Military training the platform for surgical excellence
Think of joining the Army and most will imagine a variety of disciplines from engineering to driving tanks.
However, for Mr Piers Page it launched a career as a highly specialised consultant orthopaedic trauma and limb reconstruction surgeon, giving him a deep insight into areas other medical professionals may not have experienced.
He explained: “I initially joined the reserves in sixth form, did a gap year and then signed on with the Army which sponsored me through medical school. I stayed in regular service until I went into orthopaedic training.”
That experience shaped a career which specialises in treating injuries often seen on the battlefield including major polytrauma, complex and periarticular fractures and infection with a focus on orthoplastic management of severe limb injures and injury rehabilitation and reconstruction.
Now with an NHS practice at Swansea Bay University Health Board, he is also national clinical lead for trauma in Wales.
He had previously spent a year seconded to the university from the Army, helping deliver the MSc in Trauma Sciences and his appointment was in support of the South Wales Major Trauma Network as part of a team delivering orthoplastic care of patients with open fractures.
He holds the post of Honorary Associate Professor in the Faculty of Human Medicine and Life Sciences at Swansea University and teaches orthopaedic elements of the Graduate Entry Medicine programme. At the university he has recently led successful funding bids for grants to investigate the impact of waiting for limb reconstruction surgery.
Mr Page has also just been appointed portfolio lead for orthopaedics and musculoskeletal research at Health and Care Research Wales (HCRW) which combines a wide range of partners across the NHS in Wales to promote research into diseases, treatments, services and outcomes that can lead to discoveries and innovations that can improve and save people’s lives.
“We're doing quite a lot of work at the moment on health data sciences and outcomes in complex orthoplastic trauma,” he explained.
Mr Page is also a regular reviewer for and author in a number of journals. “I have until recently been deputy editor of BMJ Military Health which looks at key issues in military health from around the world,” he said.
“I am a copy editor for The Bone and Joint Journal and have just been appointed deputy editor for the European Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology.”
During his time on the Complex Trauma service at Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court in Surrey he mentored and co-authored a paper reporting the outcomes of genital injury in service people which has gone on to inform guidelines around the world and be cited in evidence to the US Departments of Defense and Veterans' Affairs.
He was also lead author on one of the key papers underpinning the inception of the orthoplastic service in South Wales and was awarded the British Orthopaedic Association Robert Jones Medal in 2019.
Mr Page is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and a member of the British Orthopaedic Association, Orthopaedic Trauma Society, British Limb Reconstruction Society and Combined Services Orthopaedic Society.
Significantly, he has a keen interest in the law and was awarded the Diploma in Legal Medicine with Distinction by the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine in 2020 and an LLM Masters in Law and Healthcare Ethics at the University of Dundee in 2023.
He has worked with TLA as an expert witness for complex, severe and life-changing injuries for two years on both claimant and defendant instructing parties producing articulate, robust, evidence-based personal injury reports. Significantly, he only works with TLA for his medicolegal practice with the company managing his case load.
He said: “TLA is the provider of choice in the complex injury market. The variety and size of cases isn't something I've experienced anywhere else.
“Knowing that all the administrative side of the case will be seamless allows me to focus on its substance and the quality of the opinion.
“I work on about 30 complex cases a year and there tend to be a lot of details and conferences with counsel - having somebody to manage that side of it is really helpful.
“Overall, I’ve been delighted by the support, responsiveness and attention to detail of the team. Their wide range of instructing solicitors means I receive an equally wide range of interesting and complex instructions. I couldn't ask for better.”
Outside of work, Mr Page enjoys photography, cooking, reading and occasional house renovating. And, of course, he never forgets his training, remaining an Army reservist.
Please email Piers Page’s medicolegal secretary, Dominika at dominika@tla-medicolegal.com for his CV and further details.