What is a general surgeon?

In plain English

A general surgeon's core work is the abdomen - gallbladder, appendix, hernia, bowel - along with much of a hospital's emergency surgical load, breast and endocrine surgery in many practices, and trauma care at centres that take it.

On the public record surgery is a classification with a long list of specialisations beneath it: trauma, surgical critical care, colorectal, vascular, surgical oncology, pediatric surgery and more. Several surgical fields are separate classifications rather than specialisations - orthopaedic surgery, neurological surgery, plastic surgery, otolaryngology, urology, obstetrics and gynecology - so all surgeons is never one code.

Surgeons are the population most firmly tied to institutions. An operating room, an anaesthesia team and a sterile supply chain are fixed assets, so the hospital or surgery centre where a surgeon operates is usually the real account, and the surgeon is the person who specifies inside it.

Training and credentials

Medical school, a five-year general surgery residency, then board certification; most sub-specialties add a fellowship of one to two years.

Where they practise

Hospitals, ambulatory surgery centres, single-specialty and multi-specialty surgical groups, academic departments, trauma centres.