Speakers
Salma Chaudhury
Lily Li
Giles Pattison
Michael Foxall-Smith
Riki Houlden
BOA Session
Orthopaedics attracts people with talent, ambition and a strong sense of purpose—but does everyone have the same opportunity to enter the specialty, progress through training and build a sustainable, rewarding career? This session moves beyond abstract discussion of equality, diversity and inclusion to examine the evidence, experiences and practical choices that shape working lives across our profession.
Designed for trainees and consultants alike, the session will explore how ethnicity, gender, geography and personal circumstances can influence access to training, attainment of CCT, appointment to consultant posts, surgical care and patient outcomes. It will consider what the data tell us, where inequities arise and how individuals, departments and national organisations can respond constructively. The aim is not to assign blame, but to understand barriers clearly and identify changes that improve fairness, performance and the working environment for everyone.
The programme brings together evidence with candid accounts of real orthopaedic careers. Speakers will discuss the challenges of navigating cancer, serious illness and difficult pregnancies while training or working as a consultant; how shared parental leave can enable fathers to play a fuller role in family life; and how less-than-full-time training can support excellence both within and beyond medicine. Video vignettes will examine how religion and culture affect day-to-day practice, team relationships and professional identity.
These are not marginal workforce issues. They affect recruitment, retention, morale, burnout, progression, leadership and ultimately the care received by patients. Trainees will gain practical insight into navigating career decisions, seeking support and using flexible pathways without losing professional momentum. Consultants, trainers and clinical leaders will be challenged to consider how apparently neutral systems can produce unequal outcomes—and what they can do to create teams in which people can contribute at their best.
The session will also ask difficult but necessary questions. What does merit mean when opportunities are not equally distributed? How can we support colleagues facing major life events without compromising training or service delivery? How do we make flexibility a mark of a modern profession rather than a perceived lack of commitment? And how can allies, supervisors and senior colleagues make a meaningful difference?
Practical takeaways will include ways to recognise and challenge bias in recruitment and progression, support colleagues through parental leave or ill health, make flexible training work well, and create psychologically safe teams where concerns can be raised. We will consider the role of mentorship, sponsorship and visible role models, alongside the responsibility of organisations to examine data and redesign processes. The discussion will recognise the pressures facing services and trainers, while showing that inclusion and high standards are complementary: both depend on transparent expectations, thoughtful leadership and people being enabled to fulfil their potential.
Expect an honest, evidence-based and solutions-focused conversation, with perspectives from different career stages and opportunities for audience discussion. Whether you are planning your future, supervising trainees, leading a department or simply interested in making orthopaedics a stronger and more sustainable profession, this session will offer useful ideas, relatable experiences and practical actions to take back to your workplace.
Chair: Salma Chaudhury & Lily Li
Agenda:
12:30 - 12:40 Giles Pattison, Consultant Children’s Orthopaedic Surgeon, UHCW NHS Trust, Coventry
Differential attainment. What is it? Why is it? And what can we do about it?
12:50 - 12:57 Michael Foxall-Smith, BOTA Workforce & Sustainability Officer, Specialist Registrar, T&O
Shared Parental Leave – Fathers Getting More Involved
13:10 - 13:20 Salma Chaudhury, BOA Council Member, Consultant Shoulder & Elbow Surgeon, Cambridge
Navigating Cancer, Difficult Pregnancies and Serious Illness as an Orthopaedic Trainee/Consultant
13:45 - 13:53 Riki Houlden, ST5 Trauma & Orthopaedic Registrar, East of England
Pursuing a Passion Alongside LTFT T&O Registrar Training
14:05 - 14:12 Harjas Shinmar, BOTA EDI Rep, Trauma & Orthopaedic Registrar, East of England
How Religion and Culture Affect Practising Orthopaedic Surgeons: Video Vignettes from Orthopaedic Consultants and Trainees
14:12 - 14:30 Q&A
Salma is a Consultant Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon at Cambridge University Hospital Trust who specialises in Shoulder and Elbow trauma, sports injuries and shoulder replacements. She is triple fellowship trained from international recognised centres of shoulder excellence, having trained at Oxford, Cambridge and Reading, and spent a year during training at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. She was awarded the BESS Travelling Fellowship. Her Trauma and Orthopaedics higher surgical training was completed in Oxford, and she studied medicine at Cambridge University.
Salma is committed to producing the highest quality research to offer patients the best evidence-based, compassionate care. She was awarded a PhD in Orthopaedic Surgery from Oxford University, for her studies of rotator cuff failure and repair strategies to improve healing. To date she has been awarded £450,000 in research grants, including an ORUK early career research fellowship, and has published widely. She is the associate editor for Bone and Joint Journal 360, and was previously the social media editor for Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery. She currently sits on the British Elbow and Shoulder Surgery Research Committee and was previously Executive Committee member for British Orthopaedic Research Society.
Teaching has always been important to Salma and she was the co-director of orthopaedic teaching for Oxford University undergraduate medical students for 4 years. She has taught widely on courses such as the Oxford University Orthopaedic MSC course, shoulder and elbow cadaveric courses in Cambridge and ORUK FRCS Revision courses. She has regularly lectured internationally and nationally, including teaching in China and Palestine.
She has demonstrated a longstanding commitment to improving training for all doctors as well as patient outcomes, reflected in her wide-ranging work on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) initiatives. Some of her key previous roles include:
Lily Li is a Consultant in Trauma & Orthopaedics at St Mary’s Hospital Imperial College Healthcare. Her subspeciality is hand and wrist surgery. Lily is the Training Programme Director for the North West Thames Orthopaedic rotation and Secretary of the Royal Society of Medicine Orthopaedics Section.
Giles graduated from University College London in 1991. His higher surgical training was in Bristol and the Southwest. After completing his fellowship training at SickKids in Toronto he was appointed to a consultant post at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire in 2005. He completed a masters in medical education at the University of Warwick. Giles has been TPD of the Warwick programme and served on the SAC from 2019- 2025, latterly as Vice Chair. Giles has been a member of BOA council. He has served as departmental chair and Head of Surgery at the trust. Giles has a wide-ranging paediatric orthopaedic practice, which includes a baby clinic, trauma, and an on-call commitment.
His development as a leader started with an interest in medical education and this has been the major focus of his career. His initial experience in clinical management was as audit lead and subsequently chair of the department. At this time, he developed an understanding of the complexities of change in the NHS. His leadership roles also engendered an interest in behaviours and the management of colleagues. Giles teaches on the British Orthopaedic Association’s new consultants’ course on the subject of communication and how to be an effective consultant colleague. Most recently he has developed an interest in Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion. Giles was a founding member of the International Orthopaedic Diversity Alliance and help write the BOA’s first E, D and I strategy. He is married to a surgeon, and he has three grown up children, one of whom is a doctor.
Riki works Less Than Full Time to play a niche sport called fives. This is "like squash with your hands", and the name of the sport originates from there being five digits (for most) on each hand. Since going LTFT he has won the Kinnaird Cup three times, equivalent to Wimbledon for the sport, and is currently ranked number 1.
He studied medicine at Cambridge University, where he developed his passions for fives, orthopaedics, and medical education. He completed a Masters in Medical Education at the University of Dundee during his Foundation and Core Training years and continues to facilitate teaching for Cambridge undergraduate students in Surgery, Clinical Ethics & Law, and Professionalism. He has set up and runs the departmental orthopaedic teaching for postgraduate learners at his trust. He is currently working at North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust and hopes to become a Foot & Ankle Consultant with an interest in Diabetic Feet, whilst continuing to make time for fives and teaching.
