Neurosurgery at Queen Square

The day I finished studying the anatomy of brain, I knew that I wanted to pursue neurosurgery as a career speciality. A medical student getting fascinated by the mysterious workings of the human brain is not something unusual. Here, in a mere 3 pounds of living tissue, lies the complexity sufficient to incarnate and store the record of a lifetime of the richest human experience. Our brains contain the secrets of ourselves. Its mystery lies in the fact that it controls our behavior, feelings and thoughts, and also in the fact that how a physical brain is able to hold a seemingly non-physical mind. Getting inspired by all these ideas, I decided to apply for an elective in Neurosurgery through the University College London School of Medicine.

The destination for my elective was The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square which is the UK’s largest hospital dedicated exclusively to the treatment of neurological and neurosurgical disorders. I chose the United Kingdom for my elective because it is a lot easier to get an elective placement here as compared to the USA and Canada. Moreover, the malpractice insurance for overseas elective students is free. The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery is the largest research and clinical center for neurological diseases in the UK hence it became an ideal option for me. With 32 outpatient consulting rooms, the hospital offers around 200 outpatient clinics every week covering all aspects of neurology, neurosurgery, neuropsychology and neurorehabilitation. It has 244 inpatient beds and four operation theaters. It is treating over 6,000 inpatients, 120,000 outpatients and 8,000 day cases each year. All departments in the hospital are managed by highly trained consultants in all neurological fields including  neurosurgery, neurooncology, headache clinic, national prion clinic, neuroanesthesia, neurocritical care, neuromuscular diseases, neurogenetics, neuroimmunology, neurometabolic unit, neuroradiology, neuro-ophthalmology, neuro-otology, neuropathology, neuropsychiatry, uro-neurology, spine surgery, neurorehabilitation, acute brain injury unit and the cognitive disorders clinic. Medical students from UCL and Royal Free Medical School undertake neuroscience attachments at NHNN. Apart from that, the hospital also offers undergraduate medical student elective attachments for UK and overseas students.

As the hospital is a part of University College Hospitals Foundation Trust, I applied through University College London (UCL). I started working on my application almost a year before the start date of my elective because the elective administration demands a lot of documents. There are three parts of the elective application form. Part 1 comprises of the personal details and elective module preferences. This form must be completed and sent via post to the university as soon as possible because it takes the administration quite some time to find a consultant who is ready to supervise you. The easiest way is to email personally as many consultants as possible requesting them for an elective attachment. I did the same and in the end a consultant neurosurgeon agreed on giving me an elective attachment with her. With the supervisor in hand, all you have to do is fill in parts 2 and 3 of the application form which comprise of academic verification and health and and immunization verification respectively and send them with all the required documents to the university. The university acknowledges your application by granting you a confirmation of acceptance of studies (CAS). All that is left after this is the student visa (in case you need it) and you are on your way. Medical malpractice insurance is compulsory and can be easily attained from Medical Protection Society (MPS) for free.