Speakers
Andrea Sott
Sebastian Dawson-Bowling
Alexander Dodds
Anouska Ayub
Andrew Tasker
Anthony Perera
John Shepperd
BOA Session
In today’s ortho comm session, we will be updating the seven ages to the three ages of an orthopaedic consultant, highlighting some of the challenges associated with different parts of a consultant's career, and how to get through them. Anouska Ayub will start by telling us about her experiences of starting out as a new consultant in the Royal London and what she wished she had known. For the second act, the mid-career, we will hear how to adapt to change. Andy Tasker will talk about changing hospital jobs whilst working as a TPD. Anthony Perera will discuss the challenges of leaving the NHS and starting as a full-time independent private practice consultant. Neil Kang will speak about developing an interest in management and leadership. For the final act of our session, we hear from John Shepperd on how to move to a fulfilling retirement.
A journey into the 3 ages of being an Orthopaedic Surgeon
Chairs: Andrea Sott, Sebastian Dawson-Bowling & Alexander Dodds
Agenda:
08:30 - 08:35 Andrea Sott, Sebastian Dawson-Bowling and Alexander Dodds
Welcome
Early Career
08:35 - 08:50 Anouska Ayub, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Barts Health NHS Trust
Reflections on starting as a new consultant
Mid-career
08:50 - 09:05 Andy Tasker, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Southmead Hospital
Changing hospitals as an established consultant
09:05 - 09:20 Anthony Perera, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Spire Cardiff Hospital
Leaving the NHS and becoming a full-time private consultant
09:20 - 09:35 Neil Kang, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust
Building management and leadership roles mid-career
Late career
09:35 - 09:50 John Shepperd, Retired Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, East Sussex NHS Trust; Former Training Program Director, South East Thames Orthopaedic Rotation
Moving from surgical practice to retirement
09:50 - 10:00 Questions
Miss Andrea Sott works as Trauma & Orthopaedic Consultant at Epsom & St Helier NHS Trust and the South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre SWLEOC since 2004. Andrea leads her Trust’s large planned Care division as Medical Director and is Surgical Director at SWLEOC. At Georges, Epsom &St Helier Andrea furthermore chairs the Surgery Strategy group as well as the New &Novel Panel. In all her roles she strongly promotes excellent surgical care and senior clinical leadership to continuously improve services for our patients.
At BOA Andrea chairs the Orthopaedic Committee and sits on Council since 2023.
As a leader Andrea has been instrumental in achieving national top performance in hip fracture care, MSK elective recovery and patient waiting times providing mutual aid to more challenged UK regions.
Andrea maintains a GMC portfolio as an active and enthusiastic Trainer. She has just completed 10 years as Senior Examiner for the JCIE, past Surgical Tutor and current AAC panel member for the Royal College of Surgeons continuously inspiring students, trainees and colleagues to take up professional and leadership roles in Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery. Andrea is host to a well-established BOA Future Leaders Programme CCT F&A fellowship and has been invited as director/ faculty to several BOFAS and BOA courses and meetings.
She has published many papers in her field. As member of the SWL executive R&D committee she oversees several NIHR studies some as PI, advocating evidence based surgery at all times.
Married to Simon with three children Andrea enjoys a busy family life, Gym, boating and baking with their own chicken’s eggs…
As one female surgeon amongst 52 male colleagues at SWLEOC she is keen demonstrate that a flourishing Orthopaedic career, senior leadership positions and happy fulfilling family life are indeed achievable to all.
Sebastian specialises in all aspects of lower limb surgery, especially primary and revision hip and knee replacement, and sports injuries. He also works within the Royal London Hospital major trauma service.
He was Clinical Network Director for the Barts Hospital group and North East London ICS from 2017-2022, during which time he led development of the regional elective orthopaedic centre, also researching and implementing development of the accelerated post-surgical patient recovery.
Following undergraduate studies at Cambridge University, he undertook specialist surgical training on the Guy's and St. Thomas's rotation, at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (Stanmore) and the Hospital for Special Surgery (New York). He holds Master’s degrees in Medical Law and Musculoskeletal Science. He has co-authored three textbooks; as well as has contributing chapters to other volumes on orthopaedics, trauma and medical law. He frequently acts as an expert witness in litigation cases.
He sits on the editorial board for Bone& Joint 360, the National Joint Registry implant scrutiny committee, the Council of the BOA and is an examiner for the FRCS(Tr&Orth). His interest in orthopaedic basic science has led to collaboration with colleagues from across Europe on a novel hip prosthesis design.
Mr Alexander Dodds BSc (Hons), MBBCh, MSc, MD (Res), FRCS (Tr and Orth) is a nationally regarded UK Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, and specialist Knee and Hip surgeon. Mr Dodds has served on the BASK (British Association for Surgery of the Knee) executive team from 2017- 22, responsible for driving best practice in patient care across the UK. His first-class surgical practice is underlined by his world renowned research work, for which he was awarded an MD (Res) from Imperial College London.
Mr Dodds specialises in the diagnosis and management of knee and hip related conditions, treating joint pain, instability and sports injuries to get you back to your best. He regularly performs arthroscopic (key-hole) surgery, ligament (including ACL) reconstruction, realignment surgery (osteotomy) and partial/total joint replacements, primary and revision knee and hip replacements.
He works as a Consultant in the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. He treats both private and self-pay knee and hip patients at the Nuffield Health Hospital in Cheltenham and also conducts a clinic at the Linton House Cobalt Clinic in Cheltenham.
Andrew Tasker is a Trauma and Orthopaedic Consultant based at Southmead Hospital, Bristol.
He was appointed as a Consultant in 2014 and has been in full-time practice since. He has a passion for medical education and an interest in the challenges of delivering safe, effective surgical training in the modern healthcare system. Having been departmental Medical Education Lead and subsequently Postgraduate Tutor for Severn Deanery Orthopaedic Registrar Teaching, he is currently Training Programme Director for Trauma & Orthopaedics in Severn. He is a European Trauma Course Instructor and faculty on FRCS (T&O) pre-Consultant exam courses.
He is committed to evidence based practice and has been a principle investigator for his trust on national multi centre Orthopaedic trials. As part of his commitment to ensuring the highest standards of patient care and surgical practice, he has served on the executive for the Orthopaedic Trauma Society from 2021 to 2024 , and a special interest in managing Shoulder and Elbow Trauma.
Anthony Perera is a Consultant Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Surgeon with over 20 years' experience and more than 5,000 procedures performed — one of the most experienced foot and ankle surgeons in the United Kingdom. He qualified from the University of Birmingham and undertook fellowship training with some of the most prominent foot and ankle surgeons in the world across the USA, Ireland, South Africa and Australia. He was awarded the top prize by the British Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society in 2008 for this work.
An international leader in minimally invasive bunion surgery and one of the longest-established practitioners of this technique in the world, Anthony holds patents in surgical technique, has developed original procedures published in the international medical literature, and teaches this technique to surgeons across the UK and the United States.
The first orthopaedic surgeon in Wales to transition to full-time private practice, Anthony has operated a fully paperless private practice for nineteen years — at a time when the NHS's own National Programme for IT, launched in 2002 with a budget of over £6 billion to digitise healthcare records across England, was closed down in 2011 having failed to deliver its core objectives. With artificial intelligence now reshaping orthopaedic imaging, clinical decision support and practice management, he brings a perspective grounded not in theory with a university position in the AI but also in nearly two decades of building and running technology-enabled clinical infrastructure in the real world.
Yet for all that, Anthony's central conviction is not about technology. It is about people. The tools that transform private practice — the automation, the AI, the digital infrastructure — matter because they return time and clarity to surgeons who are currently overwhelmed by systems that should never have required their attention. What you do with that time is what counts. And what he believes you should do with it is turn towards your colleagues: share what you know, build the networks your training never gave you, and recognise that the success of the surgeon beside you is not a threat to your own. In a profession that has too long mistaken isolation for independence, learning to work together is not a soft ideal. It is the most practical strategy available to us.
John Shepperd retired in 2014 as a Consultant Trauma & Orthopaedic Surgeon in Hastings. During his career, he served on the BOA Council, SAC and Education Committee, and held roles as Regional Specialty Advisor for the Royal College of Surgeons of England and Programme Director for South East Thames.
He was a founding member of the International Society for Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery, the British Association of Spine Surgeons and the European Spine Society. He was also the first surgeon to use hydroxyapatite (HA) coatings for orthopaedic implants and has published on pelvic reconstruction, hip and knee replacement, spinal research and minimally invasive spine surgery.
I am a Consultant Shoulder & Elbow Surgeon and Clinical Director for MSK at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. I have over 14 years of consultant experience, with clinical and research interests in upper limb trauma, including the changing face of proximal humeral fractures. My approach has been shaped by the shift from fixation-focused surgery towards evidence-based, patient-centred care. A former BIOS Travelling Fellow, including time spent in Mumbai in 2010, I remain passionate about international collaboration, surgical education and mentorship through simulation, cadaveric and digital learning platforms.
