the virtual format and the specific issues facing ENT in terms of workforce planning. The panel give us their own expert tips on navigating this complex process and achieving the best career outcomes. Planning and working towards your goals early is key! We also discuss run-through and core surgical training pathways and hear about promising reforms in these areas. It is reassuring for trainees to hear that there are many different routes to get to where you want to go, and in many cases alternative pathways present real opportunities for wider growth and development.

WENTS & Friends is the official podcast for Women in ENT Surgery UK (entuk.org/wents-uk).
Follow us on Twitter @UKWENTs.

Email: wents@entuk.org any questions or suggestions on topics you may have for future episodes.

This season’s episodes are hosted by Ekpemi Irune @ENTmimi, Emma Stapleton @otolaryngolofox, Nina Mistry @nina3mistry, Ravina Tanna, @DrRavinaTanna and Tanya Ta @veggiequallife
Produced and directed by Heather Pownall @heathershub of Heather's Media Hub Ltd.