The Path of a Plastic Surgeon (UK)

[pmiles]

So, I am a prospective medic, hoping so specialise in Plastic Surgery. could somebody please explain the course an Plastic Surgeon would have to take before he could start practice from acceptance into a UK Med School? it is tricky to find information on British Pre-Med.

How long do they train? what is the process? is this long compared to other specifications? what does an average Plastic surgeon make pa? is this high compared to other surgical options?

[edmundo]

competitive application to the right F1 F2 rotation, competitive application to the right CT1 CT2 rotation, 1 or 2 more years as an SHO then competitive application to ST3 (the big hurdle ) then 6 years as a registar then super competitive application to become a consultant

it should never be about the money because youll only be dissapointed , work/effort ratio to money in any surgical specialiy is poor

[James]

You may have heard about cardiothoracics being a dying speciality. With the advances in interventional cardiology their workload has halved over the past 10 years. Consultants have been sacked and trainees have either left medicine or had to retrain in another speciality.

Sadly the same is also happening for Plastics surgery. Dermatological surgeons are taking away the majority of their skin cancer work, breast surgeons are doing their own reconstructions, vascular/orthopaedic surgeons are doing their own grafts and head & neck surgeons are taking most of the head & neck work. The plastic surgeons I know are already struggling for work and it is only going to get worse. I would be very, very wary of committing yourself to plastics.

[django]

What kind of surgeon then would I need to be to specialise in facial reconstruction? Will this be left to plastics or perhaps be multidisciplinary: maxillofacial, plastics, ENT etc?