We are now well and truly into 2022 and the Kent ENT partnership has been busy. We are also expanding. We are very pleased to report that due to increased demand, both Ali Al-lami and Robert Hone have increased their clinic capacity to weekly clinics both at KIMS Hospital, Maidstone and One Ashford Hospital. We have also secured operating sessions at KIMS Hospital and increased theatre capacity at One Ashford Hospital. This means that our patients will be offered a timely slot if needed. In collaboration with KIMS Hospital, Mr Al-lami is currently liaising with Sevenoaks Medical Centre to explore the option of offering ENT outpatient clinics there and visited the site in February. Another month in a row, we have had full clinic utilisation in February and we have received some very nice feedback from our valued patients. We are hoping that Mr Al-lami will start his private and NHS Choose and Book clinics at Spencer Hospitals in Ashford and Canterbury in March 2022.
Academically, the beginning of the year has been a fruitful one. Ali Al-lami is very proud that his master’s dissertation project (a large systematic review of published literature) was accepted and published in a high ranking ENT/ oral oncology journal with the highest impact factor, a measure of the frequency with which the average article in the journal has been cited in a year. The publication highlights the role of trans-oral surgery using the robot and laser in head and neck patients. Mr Al-lami and Mr Hone have had super-specialist international training for these surgical techniques. Mr Hone met with Intuitive, the makers of the Davinci surgical robot, to formalise the completion of his robotic surgery credentials. Mr Al-lami designed and started the Kent and Medway Medical School multi-disciplinary robotic surgery programme in January. He also completed the supervision of King’s College London medical students’ robotic surgery quality improvement projects which benefits patients undergoing robotic surgery.
In terms of educational commitment, both Mr Hone and Mr Al-lami gave educational talks to General Practitioners, Nurse Practitioners and GP surgery staff. Mr Hone talked virtually about benign throat conditions at Gillingham Medical Practice staff on 4th February. Mr Al-lami visited the Springhead Health Group on 15th February for a face to face talk about the management of thyroid gland dysfunction and thyroid lumps. Both talks were well received.
Robert attended the Annual Review of Competence to Progression meeting for ENT registrars, reviewing their progress against the National Curriculum and standards set by the GMC. Ali attended the Speciality Training Committee meeting and discussed regional training matters within the deanery.
From a more relaxed and personal perspective, both Robert and Ali entertained their young families during half term. Robert spent a week in Austria teaching his two daughters to ski. Ali was busy entertaining his daughters and progressing their swimming skills. We hope that the recent storms passed our patients safely with minimum disruption and we wish you a healthy March.
Please get in touch if you would like to book a clinic appointment by contacting us on 07450 852096 or by e-mail at info@kent-ent.com