Irina Lisii SOE Grant Placement report
As a 2nd year ophthalmology resident from Moldova and I had the fortunate opportunity to be accepted and to spend 5 weeks at the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, West Sussex, England, UK.
I would like to mention the efficient and very helpful communication i had prior to and during my visit with the clinic’s secretary, miss Kathy Gibby, who kindly assisted me with the hospital placement, all the necessary paper work and finding a convenient accommodation very near to the hospital; that made my visit even more enjoyable.
I had the honor to be an observer at the Corneo Plastic Unit & Eye Bank under the supervision of the consultants of the clinic, admirable and experienced surgeons Dr. Saj Khan and Dr. Damian Lake, and I could as well join the fellows and the opticians; I was kindly allowed to observe the Oculoplastic clinic and general ophthalmology. I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisors and to the fellows, as well as to the entire staff of the Eye Clinic, for their friendly attitude, help, support, efficient teaching and advice; I learned a lot from these high professionals and I hope I could use my fresh knowledge in my country.
My purpose was to see, learn and gain experience in cornea management and surgery, as it’s a quite unstudied realm for my hospital. I was interested in problems of general ophthalmology, as well, and I had the lucky chance to be in the right place.
I had a great time at the Eye Clinic, seeing a lot of patients, discussing interesting cases with the doctors, as well as observing surgeries, that impressed me: DALK, DSEK, PK, KLAL, the use of amnyotic membrane, as well as more familiar procedures- Phaco, Glaucoma surgery, Ahmed valve insertion. I was allowed to see some LASIK procedures at the Centre for Sight, for which I’m very grateful to Dr. Khan. I found informative the lectures held by the fellows every Thursday morning, presenting new surgery methods and interesting cases. The good organization of the work at the clinic and in the theatre is to be mentioned; the only problem I had is that I couldn’t get access to the library, which was rich in books and journals I would have liked to read.
I consider this experience to be extremely valuable and useful for my future , regarding the knowledge I’ve got, the nice people I’ve met and the beautiful places I’ve seen (East Grinstead is a very nice town). I was also given a Certificate at the end of my visit.
I would like to recommend Queen Victoria Hospital to the future SOE grant recipients, I’m sure they will have a nice time there.