Leg ulceration

After undergraduate training in Bristol and specialist training in Gloucestershire, London and Brighton, Manj Gohel started his post as a Consultant Vascular and Endovascular Surgeon in Cambridge University Hospitals in 2012. He has had a strong academic and clinical interest in the management of venous ulceration and complex venous disease since 2002. Manj was an investigator in the landmark ESCHAR and EVRA venous ulcer trials. He has also supervised several BSc, MD and PhD students. He is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Imperial College London and holds and Associate Lectureship at the University of Cambridge. His main clinical interests is complex venous disease, including novel superficial venous interventions and deep venous stenting. He is currently the Honorary Secretary of the RSM Venous Forum Section.

Stephen is a Consultant Vascular Surgeon with his main NHS appointment at Guys and St Thomas' Hospital. Stephen was a Consultant Vascular Surgeon and Honorary Senior Lecturer at St George's Vascular Institute, St George's Hospital, London from 2010 until 2014. He also held an Honorary Consultant post at Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust during this time. While at St Georges, in addition to offering a full vascular practice, he established and led the Deep Venous Reconstruction service offering intervention for patients with acute and chronic DVT. This quickly grew to become one of the largest such practices in Europe. In 2014 he was approached by St Thomas' hospital to move and run their Deep Venous and Lymphoedema service. Stephen completed his basic medical training in South Africa (University of the Witwatersrand) before emigrating to the United Kingdom in 2001. He went on to complete a MD degree at St Marys Hospital and Imperial College, London in 2006. The subject of his MD thesis was virtual reality based training of surgeons to perform carotid surgery. This was under the supervision of Mr John Wolfe and Lord Ara Darzi. Following this Stephen completed his vascular training holding posts as a registrar at Ashford and St Peters Hospital, Frimley Park Hospital, Guys and St Thomas Hospital and St George's Hospital. He was first appointed as a consultant in 2010. He was awarded the fellowship of the European Board of Vascular Surgery in 2011. Stephen specialises exclusively in vascular surgery and has interests in both arterial and venous disease. His arterial practice includes cover of aneurysmal disease (including endovascular techniques), carotid surgery for the treatment of stroke, treatment of diabetic vascular complications and peripheral vascular disease. His venous practice is well established and he has a particular interest in this field. He is well versed in modern minimally invasive techniques for the treatment of both superficial (varicose) and deep veins. He is the lead for deep venous surgery at St Thomas' Hospital. He is on the program committee for the European Venous Forum Hands on Workshops (EVF HOW) and the annual Charing Cross Vascular Symposium. The Charing Cross Symposium is one of the largest vascular meeting in the world. He has lectured widely on the subjects of treatment of acute and chronic DVT.

Una is a Registered Nurse, District Nurse and Queen’s Nurse who has been involved in tissue viability clinical practice, education and research for over 20 years. Her background includes tissue viability specialist nursing, teaching undergraduate and post graduate nurses, contributing to a range of wound care research studies, researching judgement and decision making for wound care and campaigning to raise the profile of wound care. She is a reviewer for the Cochrane Wounds group, former Tissue Viability Society trustee and was instrumental in the creation of the Legs Matter campaign.

She has published widely on wound care, particularly in relation to leg ulceration. Una is now responsible for developing and delivering the new National Wound Care Strategy Programme (NWCSP) which has been commissioned by NHS England. The NWCSP aims to improve the quality of wound care provision across England by reducing unwarranted variation, improving safety and optimising patient experience and outcomes. It will achieve this through developing national evidence-based recommendations about:

• Clinical care and service provision;
• Use of existing data and data sources and the development of metrics to drive improvements in wound care outcomes;
• Commissioning of services and supply and distribution of wound care dressings and interventions;
• Workforce issues and the educational needs of all those involved in care delivery including patients, carers and non-clinical staff; and
• Identifying gaps where evidence synthesis and further primary research are needed.