At Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital we offer subspecialist training in Paediatric Anaesthesia in all specialties including cardiac, liver transplantation, burns, neurosurgery, general surgery, orthopaedics, ophthalmology, ENT, urology, plastics and paediatric sedation.
We offer supernumerary fellowships in paediatric anaesthesia from 6 months to 1 year in duration. It is also possible to incorporate a period of time on the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. Due to the constraints of the health care system in South Africa these are voluntary positions and do not attract a salary.
These posts aim to provide training to an advanced level in paediatric anaesthesia and they are aimed at trainees who are near the end of their specialty training in anaesthesia, or consultants who wish to expand their paediatric anaesthesia skills.
Our department is extremely busy, and performs on average 9,000 anaesthetics annually and our supernumerary registrars should expect to perform approximately 600 anaesthetics during the year.
Initially our fellows should expect a high level of direct supervision of their work, especially in the first few weeks of their time at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital. After performing a satisfactory probation period the supernumerary fellows will then perform on-calls at a registrar level. With time and with appropriate supervision by consultants, fellows will be allowed to assume the role of lead clinician for elective lists and emergency work. Dependent on level of experience some fellows may be able to subsequently perform junior consultant calls. We also offer shorter placements and tailor the program according to the needs of the individual fellow.
There are many educational opportunities on offer for all trainees. We have weekly UCT Department of Anaesthesia academic meetings, twice weekly paediatric anaesthesia protected teaching sessions, and the opportunity to attend the active teaching program throughout the Department of Anaesthesia.
Our fellows are expected to present at the Tuesday morning teaching tutorials at least once during a 6-month period. In addition, there is the opportunity to do departmentally funded courses including; MEPA, PLS, FATE and a TOE course. We also encourage the fellows to complete a small research or audit project during their time here.
Assessment is both continuous and through formalised feedback and appraisals are every 3 months.
Registration with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) is required before commencement of the supernumerary fellowship. This usually takes approximately 9 months.