Scalpel is the University of Manchester’s Surgical Society, which represents and hopes to further medical student interest in surgery.

Scalpel was originally formed in 2001, but it was not until 2006 that a core group of Manchester medical students re-formed the society under guidance from the Royal College of Surgeons, creating Scalpel as we know it today. Since this re-invention of itself, scalpel has gone from strength to strength and currently has approximately 850 members.
As an undergraduate surgical society, Scalpel has three key aims:

• To organise events that showcase surgery and all of its specialties,
• To excite and enthuse students about surgery,
• To provide students who are interested in surgery with relevant careers information and advice.

Scalpel hopes to achieve these aims by organising talks and workshops delivered by charismatic surgeons from each and every surgical specialty. We want to get students excited about surgery early on so that they can start to consider whether they want to choose surgery as a career. With competition for surgical jobs becoming more and more fierce, students are being forced to consider their career options earlier than ever before. In 2008 as many as 36 applicants applied per available place for some surgical specialties[1]. Therefore students hoping for a career in surgery must start to think about how to make themselves more competitive and Scalpel hopes to help these students by organising surgical careers events and by providing students with surgical role models.

Scalpel also seeks to encourage students from minorities into surgery, whether those minorities are ethnic, gender or otherwise by inviting role models from all walks of life as speakers at Scalpel events. Women in Surgery (WinS) events are a frequent feature of Scalpels events calendar, and a diverse range of speakers ensures the calendar remains of a high calibre and continues to be interesting and relevant.

In 2009 Scalpel held their first ever national conference providing delegates with the opportunity to present their case reports and original research to an audience of esteemed clinicians and students. The conference proved to be a resounding success and it has now become a major annual event which is attended by medical students from all across the UK.

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