1. Report on the Division of General Surgery (September’18)
Arthur Felice

2. Notable dates
UEMS EBSQ General Surgery Examination in Malta on the 12th and 13th September 2018
Division of General Surgery Meeting in Malta on the 13th September 2018
UEMS CESMA Workshop and Meeting on the 26th May 2018
Involvement in CESMA Appraisals in 2018:
Paediatric Urology in Leuven
Transplantation Surgery in Rome
Involvement in the ETR Review Committee

3. Main points The UEMS EBSQ General Surgery Examination
The new UEMS Division of General Surgery Executive
Some decisions at the Division of General Surgery Meeting on the 13th September 2018

4. The UEMS EBSQ General Surgery Examination
The examination is not only a priority for the Division, but the essential funding stream.
It constitutes our contribution for the improvement of professional standards and consequently patient safety.

5. Number of candidates per Exam session

6. Despite…….
The pervasive and persistent intrusion into the EBSQ General Surgery Examination webpage by outsize pink banners with links leading to the MIS Exam registration.
We hope this unpleasant situation will not repeat itself.

7. Countries of origin of Candidates sitting the UEMS EBSQ General Surgery Examination
ccc
Total
Australia 2
Austria 9
Bahrein 1
Belgium
Canada
Egypt
Germany 7
Greece 6
India
Iraq 5
Ireland
Italy
Jordan 4
Kuweit
Lebanon 8
Libya 3
Malta 11
Oman
Pakistan
Poland
Saudi Arabia 14
Spain
Sudan
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria
UAE UK 44
USA
Yemen

8. NO Candidates in 8 years from:
Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Georgia, Finland, France, Hungary, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania
Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia
NO Candidates in 8 years from:
Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Georgia, Finland, France, Hungary, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania
Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia
This trend needs to be reversed

9. Intended alterations to the EBSQ General Surgery Examination
The Eligibility Process to be recognised as an integral part of General Surgery Assessment and named as Part 1 of the Exam. The process will be formalised even more than it is at present.
The terminology associated with the 3 parts of the Examination will be elaborated BY Prof. Paul Ridgway, the new Chairperson of the UEMS EBSQ General Surgery Examination

10. Important to note
Until the Section of Surgery finalises its agreement with any Electronic Platform, the Divisions will not be in any position to advertise their EBSQ Exam on the Website.
Alternative courses of action would be:
Wait for a final agreement (it might be too late to attract candidates)
The Division contacts a different Electronic Platform on a short term basis (might impact the consultations by the Section)
Go back to the Paper Exam format for only one year (a Déjà vu situation)
The UEMS Section should be aware and advise

11. Financial situation
Healthy balance, but it will only take one or two exams with poor participation to render it precarious.

12. The new UEMS Division of General Surgery Executive (Essentially one uncontested nomination per post)
President of the UEMS Division of General Surgery – Arthur Felice
Vice-President - Luc Michel
Chairperson of the Board of General Surgery – Paul Ridgway
Vice Chairperson of the Board of General Surgery Faris Al Aswad
Secretary of the Division of General Surgery - Joseph Weerts
Treasurer – Paul Ridgway
Chairperson of the Examination Committee: Paul Ridgway
Webmaster – Veronique Laloe
Chairperson of the Eligibility Committee – Veronique Laloe
Chairperson of the Credentials Committee - …………. (Alfonso Barbarisi as incumbent)
European Society of Surgery Representative…………… (Antoni Szczepanik as incumbent)

13. Any questions?

14. Thank you

16. Extract from e-mail from Prof. Feil sent 02/07/2017
In the last months I had not only to cope with the ongoing process of ISO certification in my hospital, I installed a second surgical dept. (Chairman: Georg Bischof) and took my responsibilty in the hospital quality management besides from everyday clinical workload. Last week I received the vocation to be the "Chief Medical Officer" in my hospital.
This means that I have now to reschedule my working time. I will stay in my post as President of the UEMS Board in any case with all responsibilities, but I have to reduce other time consuming works, that can be shifted away from my desk. This is why I have to draw back from the very time consuming work preparing the GenSurg Exam. I am happy and proud, that we relaunched GenSurg successfully and established our Exam as guiding line and basis for all other surgical examinations and went successfully through the CESMA validation process and started with the electronic online exam.
For me it is from now on not possible to enter questions into the databasis, structure the conduction of the exam, esp. the OSCEs. In any case I will support you with the questions from my database and all the MCQ and OSCE scenarios that already exist and also give you all macros and necessary layouts.

17. The Division of General Surgery, the Jeronimo Project and CCST (CCT)
CCST (CCT) stands for Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training. It would be senseless to award it after passing the online new General Surgery MCQ Exam (which would be equivalent to an MRCS) earlier on in training – ref. to Slide 16 and 17 in the Lisbon presentation).
If CCST is expected prior to sitting the EBSQ ,trainees from all countries where CCST is formally in place, will not be eligible to sit it.
Similarly, applicants from countries where CCST (CCT) does not exist, would also be barred from applying for the EBSQ General Surgery.

18. Suggested solutions:
The EBSQ General Surgery MCQs, in the electronic format, could be organised at an earlier level of training (e.g. at the end of BST level) and possibly in multiple centres. This would include a reasonable chunk of Basic Sciences in the Blueprint. This is not the level to award CCST (CCT).
A possible two-rail system is proposed where countries can choose to adopt EBSQ exam as an exit exam to get CCT (CCST) leading to Specialist registration, or to award CCT (CCST) at the end of training and then trainees will be able to sit the EBSQ and subsequently apply for Specialist registration.