26 November 2024

Prof Prokar Dasgupta [pictured left], KHP Professor of Surgery, interviews Mr Majed Shabbir [on the right], Clinical Lead at the Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS FT urology centre, about a recent prestigious Newsweek award.

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Prof Prokar Dasguta (PD): Majed, I believe you have some really fantastic news?

Mr Majed Shabbir (MS): It’s been a real pleasure and honour to find out that we’ve been recognised by Newsweek in its international review as being the leading centre for urology in the UK, and the eighth in the world.

You never do things for accolades - you do it for the hard work and dedication of your department. But it’s great to be recognised in such a way.

PD: Congratulations. Numero uno. Number one department in the UK.

We know that in the Newsweek index there are three key features: peer recommendations; patient experience; and patient reported outcome measures. So this is not how we think we’re doing, but how the people we serve think we’re doing. How did we get to number one?

MS: Like all things in life nothing is achieved overnight. This has come from years of hard work and dedication. It has been inspired by our mentors and forebears who instilled core values into our department, making sure we always deliver the highest quality level of care that we can possibly do.

We always put patients first and at the heart of what we do. We always drive through innovation and strive for excellence. And in our aim to do that, we’ve ended up achieving this recognition.

We’ve always had this ethos of making sure that we are excellent for our local community and in doing so, raising the level of care to a world-class standard. This accolade reflects that practice.

PD: Tell me about the strengths of the urology department, which you’ve been leading so efficiently?

MS: It’s very much a team effort. We’re fortunate to have a department at the very top end of their field in everything they do. Our aim has always been to deliver cutting-edge, world-class technology for our local patients.

In driving that type of ethos we’ve also made a department that has been recognised nationally and internationally. So much so that we’ve become one of the largest – if not the largest – tertiary referral centres in the UK for complex urology.

But it’s not just that. It’s also our dedication to reflective practice, making sure that we really audit our outcomes. We look at our complications, we listen to our patients – both from their individual feedback and their patient-reported outcome measures. This ensures that we’re achieving those high standards of care and delivering what we think we’re delivering.  

When we look at where we are on the national and international benchmarks, we’re not just achieving those standards, we’re exceeding them. On top of that, it’s not just the clinical aspects but it’s our dedication to research and education, which increases our reputation as a department to make sure we have a world-class service in every possible way.

I think having a harmonious department is really important – we have 25 top-notch individuals working really hard, and we work together, as a team. Our ethos of always rising together is crucial and makes us greater than the sum of our parts. It’s been a real pleasure and honour to be the person sitting at the top, helping to guide an amazing team. It’s not me, it’s the team.  

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To learn more about KHP Academic Surgery, visit the webpage here.

The next KHP Academic Surgical Grand Round webinar will be at 5:30pm on Thursday 12 December. The topic is stem cell research in orthopaedics. Register here.