Jes Bates

Visiting Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH), Blantyre, Malawi

Jes worked as an orthopaedic surgeon in Malawi from 2002-2022. He was trained in Bristol, Newcastle, Ngwelezana Hospital (KZN, South Africa), and at QECH, completing specialist training through COSECSA, the College of Surgeons of East Central and Southern Africa in 2004.  He was responsible for postgraduate orthopaedic training at QECH, and continues to support the team at QECH with annual visits from his base in Sheffield.  His practice includes all trauma except spines.  Special areas of interest include the management of neglected trauma, soft tissue flaps for trauma, pelvic and acetabular fractures, and the use of circular frames in limb reconstruction.  He developed the regional trauma service at QECH in partnership with the North West Orthopaedic Alliance for Africa and the AO Alliance Foundation.  Relaxation includes long distance solo sailing, hill walking and rock climbing.

James Berwin

James' interests include hip preservation, joint reconstruction and trauma. He has completed fellowships at RNOH, Stanmore, The Royal Prince Alfred, Sydney and is currently doing a revision hip and knee fellowship at the Avon Orthopaedic Centre, Bristol. 

James is passionate about improving orthopaedic care in Low- and Middle Income Countries (LMICs). As a trainee he co-founded the Bahir dar Orthopaedic Network and Exchange with Severn (BONES), a teaching partnership between Severn Deanery and Bahir Dar, Northern Ethiopia. He also serves as the Primary Trauma Care (PTC) lead for Ethiopia. 

Rick Brown

Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Clinical Lead,Foot & Ankle Unit, Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Oxford

Rick Brown is the Clinical Lead of the Foot & Ankle Unit at The Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Oxford and Immediate Past President of BOFAS. He is an Honorary Senior Clinical lecturer for the University of Oxford and is passionate about Foot & Ankle education, having  initiated the BOFAS Principles of F&A Surgery Course in the UK, India and across Africa. While a Registrar he worked in Angola and Eritrea with HALO  and has operated in Cameroon in a Club Foot Team. He is a lifelong member of WOC. For over 12 years, he has been an Examiner for the FRCS (Tr &Orth) and is now an Assessor of the Examiners. This experience he is sharing with COSECSA, while sitting on the Orthopaedic Exam Panel. 

Ashtin Doorgakant

Consultant T&O surgeon

Ashtin is a consultant in Trauma and Orthopaedics with a subspecialist interest in foot and ankle surgery.

He has spent 2 years as VSO volunteer in Malawi 2010-2012 and been actively involved with WOC UK since. He was BOTA linkman, then trainee representative and now is chairman of WOC UK. He is an alumni of BOA Future Leaders Programme. He has run a yearly surgical camp in Malawi for the past 3 years under the banner of Feet First. He has trained LMIC surgeons with AO alliance and observed the COSECSA fellowship exams.

He is enthusiastic about teaching and training. He is engaged with BOFAS through their mentorship programme and as international education committee member. He is the current education and governance lead for his department. He is past president Mersey 58 society for regional trainees.

Ashtin loves spending time with his family and is an avid sportsman.

Alberto Gregori

Past chairman of WOC-UK

Alberto has been involved in LMIC activity since he worked as a Mission General Officer in Zimbabwe in 1985. He worked in Lebanon during the 2nd Camp War in the 80s and in Zambia on Fellowship before a career as an NHS Arthroplasty and Trauma Surgeon. In his NHS post he taught and helped develop both navigation and robotic knee surgery and has over 27 years experience in the field with many books and papers. Since leaving full time NHS practice he has worked on several projects, in Malawi both with Feet First and the developing SCOT project along with being a Visiting surgeon and Trustee for FlySpec Zambia. He coordinates equipment collection in Scotland and distribution to enable young surgeons to ply their trade mainly in Zambia but also in other LMIC environments. He is passionate about teaching and the "right operation in the right place at the right time by the right team" philosophy.

James Shelton

Consultant Revision Arthroplasty/trauma Surgeon, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Mr J Shelton is a consultant revision arthroplasty/trauma surgeon at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Mr Shelton Graduated from the University of Dundee in 2010 and after completion of foundation & core training joined the Mersey rotation in 2014 for higher surgical training in trauma & orthopaedics achieving his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh in 2019 and Certificate of Completion of Training in February 2021. The excellent outcomes of joint replacement surgery drove Mr Shelton to seek further fellowship training in arthroplasty and complex trauma, completing The Cavendish revision arthroplasty fellowship here in Sheffield along with fellowships in young adult hip/arthroplasty at Prince of Wales Hospital Sydney and major trauma/metastatic arthroplasty at Royal Prince Alfred Sydney. Mr Shelton was appointed to his NHS role at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals in October 2022.

Mr Shelton also has a keen interest in global development of orthopaedics and promoting access to orthopaedic care in low and middle income countries. Mr Shelton was the Kadoorie fellow at The Children’s Surgical Centre in Phnom Penh Cambodia and returns annually to provide support and training to the local Khmer surgeons working there. For his work in surgical education he has been awarded membership to the faculty of surgical educators by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. 

Mr Shelton’s research interests focus around efficiency, systems and processes and is actively involved in the development of the South Yorkshire Major Revision Network promoting the best possible care for your patients around the region.

Sara Dorman

Consultant Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon, Sheffield Children’s Hospital

Sara is a consultant paediatric orthopaedic surgeon at Sheffield Children’s Hospital with a specialist interest in neuromuscular and upper limb reconstruction. 

She has previously completed fellowships at Children’s Surgical Centre in Cambodia, Sheffield Children’s Hospital, Westmead Children’s Hospital in Sydney and has undertaken short visitations to Institute de la Main in Paris and Mayo Clinic, USA. 

Sara’s main passions include global surgery, education and research in LMIC. She continues to undertake regular visitations to The Children's Surgical Centre in Cambodia. These trips help support local Khmer surgeons to manage complex cases, in an educational and support role with a focus on local training and retention of skills. She is also actively involved in global partnership initiatives through organisations such as the British Society for Surgery of the Hand (BSSH) and is faculty on paediatric courses for AO Alliance for Africa. 

Rowa Taha

Orthopaedic Trainee, Severn Deanery & NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow

I am an Orthopaedic trainee in the Severn Deanery and an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow undertaking clinical research in hand surgery trials.

I have an avid interest in global surgery and am committed to improving the delivery of surgical care in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) through developing collaborative partnerships with our trainee colleagues in LMIC, building sustainable surgical services and empowering the local community through educational courses and training.

I am trainee representative for the BSSH-LION project, which aims to establish a hand surgery service in Lilongwe, Malawi through a sustainable long-term model of education, service, and therapy provision, and am also past chair of the BSSH Global Partnership Trainee Committee.

As a member of the IFSSH Young Surgeons Committee I helped facilitate an international fellowship programme bringing together fellows from high and low-resource settings to exchange knowledge and expertise, and I have also collaborated with the Harvard Global Orthopaedics Collaborative and the Northwest  Orthopaedic Trauma Alliance for Africa to deliver research methodology training to trainees in low-resource settings.