Welcome to the post-BOA congress debrief. We’ve had a very positive meeting indeed last week with great conversations and positive engagement from our membership. Well done for all the great work you’re all doing and keep it up. I’ll start by mentioning one of the first conversations I had on Tuesday. It went like “What should the collective term for a WOC-UK supporter or member be?” The shortlist was WOC-ite, WOC-ie/WOC-kie or WOC-er. I was close to starting a membership poll but as the conversation continued, it became clearer there was only one viable option, unless you WOC-ers disagree and want a fresh new poll.
On a more serious note, our dedicated session on Tuesday morning was truly captivating. It started with Steve Mannion CMG telling us the history of World Orthopaedic Concern and how it was set up and developed over the years. I learnt so much myself and feel there is so much more to be discovered. A fitting tribute was paid to one of WOC’s greats, Mr Geoffrey Walker. Since the announcement of his death in my last email, messages of sympathy have poured in from people around the world who have been touched by his dedication to improving orthopaedic care for all, from Bangladesh to India to Ethiopia among many. I pay him a final tribute here today for all those great things he has achieved in his life.
Our second speaker, Graeme Groom CMG, gave us a heart-breaking but much-needed factual account of the atrocities happening in Gaza right now. He managed to instil a glimmer of hope by talking about his charity IDEALS and the selfless work his team are all doing there now, built on years of engagement in the country. This team includes many great surgeons, but I am only able to acknowledge a handful here: Victoria Rose, Sally Phillips, Basil Budair and Deepa Bose from WOC-UK who is present there right now. Graeme’s honesty, humility and genuine kindness were humbling. He was awarded the WOC-UK medal of honour for his lifetime work at the Gala the next day and also received an honorary fellowship from the BOA at this year’s congress.
The next talk was from Sean Kelly, a Scottish Highlands surgeon, who spoke about his experience running a hip arthroplasty service in Zambia. We were delighted to hear about this great initiative from the Flyspec charity and the history and people behind it, all very generously acknowledged in his talk, including Alberto Gregori, John Jellis and many others. Sean inspired many surgeons who are nearing or post-retirement to engage in life-changing work as he has done in a LMIC setting, and speaking with Sean, this is certainly something he intends to continue over time.
Our next speaker was Dr Mengistu Mengesha from Ethiopia. Mengistu’s presentation at the BOA represents a success story for us. We have always experienced huge logistical difficulties in getting a speaker from a LMIC country to attend our session and give us an insider perspective on the healthcare challenges they face. This is something we recognise as extremely important, as it allows us to tailor our responses to the requests and recommendations put forward by our partners rather than arriving with a pre-determined package based on our own assessments, however well-intentioned. I owe a huge thank you to Mr Tony Clayson for his pivotal role in facilitating this, as well as to the BOA events team for making Mengistu so welcome, waiving his registration fees and inviting him to the Gala dinner. Mengistu gave a fascinating talk about the progress made in Ethiopian orthopaedics over the years, both from a staffing and research perspective. While tremendous progress has been achieved, he reminded us that Ethiopia is still a long way from autonomy and that international partnership remains very welcome.
Elodie Sike from Cameroon spoke next via a pre-recorded talk. Elodie embodies the challenges we have traditionally faced with international speakers from LMICs. She is the recipient of the first BOTA-WOCUK LMIC travel scholarship and was all set to present in person, but with less than two weeks’ notice her visa was refused. She nevertheless delivered a show-stopping presentation on the development of a modified Masquelet technique at her institution to manage complex bone infections. The quality of this research reminds us how surgeons and researchers in LMICs overcome resource limitations to develop appropriate and affordable technologies to improve outcomes in their own countries.
Finally, we heard from Professor Simon Graham, WOC-UK’s research representative, about his work with the NIHR research unit on global surgery, including a number of groundbreaking projects currently underway and the funding available for those interested in undertaking research themselves.
Conversations continued well past the end of our Tuesday session, into the evening social gathering and through Wednesday and Thursday at our exhibition stand. One of the most significant outcomes was the creation of a global surgery committee within the British Hip Society, led by James Shelton. This is a fantastic initiative which we applaud and will support wholeheartedly. BHS now joins BOFAS, BSSH, BOOS and BSCOS as sub-specialty organisations affiliated with WOC-UK, and we look forward to hearing from them at our annual conference.
We also introduced new engagement features this year, including a picture auction courtesy of local artist Ian Fennelly, who donated two limited edition wildlife prints, and a “guess the weight of the cake” competition courtesy of Lyndsay Abraham. Mr Alan Norrish was the highest bidder for the prints and Mrs Jo Smillie won the cake.
What’s next for WOC-UK? In brief:
- 26–28 November: BOTA Annual Congress. WOC-UK will again be involved in the global surgery session and the LMIC event, with Alan Norrish representing WOC-UK, alongside trainee talks on LMIC project experiences.
- 1–6 December: COSECSA exams and Scientific Conference in Burundi. WOC-UK will be strongly represented and continues to support examining bodies including COSECSA and WACS.
- October 2025–2026: Harvard Global Orthopaedic Committee research programme. WOC-UK has partnered with Harvard under Prof Kiran Agarwal to support LMIC surgeons in research training, with Sanjay Gupta and myself representing WOC-UK on faculty.
- Ongoing outreach projects: Guyana training programme, Feet First surgical visitation programme, Flyspec, and Tanzania surgical camps, led by WOC-UK members.
- 10 October 2025: Global Surgical Frontiers conference organised by Prof Chris Lavy at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, London.
- Pakistan hospital volunteering opportunity: RTE Hospital, South Punjab (Indus Hospital Group).
- Northern Uganda hospital volunteering opportunity: Yotkom Medical Centre.
All of this will take us towards our next Annual Conference on Saturday 6 June 2026 at the BBraun Academy in Sheffield. I will keep you updated as plans develop. Happy end of 2025.
Ashtin Doorgakant
Chairman, World Orthopaedic Concern UK
