Personal Profile
Mr Waldram was an NHS Consultant for 29 years having studied medicine at the University of London where he worked after qualifying. He came to Birmingham in 1983 and trained in the West Midlands Orthopaedic Training Scheme in Orthopaedics and general trauma. He spent a year on a hand surgery fellowship at the Christine Kleinert Institute of Hand Surgery in Louisville Kentucky. This included a wide exposure to plastic surgical and microsurgical techniques, acute and late reconstruction of tendon and nerve injuries, in addition to the management of complex hand trauma, including gunshot wounds.
He commenced consultant practice in 1993 at the Royal Orthopaedic and Queen Elizabeth Hospitals in Birmingham. Mr Waldram developed an interest in and published on the management of Hand fractures, Soft tissue injuries in the hand and wrist, hand surgery for Rheumatoid arthritis and Kienbochs disease. Mr Waldram developed and published a useful clinical grading for Dupuytrens disease which has stood the test of time and is still used today. His practice frequently involves the treatment of hand surgery conditions that have started treatment elsewhere. He was Clinical Director of Hand Surgery at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital for eleven years.
He is a founder member of the clinical team of the 'Birmingham Hand Centre' at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. This unit has national recognition as an excellent example of equal Orthopaedic and Plastic surgical specialised hand surgery care, and has pioneered the practice of outpatient-based emergency Consultant-led hand surgery practice. The reception and treatment of military injuries of the upper limb became known internationally after the conflicts in Bagdad and Afghanistan. The nerve injury unit has worldwide recognition.
Apart from his extensive clinical experience in the practice of hand surgery, he has always enjoyed the teaching of hand surgery at all levels. He was a council member of the British Society for Surgery of the hand and was the programme director for the UK Hand Diploma programme for 3 years in 2017. This involved liaison with Manchester University, training of examiners and co-writing, organising, and running the UK Hand Diploma exam. This has run for the last 20 years and aims to standardise UK Consultant Hand surgery practice. He has sat on the Audit Committee for the British Society for Surgery of the Hand and currently is the lead for Sierra Leone on the Global partnership committee. This involves running charity surgical and hand therapy trips to Sierra Leone and the training of hand surgery techniques to new local consultant plastic surgeons.
NHS Hospital 1983-2022
- Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, Birmingham
- Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham
