Gill Tierney, Consultant Surgeon and President of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland (ASGBI)
A consultant at UHDB, Gill Tierney, has been named as President of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland (ASGBI), becoming only the second woman to hold the role in the organisation’s 100 year history.
Gill will take up the post in 2023 after first becoming Vice President for the next two years.
Commenting on her new role, Gill said:
It’s a great feeling. It must say something about the fantastic culture of support and encouragement that we have so many national female leaders as part of UHDB.
There has only ever been one other female President of the organisation, and that was Professor Averil Mansfield back in 1993. I am the only woman who is part of the ASGBI Executive as Director of Emergency Surgery and some other female members encouraged me to apply for the presidency.
It’s a lot of work but I want to reenergise the organisation. It is 100 years old so we need to make sure that it’s staying relevant and need to encourage more female members to join. Tradition is great, but it’s not the worship of ashes but the passing on of fire.
The ASGBI was founded in 1920 by a group of leading surgeons in a bid to bring together knowledge of a range of surgeons, promoting positive relationships between surgeons and aiding the development of trainees and medical students.
This encouragement of more junior surgeons is something close to Gill’s heart and is something she’ll be aiming to improve on during her time as president, especially when it comes to female students:
Gill went on to explain:
Many medical students are women, but not many of these go on to hold these sorts of positions later on in their careers, so I really want to do more work to help and encourage our female members.
We asked Gill a few questions about her role at UHDB;
What is your role at UHDB?
I am a general surgeon and I specialise in colorectal surgery. I’m also very committed to teaching medical students and encouraging them to become surgeons. I am Training Programme Director in the School of Surgery, for the East Midlands region.
What would you say to a young doctor considering where they would like to work?
The most important single factor in deciding when you pick any surgical job where you want to work is the people around you as you’ll probably be spending more time with them than your family over the next 30 years or more!
Our surgical colleagues here in Derby are excellent, indeed I’m married to another of my fellow colorectal surgeons, we all share the same high clinical standards, I have no concerns about one of my colleagues stepping in to look after a patient of mine, and we have excellent managers too with a real ‘can do’ attitude.
What do you like particularly about UHDB?
Here at Royal Derby Hospital, we have a family feel. We’re a big hospital but we’re small enough for everyone to have a voice. It’s a great place to work as a surgeon and that’s what I tell my trainees.
It’s because of the special ‘feel’ of the hospital that we get the best trainees who want to come and work with us at University Hospitals of Derby and Burton.