Ben Burston

Consultant

Oswestry

Gender / Preferred pronoun

Male / Mr

Ethnicity

White

Particular qualities / experiences relevant for mentorship

Foreign fellowships with young family;

Recovering from surgery and illness as a consultant;

Completing travelling fellowship as a consultant,

Moving to an area where not worked as a trainee

Grades willing to mentor

Any grade

Profile statement

I have been a consultant since 2013, working in both Oswestry and Shrewsbury. I had never been to Shropshire until my pre-interview visit, so I understand the challenges and advantages of arriving in a unit without being known as a trainee. As of 2021, I came off the on-call trauma rota and now am up in Oswestry as a full time arthroplasty surgeon.

I went on fellowships to Australia with young family (the youngest of 3 children being 5 weeks at the time) and have also been fortunate enough to complete 2 separate travelling fellowships (AO trauma and Rothman Ranawat fellowship) to the USA as a trainee and consultant respectively.

2 years after commencing as a consultant I was off work for 4 months following surgery and have approached work very differently since then. Being a patient was not an easy thing as a new consultant, particularly in a department that I worked in. Transitioning back into the work force was also a nerve wracking experience.

I also have some experience setting up and running an MDT. Happy to share my mistakes (which I continue to chalk up now and then) and successes to hopefully give future generations a smoother run!

Happy to mentor any level and on any of the points mentioned above.