Mr Jamie Maclean retires from NHS Tayside

Mr James G.B. Maclean (MBChB, FRCS, FRCS Orth) is retiring on 27/5/22, after 28 years of service as a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon within NHS Tayside, and over 40 years in the NHS.

Mr MacLean graduated from Dundee University in 1981 and did his basic surgical training at Norfolk & Norwich Hospitals. Jamie did his Higher Surgical Training at St. Bartholomew’s, London (Percival Pott Rotation), Raigmore Hospital Inverness and Elective at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. Jamie is also currently an Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer (UDOTS) where he teaches and supervises MCh (Orth) student research studies. He also runs CP clinics with Mr Donald Campbell and the UDOTS Gait Service Team where children for multilevel surgery are assessed and reviewed postoperatively. Appointed as a consultant to PRI in 1994 he spent his early consultant career focused on paediatrics, hands, trauma, and spine. He was solely responsible for paediatrics in Tayside between 2001 and 2008 when Mr Donald Campbell was appointed, and he found the spent time training in London under Mr John Fixsen invaluable. He has been a dedicated and skilled consultant to his patients in PRI and Ninewells Hospital. The staff, patients, and colleagues will miss his good nature, enthusiasm, and clinical skills.

Mr Arpit Jariwala, Director of University Department of Orthopaedics & Trauma Surgery (UDOTS), commented:

“I fondly remember Mr Maclean as one of my first trainers in NHS Tayside and someone who supported me in building my research profile when I wrote a paper on the Adequacy of Carpal Tunnel Decompression. Interestingly, Mr Maclean’s last paper published before retirement on Mirel’s Score for Bone Tumour was with me as well. Mr Maclean has been a fantastic colleague, teacher, and trainer. He was involved in setting up many national paediatric audit databases (CPIPS and CHIPS) that continue to provide very useful outcome data for managing patients. He was the Scottish Paediatric Orthopaedic Club president (SPOC) for 20 years which is a feat in itself and is a past committee member of British Society of Children’s Orthopaedic Surgeons (BSCOS). He has been a strong supporter for UDOTS both for teaching and for supporting research. Everyone at UDOTS wish him all the best for his retirement after a long innings (Mr Maclean is keen cricket fan) and he will be sorely missed by us all, as well as his patients.”

Mrs Jenni Dalgleish (Gait Service Physiotherapist) presented Mr Jamie Mclean with retiral gifts from a small group of UDOTS staff. Right: a bespoke wine label on one of the bottles given as a token of thanks and respect.

Mr Donald Campbell, Mr Maclean’s paediatric orthopaedic colleague added:

“Jamie has published extensively with a special interest in paediatric orthopaedics, hand surgery, and primary total hip replacement. He was one of the first Scottish surgeons to visit Dr Ponseti in Iowa and helped introduce the surgical technique to the UK. He has an interest in DDH and spent time working in combination with Mr Malcolm Macnicol in Edinburgh. He also travelled to Posnan in Poland to learn the Degas technique. He has an interest in SUFE and has published medicolegal articles on this and expert opinion in this field along with DDH. He has given expert opinion talks on SUFE and other paediatric conditions at international meetings such as the Combined BSCOS and Swedish meeting, BSCOS Current concepts and the Edinburgh Instructional Trauma Symposium. 

Jamie has always been regarded as a brilliant and enthusiastic trainer. He has spent his career teaching all levels of staff from AHPs, GPs, trainees, and the wider orthopaedic community. His unflappable nature, kindness and patience help create the optimal environment for trainees to learn in the operating theatre and clinic. He has passionately supported the JCIE exam for T&O for 10 years in the UK and Ireland. He has always supported the local trainees in the postgraduate teaching and also helped prepare them for their final exit examination.” 

Mr Ben Clift, Associate Medical Director for Workforce planning and his orthopaedic colleague, further added:

“Aside from his many accomplishments as a clinician, a technically assured surgeon, and one of the most popular and communicative lecturers, Mr MacLean has many other interests. He is a traveller, a raconteur of genius, a family man, an outdoorsman, and a source of wise counsel, both formally and informally. His professional legacy includes a remarkable contribution to paediatric orthopaedics in Scotland he has been the host of the annual meeting in Perth for many years, a significant success in making rugby union safer (recognised internationally by the governing body) and perhaps most importantly, countless trainees who have found him to be the most humane, urbane, and selfless educator. Mr MacLean’s career has spanned an era which began with the old consultant-based NHS to the current more egalitarian model. Over such a turbulent transition, his natural friendliness, humility, and charm have always been on display. He will be impossible to replace, and as Shakespeare so eloquently phrased it:

“He was a man, take him for all in all, we shall not look upon his like again’’

Mr Jamie Maclean, himself, added:

“I am very grateful to have spent my career in Tayside combining the attraction of working in the DGH setting in Perth and Ninewells and with the University teaching hospital in Dundee.  This has enabled me to enjoy a general orthopaedic practice for most of my career while simultaneously developing my specialist interest in paediatric orthopaedics, along with teaching and research. I have been very fortunate to have worked with fantastic colleagues and staff throughout the region and I am very grateful to all.”