Surgical Office Skills (S.O.S) and Basic Office Surgical Skills (B.O.S.S) are courses for GP's which aims to provide step-by-step operative techniques for managing common patient conditions such as:

1. Benign and malignant skin lesions including BCC, SCC and melanoma
2. Repair of laceration – clean and dirty wounds,
3. Drainage of an abscess and haematoma,
4. Removal of foreign bodies,
5. Excision of sebaceous cysts, lipoma and other deep lumps,
6. Diagnostic techniques such as, punch biopsy, shave biopsy, and aspiration cytology.

The following documents will be useful for those GP's who are just about to attend, or who have recently attended, the practical component.

A special welcome to those GP's from Victoria who will be attending the courses in 2010. They will find the following three PDF documents useful.

The PDF Document on "Informed Consent" may be accessed  here.
It addresses such topics as sutures, scarring, dressings, infection, bleeding, pain, and informed financial consent.

Additionally, some preliminary reading may be accessed  here.
Topics addressed are "Preparation prior to surgery", "Anaesthetic techniques", "Mechanism of action of local anaesthetics", "Agents in local anaesthetics", "Complications" and "Key Concepts and Practical Tips".

A short document on "Digital Block for Ingrowing Toenail" can be found  here.
Topics addressed are "Anatomy", "Appropriate volumes", "Method of administration" and a "Summary of key points".

NB: For General Practitioners only. Please note, graphic images contained within, may not be suitable for general viewing. Our patient information handouts are PDF files suitable for printing.