Consultant General Surgeon, Aijaz Jabbar, known for his pioneering ideas and practice, has retired as a consultant but is returning to NHS Forth Valley to help with waiting times.
Dr Henry Robb, Associate Medical Director for the Surgical Directorate and Consultant in Anaesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, said: “Aijaz was appointed as a Consultant to Stirling Royal Infirmary in 1994 having previously worked in Falkirk and District Royal Infirmary. It didn’t take long for Aijaz to start making his mark as a laparoscopic surgeon. While colleagues across Scotland were starting to remove gallbladders laparoscopically, Aijaz was developing these techniques and undertaking fundoplications, colonic resections and adrenalectomies.
“His contributions didn’t stop there. When Stirling and Falkirk came together, prior to Forth Valley Royal Hospital, Aijaz was one of the consultants who helped introduce ‘day of surgery’ admission for major cases.”
Following a trip to Kehlet’s unit in Denmark, Aijaz introduced an ‘Enhanced Recovery After Surgery’ programme long before this became a national priority. Our lengths of stay remain best in class! He also arranged a meeting in Ireland with both clinical and managerial colleagues to discuss day case gallbladder surgery which has since become a key component of the service in NHS Forth Valley. He then started to look at one-stop hernia surgery, under local anaesthetic. Patients received prompt service, clinic time was saved and theatre lists no longer required anaesthetic support! Somewhere amongst all this work Aijaz became clinical lead and assisted in developing the pooled list concept and Surgical Admission Unit which has helped modernise the surgical front door. He is quite simply a great colleague.”
