PLASTA is an international organisation for plastic surgery trainees, founded and run from the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is headed by an executive committee and regional representatives throughout the UK and Ireland. PLASTA membership continues to grow internationally with 2721 members in total, 1676 members in UK and Ireland and 1405 international and allied health professional members. PLASTA has a vast Social Media influence and continues to grow in its presence and influence across 3 major social media platforms:

- Twitter @PLASTAUK

- Instagram @plastauk

How we work in conjunction with BAPRAS:

• ST3 Interviews: We are grateful to have been invited to be independent observers of the online interviews for 2023.
• FRCS exams including revision material for this by BAPRAS members for our FRCS webinars
• BAPRAS-SAC-PLASTA national teaching programme

We are incredibly proud of what we have achieved in working closely with BAPRAS

and the SAC to deliver a standardised, high-quality, online national teaching

programme for all trainees. All sessions have been offered as a bi-weekly half day

study leave sessions, across all regions of the UK and Ireland.

• JCST/ISCP New curriculum

  PLASTA are working closely with the JCST are keen to understand any issues,

  areas that require clarification or guidance regarding the new Plastic Surgery

  curriculum which was implemented in August 2021. PLASTA are currently

  undertaking a survey, with a view to hosting a joint webinar with the JCST to address

  the questions that are most key for trainees.

• Fellowships

  We continue to build fellowship resources, including an up-to-date fellowship

  database that is updated live on the PLASTA website. We are also looking forward

  to hosting a fellowship evening alongside the BAPRAS & PLASTA winter

  conference. BAPRAS members are encouraged to contact our fellowship

  representative, Anish, on fellowship.plasta@gmail.com to add their department’s

  fellowships to our page.

• National surveys

  The 2022 PLASTA National Training Survey was conducted in April 2022 with 193

  complete responses (representing 53% of Plastic Surgery NTNs). The key findings

  have been presented to the SAC, BAPRAS and BAAPS. Summary results will be

  available on the PLASTA website and publication of results is in progress. This year,

  in addition to general training issues, we will also have a focus on the access to

  aesthetic surgery training, equality & diversity, effects of bullying and harassment in

  our specialty and well being and mentorship.

• Events

PLASTA X ICOPLAST World Congress and Trainee Olympiad

PLASTA are proud to have led the world’s first Trainee Olympiad in Dubai at

ICOPLAST 23 between 5-7th May. Our International Representative Vik Sharma and

Rini Vyas (prior Operations lead) have worked closely with ICOPLAST and national

plastic surgery partners in the United Arab Emirates to host an in-person tournament

which saw 20 teams competing head-to-head for very generous cash prizes won by

the top 3 teams. We were delighted to welcome over 1800+ delegates from over 90

different countries and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive for the event. We

are grateful for the support of ICOPLAST and our UAE partners in making this event

a success, and look forward to the next ICOPLAST Olympiad.

PLASTA Congress

We plan to hold our 3rd PLASTA Congress alongside the BAPRAS Meeting in

Winter 2023. Our theme, alongside BAPRAS, is ‘Interface’ with a great programme

to interest to students, junior and senior trainees alike with talks spanning different

subspecialties including aesthetic surgery, lower limb, breast alongside eminent key

note speakers. We will be running parallel sessions including ST3, FRCS

preparation and fracture fixation for those at different stages of their training and this

event will also be linked to an evening fellowship networking event. We look forward

to seeing you there - book your study leave now! Registration will be opening soon.

We will run the national trainer of the year award again in November-December

2023, with the winners being announced at PLASTA Congress, alongside the

BAPRAS Meeting.

Association of Surgeons in Training 47th Annual Congress

PLASTA were delighted to support the ASiT Congress in February 2023 in Liverpool.

Our PLASTA Innovation representative Christian Asher will be leading a “Core Skills

in Plastic Surgery’ workshop and representing plastic surgery in their ‘Battle of the

Surgical Specialities’ session.

Webinars and Journal Clubs

PLASTA continue to run multiple successful webinar and journal club series on a

regular basis. The series currently spans:

- FRCS(Plast) webinars

- ‘Plastic Surgery Covered’ webinars for junior trainees

- BAAPS Aesthetic Training Day webinars

- JPRAS-PLASTA-ICOPLAST Journal Clubs

- EJPS-PLASTA-ICOPLAST Journal Clubs

- ASPS-PLASTA Podcasts

All PLASTA webinars are available in a password protected area of the PLASTA

website for members. These are embedded in the website to ensure privacy and

security. Journal club recordings are available as podcasts on all major podcast

channels (i.e. Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Spotify).

PLASTA x ASPS Global Partner Webinar series

Our popular webinar series has restarted this year led by Tom Andrew, our

Research Rep. The first webinar features international speakers from Germany and

Italy discussing a wide variety of topics including ‘Great Toe Pulp Flaps in Finger Tip

reconstruction’ and ‘Barriers to Performing Microsurgery in Low income-settings’

from 25 th May 2023.

PLASTA ST3 Interview Course

Our inaugural PLASTA ST3 course was held virtually in November 2023, with the

aim of supporting prospective plastic surgery applicants preparing for their upcoming

ST3 interviews.

Research

PLASTA produce an annual research bulletin that is distributed to the mailing list and

available on the website. We are working to develop a national network of trainees

with an academic interest to promote collaboration and mentorship and continue to

interface with the RSTN.

Prizes

We offer 2 national prizes that are run annually:

- PLASTA Medical Student Essay Prize (1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd places awarded)

- PLASTA Trainee Essay Prize (1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd places awarded)

Grants

- PLASTA Medical Student and Trainee Events x5 per annum, £100-250 each

- PLASTA Plastic Surgery ‘Taster Week’ Grants: x2, £250 each

- PLASTA Reconstructive Fellowship Award: x2, £500 each

- PLASTA Aesthetic Fellowship Award: x2, £500 each

- PLASTA Conference Presentation Grants: x2, up to £500 each

These each have objective criteria against which applications are marked and

scored by relevant members of the PLASTA committees.

Juniors & undergraduates

We continue to support and sponsor multiple courses and conferences for junior

trainees and undergraduate students.

PRASSA, the national plastic surgery student association was launched in

December 2021 with over 20 student societies currently signed up.

PRASSA UK have expanded repertoire of activities with their goal of bringing

together all undergraduate plastic surgery societies across the UK. Their latest

initiatives have ranged from a National Essay Prize competition to a low-cost

nationwide suturing-kit rental scheme; to improve accessibility and remove barriers

to hands-on, educational, plastic surgery workshops for plastic surgery societies

across the country as well as a running a weekly webinar teaching programme

aimed at medical students. We are so proud to support their work to help get

students involved in plastic surgery from an early stage in their career to benefit the

future of our specialty.

Joint statements

- Joint statement on result of BMA ballot for junior doctor industrial action in

England, 22 nd Feb 2023

Representation

PLASTA provides active representation on the following committees:

- British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS)

o BAPRAS Council

o BAPRAS Education Committee

o BAPRAS Professional Standards Committee

o BAPRAS Innovation SIG

o BAPRAS SIAGs

- Specialty Advisory Committee (SAC)

- FRCS(Plast) Examination Board

- British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS)

- British Society for Surgery of the Hand (BSSH)

- Intercollegiate Cosmetic Surgery Oversight Committee (ICSOC)

- British Burns Association (BBA)

- Association of Surgeons in Training (ASiT)