There is no fee to participate in the scheme. You can simply indicate your willingness to participate as a Host, Guest or both.

This varies on a case-by-case basis. You are able to set your own fees, of what you are either prepared to pay or wish to be paid, to act as a Guest or Host. For example, a surgeon performing a long case may be prepared to pay a Guest Surgeon to assist, to reduce operative time and fatigue. Alternatively a Guest surgeon might be prepared to pay a Host surgeon to gain more exposure to a particular procedure. A Host Surgeon with particular expertise might only accept a Guest for a fee. Other Guests or Hosts may simply enjoy collaborating with colleagues and waive all fees. This can be set on a case-by-case basis, so you might waive your fees to be a Guest for a case that is outside your usual experience, but ask a fee to be involved in other cases. We will only link you up with another surgeon if your preset parameters match.

Hosts can share their experience and pool ideas with a colleague. They can also be assisted by their Guest surgeon and share the workload. Guests are able to attain exposure to procedures they may not have seen much of, without attending time consuming symposia. Surgeons may also be a Guest to smooth out peaks and troughs in their private workload and income. Both Guests and Hosts can extend their professional networks. Most of all, it means that private practice need not be a one-person show.

Yes, the patient must agree to the arrangement - it is the Host's responsibility to arrange this. You may have experienced from other assistant arrangements in the past that patients do not usually have a problem, and often expect, other surgeons to be present at or contribute to their surgery, but it is important to be explicit and transparent about this.

Yes. It is usually the other way round, with the Guest surgeon paid to attend and assist, but in some cases the Host's expertise may be sufficiently in demand that they can attract a fee to have a Guest present.

Yes - this is probably one of the main benefits to the Guest surgeon. A surgeon with insufficient evidence of experience of a procedure may use attendance with a Host surgeon to build their portfolio and extend their scope of practice. Sole responsibility for patient care remains with the Host surgeon, so there is no need for procedure-specific expertise on the part of the Guest. We also envisage surgeons acting as Guests for procedures already within their usual scope of practice. It is good to be reminded from time to time that there is more than one way to do things, and a breadth of experience can only be good, for all surgeons.

Yes, but the Host Surgeon remains responsible and therefore in charge throughout the procedure, so they must satisfy themselves that the Guest is able to perform whatever task is given to them and maintain an appropriate level of supervision throughout. At least until you know the other surgeon well, the Host Surgeon should make the worst-case presumption that, even with a Guest, they will be performing the case unassisted and plan accordingly.

All Guests Surgeons are independent Consultant Surgeons in their own right, just like you, so it is unlikely that this would be the case. However it is prudent to plan for a worst-case scenario of a passive bystander, at least until you know your Guest Surgeon better. There is no real recourse for a less-than-helpful Guest Surgeon, except for feeding back constructively and/or declining to accept them the next time.

Although unlikely, if a Guest Surgeon is an impediment rather than simply unhelpful, then patient care and safety remain paramount and the surgeon should be asked to leave. The issues should then be fed back to the Hospital.

You should make your indemnifier aware that you are planning either to be assisted or to have an assistant during surgery, if you do not already have such an arrangement in place. There would typically be no adjustment or a trivial adjustment in your premium as a consequence of this. The Hospital does not accept consequential liability arising either from this arrangement or from any failure to fulfil it, such as a cancellation by either surgeon. The Hospital's role is to match willing partners for their mutual benefit and for that of the patient.

If two surgeons' parameters for acting as a Host and Guest match (in terms of availability, procedure types and cost), we make first contact with the Host and invite them to accept or decline the matched Guest (or choose from their matches if there is more than one). If they accept, we notify the Guest and confirm the arrangements for both parties. Guest Surgeons who are not selected for a particular procedure are not informed.

A Guest Surgeon has been awarded practising privileges at The Hospital and has therefore successfully satisfied the requirements of application and the maintenance of practising privileges. A Surgical Assistant has not. A Surgical Assistant may, for instance, be a Specialty Registrar undergoing higher surgical training who wishes to attend the hospital for their own training purposes under the supervision of a Host Surgeon. There is a separate mandatory application process for Surgical Assistants.