RACS stands for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. It is the organisation that trains surgeons and maintains surgical standards in Australia and New Zealand.
It is a long road to become a doctor, and then even longer to become an accredited surgeon. The university training to become a doctor is 5-6 years long. Once you graduate, you make your way into the hospital system as a junior doctor, put all that university learning into practice and decide where you might like to take your career as you experience all the different specialties.
When you’ve finally decided you’d like to be a surgeon, it is time to apply for a training programme. Being accepted is no easy task. Your medical experience, the research articles you have published, and references are all taken into consideration before you are offered an interview and there are always more applicants than positions. It takes most aspiring surgeons a few attempts before they are accepted.
Once accepted onto a training programme you have ahead of you 5-6 years of training with regular assessments and exams whilst being trained on the job in your chosen field.
After finally passing the final exams and completing all your required hours, you become a RACS accredited surgeon. From here, many surgeons choose to have further training in their subspecialty with some of the best surgeons in this area. Brian went to SickKids Hospital in Toronto for further training in paediatric orthopaedics and then The Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh for further training in complex adult hip surgery.
RACS accredited surgeons work in hospitals with a strong team of qualified professionals around them – from nursing staff, anaesthetists and pain specialists to all the other specialist surgeons and physicians.
Surgery is not without its risks, and even with the most well trained surgeon, complications sometimes arise. So when you choose to see a RACS accredited surgeon, you are choosing someone who has been rigorously trained and has an exceptional team around them to optimise your outcomes.