Speakers
Professor Alex Trompeter
Colonel Hugo Guthrie
Kavi Patel
Sarah Phillips
BOA Session
This session will focus on the key aspects of surgical management, patient pathways, service reconfiguration, and education and training that we need to consider if we see an escalation of conflict in Europe, the Middle East and beyond.
Chair: Will Eardley & Alex Trompeter
Alex Trompeter works at St George’s University Hospital in London and holds the position of Professor of Orthopaedic Trauma Surgery at City St George’s University of London. His specific clinical interests are the management of complex fractures, bone infection, non-union, deformity correction and limb lengthening, orthoplastic surgery and delivering the region’s amputation service.
Alex graduated from Guy’s and St Thomas’ medical school in 2003. He completed his specialist training in trauma and orthopaedics in the South West Thames rotation in 2012. He won the Sir Walter Mercer Gold Medal for the FRCS examinations in 2011. Alex undertook specialist fellowship training in trauma and limb reconstruction in the UK (Liverpool and Chertsey) and overseas (Calgary, Canada). He was awarded the Braun travelling fellowship to the Massachusetts General Hospital, USA, by the British Orthopaedic Association, and a travelling fellowship to the Oxford Bone Infection Unit by the British Limb Reconstruction Society.
Alex is actively involved in academic research and is widely published in his field, as well as being a keen surgical educator teaching locally, nationally and internationally. He was previously Training Program Director for the South West London Orthopaedic Rotation. Alex chairs the BLRS Research Committee and is vice chair of the BOA trauma committee and co-chair of the BOA Clinical Standards Committee (responsible for producing BOASTS). In his spare time he enjoys ultra running, gardening, cooking and making salami.
Colonel Hugo Guthrie is the professional lead for Trauma & Orthopaedic Surgery across the Ministry of Defence. He works clinically at St George’s Hospital and the South-West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre, with a practice that includes Lower Limb Trauma and Knee Surgery. He is Training Programme Director for the Defence Deanery.
Hugo spent 2 years as a regimental doctor, including 12 months in Iraq. He deployed to Afghanistan as a surgical trainee and briefly worked in Birmingham as Military Registrar. Since being appointed as a consultant in 2015, he has deployed internationally and in 2021 was part of the Military Advisory Team at Nightingale Hospital London. He has served as Clinical Director at 22 Field Hospital, as Consultant Advisor to the Head of the Army Medical Services and in 2024 was appointed to his current position as Defence Consultant Advisor to the Surgeon General.
Kavi is a consultant orthopaedic trauma and limb reconstruction surgeon at The Royal London Hospital specialising in adult complex trauma, orthoplastics, bone infection, failed fixation, non-union and deformity correction. Having graduated from the Royal Free and University College Medical School, he completed his higher surgical training on the Cambridge rotation following which he undertook two post-CCT fellowships at King’s College Hospital and St George’s Hospital.
Kavi has authored a textbook chapter, multiple peer-reviewed articles, contributed to national guidelines and delivered international podium presentations in his field. He has also completed a full-time Masters in Surgical Science at UCL which culminated in the publication of basic science research.
A keen educator, he holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Medical Education, is regular faculty on limb reconstruction/trauma courses and is a Senior Clinical Lecturer/co-director on the Orthopaedic Trauma Sciences MSc at the Blizard Institute. He is the fracture-related infection lead on the UK Bone & Joint Infection Registry and sits on the OTS education committee.
As an Army Reservist, Kavi has an interest in conflict surgery and orthopaedic trauma care in the austere environment having deployed to Ukraine and volunteered in Gaza.
Sarah is an Orthopaedic Surgeon with an interest in Limb Reconstruction. She was appointed as consultant at King’s College Hospital in 1998.
She is Secretary of The British Limb Reconstruction Society.
She was in the Army Reserves for over 30 years retiring in 2021. She deployed in March 2003 for Op Telic 1 (2nd Gulf War).
She is on the Faculty of the Diploma in Medicine in Conflict and Catastrophe (DMCC)
Sarah is a Trustee of 2 charities – IDEALS and Rebuild. (www.IDEALS.org.uk and www.rebuildcharity.org )
IDEALS was established in 2000 by John Beavis. Its mission: to relieve poverty, distress and suffering in any part of the world affected by conflict and/or natural disaster. It has worked in Bosnia-Herzegovia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Lebanon and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Sarah has been involved in helping to establish a Limb Reconstruction Service in Gaza since 2013. IDEALS provided training for orthopaedic surgeons, nurses and physiotherapists as well as providing specialist orthopaedic equipment. The charity has helped in the treatment of war wounded patients and those injured in 2018-19 border demonstrations.
Since December 2023 IDEALS has been recognised as a specialist Emergency Medical Team (Orthoplastics) and has regularly sent surgical teams to Gaza to treat those injured in the present conflict. Sarah has made 2 visits during the present war - her most recent visit was in January 2026.
