What is General Surgery?
In broad terms general surgery can be said to deal with a wide range of conditions within the abdomen, breast, neck, skin and, in many hospitals, vascular (blood vessel) system.
In each case, treatment is designed for each specific patient, taking into consideration the nature of the illness, the health and wishes of the patient and to some extent the resources available. The treatment options and advised course of action will be discussed on an individual basis with the patient when they are seen in clinic.
While the name would suggest that the focus of general surgery is to perform operations, often this is not the case. Many patients are referred to surgeons with conditions that do not need surgical procedures, but merely require counselling or medical treatment.
The Team
The leader of the general surgical team is a consultant (specialist) general surgeon. When you are referred to a clinic or admitted to a hospital you will be assigned to one specific consultant. However, consultants often work in teams of two or three and to some extent your care may be shared between these consultants. Other medical members of the team include the registrar(s). These are fully qualified doctors who are now training to become specialists. The house surgeons are more junior doctors who have usually only qualified recently. Often there will also be trainee interns attached to the team. These are final-year medical students who have completed all of their examinations and are now spending a year working on the wards before becoming registered as doctors. Finally, there may also be fourth and fifth-year medical students attached to the team.
The medical team is complemented by the nursing staff, and several other staff including physiotherapists, occupational therapists, pharmacists, and clerical staff. On the ward, a charge nurse will be responsible for coordinating the care given by the various nursing staff. Many wards run a system where one particular staff nurse is designated as the primary caregiver for a specific patient, but this is not always the case and you will likely come into contact with several nurses during your stay. As with the medical staff, there are often nursing students attached to the ward whose work is being supervised by their tutors and the regular nursing staff.
Auckland and Greenlane Department of General Surgery
The Department is divided into four units: Hepatobiliary, Breast/Endocrine, Colorectal and Trauma.
The Auckland Hospital Department of Surgery provides secondary surgical care for the Central Auckland population of approximately 400,000. It is also a major tertiary referral centre for the region and nationally.
Auckland Hospital is closely associated with Auckland University School of Medicine and is a major teaching campus for the University and various technical institutes.