Please not the new email for the secretary of the NSW Hand Surgery Association is 

[email protected]

The current Secretary is Dr Simon Chan

The NSW Hand Surgery Association has a travelling fellowship to allow one member or affiliate member of the NSW HSA every second calendar year to attend the Annual Scientific Meeting and associated hand units of each of the other Australian state hand surgery societies, that is Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.

The purpose of the fellowship is to facilitate ongoing education and professional development of individual members and affiliate members of the NSW HSA; to benefit the members and affiliate members of the NSW HSA as a whole; to foster goodwill and interaction between the state hand societies and to benefit hand surgery and therapy in Australia in general.


The remuneration of the fellowship will be up to the value of $10,000 to cover the costs of registration, travel, accommodation and miscellaneous expenses, indexed to inflation. Receipts are to be submitted to the NSW HSA Treasurer for reimbursement.

The successful applicant will be expected to attend all of the state meetings and a hand unit in each state during the nominated period of two years. A paper should be submitted for presentation at each meeting. A report is to be presented at the first NSW HSA ASM after the fellowship is completed.



Applications are to be submitted to the Secretary ([email protected]) and will be assessed for suitability and awarded on merit by the Executive. All else being equal, preference will be given to younger members and affiliates, and the fellowships will be apportioned between members and affiliates on a two-to-one basis.



Each of the aforementioned state societies has an ASM which is open to visiting surgeons and therapists. The presidents of each of the state hand societies (Ken Cutbush, Qld; David McCombe, Vic; Gavin Nimon, SA and Jeff Ecker, WA) have given enthusiastic in principle support to this proposal, agreeing to:

- accepting the registration (paid) of the travelling fellow to attend the ASM

- allowing the travelling fellow to submit a paper for consideration for presentation at the ASM

- perhaps facilitating, for example by way of introduction, a visit to one of the hand units in their state, although the logistics of this would be organised by the travelling fellow him or herself.

At the NSWHSA AGM in 2012, it was agreed that a research fund be set up. The total amount available per annum is $15,000, with a maximum of $2,000 to be allocated to each research project.

Current financial members of the NSWHSA are welcome to apply for grants or nominate co-workers to apply on their behalf. Applications will be assessed by a committee of three members, and funds allocated based on relative merit of the proposals, if there is competition for the funds.

Grants will dispensed throughout the year, as applications are lodged. If the funds are depleted, they will not be replenished until the date of the first clinical meeting of the following year.

Funds may be spent on material costs, laboratory cost or to pay for expertise otherwise unavailable (eg statistician), but not towards the time spent by any of the authors in conducting research.

Where funds are allocated, there will be an obligation for the final results to be presented at the annual NSWHSA meeting. An update presentation would be expected if the research is incomplete at the time of closure of abstract submissions for that year’s meeting. The brief presentation (5 minutes) should provide a summary of the purpose of the study and what has been achieved to date. The final presentation would be expected the following year. If funding were granted and no final results were presented, this would have negative implications for future funding applications.

The application is in MS Word format. Ideally, the application would be completed and emailed to [email protected]

Get thinking!


Nick Smith

Established Orthopaedic Surgeon in new premises offers opportunity for a Hand Surgeon to consult in Nowra.
Access to private/ DVA/ WC/ Public patients from Nowra to southern border
Excellent Hand Therapy available in Nowra.

Enquiries - please contact Kristy on 02-44-230-340 or [email protected]