WEDNESDAY, 17 JANUARY, 2018

Photos attached: 1 – Dr Mehul Jaisani and Mr Sean Laverick at Ninewells Hospital

2 – Mr Laverick with a surgical team in Nepal

Ninewells consultants provide training to Nepalese surgeon

A Nepalese surgeon has spent nine months in Dundee undertaking training with the oral and maxillofacial surgery department at Ninewells.

Dr Mehul Jaisani, who is head of the oral and maxillofacial surgery department in Dharan in Nepal, travelled to Scotland with the support of Face Facts, a charity run by Ninewells oral and maxillofacial surgeon Mr Sean Laverick.

Following an emergency response trip to Nepal following the 2015 earthquake, Sean has returned to Nepal twice to provide teaching courses and training in head and neck oncology, facial trauma and cleft lip and palate surgery.

Whilst these trips can be very rewarding for the units and people involved, they can only benefit small numbers due to the limited time available so, through Face Facts, Sean aims to provide surgical training in the UK for overseas surgeons to be able to provide an ongoing service within their own country and make a lasting change to their health service.

Dr Jaisani visited Dundee at the request of the British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, with training recognition from the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Face Facts paid for Dr Jaisani’s travel, accommodation and day-to-day expenses to allow him to spend nine months training in Ninewells.

Sean said, “Mehul proved to be a popular member of the team and received extensive training from all consultants in the maxillofacial department. Mehaul and the department all agree that it has provided him with an excellent grounding with which to return to his department in Nepal.”

Dr Jaisani is the third surgeon who has visited the oral and maxillofacial department at Ninewells from developing countries over the last seven years and Face Facts has now signed a memorandum of agreement with Dharan Hospital for the next three years.

A head and neck pathologist will be joining the team in Dundee in the next couple of months and this funded trip will teach current techniques in histopathology in order to support the surgical oncology team in Dharan.

Oral cancer is the most common cancer in the region and services are hugely overstretched. Sean is hoping to take other doctors over to Dharan with him over the next few years and cement a strong and permanent link between Dundee and Dharan.

Anyone wishing to support Sean’s Face Facts charity can email slaverick@nhs.net

Contact:

Louise Wilson

NHS Tayside Communications

(01382) 740718