Basic Truro Guide

Truro is a great centre for training in a really wide range of areas. The Truro team generally takes a reasonably relaxed attitude to registrars - some sessions such as HotHub and ultrasound you will be missed if you aren't there and should set up cover if you aren't going to be able to make it, but you are generally given a lot of white space on your timetable and it is up to you to a degree to make the most of it.

Weekly general ROTAs are created by the secretaries that show everything that everyone is doing in the department. These are really useful not only for showing what you need to do, but also to find out who might be free for checking or to cover things. You will be emailed them, but you can also find them on the server at “S:\TR15\xraysrv\Public\Timetables” and on teams in the “Cornwall Radiologists” team. I've found it helpful to set the current rota as a tab in teams.

All acute imaging and urgent queries are covered by the Hot Hub team based in the Trelawney Wing of the Hospital. Hot hub shifts run from 0900-1300 and from 1300-1700. Each hot hub shift has two consultants and a registrar timetabled on to it. They are primarily responsible for reporting acute CT and MRI from REFCTIN and REFURG and dealing with phone calls.

Truro's set up here is a really good for training - a large volume of highly relevant on-call cases, with a generally approachable someone to go through them with you right next to you. Don't hesitate to take advantage of it, ask questions, and if there isn't anyone rota'ed to HH it can be a good idea to turn up. The only issue being having the phone at the same time.

Registrar's do ultrasound in three main contexts in Treliske. Main department lists, SRU and Portables.

Main department lists are in the shiny new Trelawny wing department just down from HotHub. Here you may be rota'ed to supervised lists or independent and more subspecialist lists if you are more senior. Speak to the team at the front desk on the right as you come in (5188) if you have any queries, but these lists are generally pretty straightforward and efficient.

SRU lists are up in the emergency surgical unit, and are set up to provide easy access to ultrasound for surgery. These again can be supervised lists, but are often independent for ST3s and up. These can be a bit more hectic and you may have to do lots of the organisation yourself. A full guide here.

Portables are a bit random in Truro. The pathway is more or less “call the reg room and see if there is a random reg there that can do the scan”. A full guide here.