Paul Birtles is Head of Manufacturing at Surgical Innovations Ltd, a Leeds-based supplier of devices for minimally invasive surgery. Paul talks to us about the challenges and rewards of his working life – and his recent experience of undergoing an emergency operation at a hospital where one of his company’s surgical devices was used.
How is the market for minimally invasive surgical devices changing in the UK and worldwide? How is Surgical Innovations Ltd responding to these changes?
It’s still a steadily growing market, for several reasons. The increasing prevalence of obesity is probably the largest factor: there’s quite a significant increase in gastric banding and gastric bypass operations. Another factor is the growth of overseas markets such as China and India. So there’s a huge amount of potential to move forward.
Surgery is moving towards new small-incision laparascopic techniques. We’re doing a lot of work towards single-incision surgery, an area that has been much debated but offers clear advantages. At the moment such surgery usually goes through the umbilicus, but there’s also the potential of going through a natural orifice.
As a company we are well placed for these changes in surgery. We are already at the forefront of what’s called flex technology: allowing flexible movement of the surgical instrument in varying angles. We’re doing quite a lot of work on a port access system to go with that, but it’ll be a while before that emerges in any significant form – there’s a lot of training to do for surgeons, and improvements in the techniques that will come in the next few years.
How does your role as Head of Manufacturing relate to the work of the sales and marketing teams?
We communicate quite a lot with sales and marketing, making sure we can work effectively with them. We need to understand how the instruments work and what situations they are used in, so that if people have issues we can help to sort them out.
We’re involved in meeting requests from our distributors in terms of lead times and making products available quickly. There’s a constant chase to get products to customers in the shortest possible time. We have a huge range of instruments and it’s difficult to maintain a full stock of everything, so we have to be in rapid response mode. That’s why we’ve focused on in-house manufacturing: it gives more flexibility to meet the market demands and keep the sales teams happy.
With regard to marketing, bringing everything back in-house has helped us to show surgeons and distributors what’s involved in making the medical instruments and given them greater ownership of the product. We’ve had really positive feedback when surgeons have come round and we’ve shown them how we make the products and how they work. We also have substantial in-house training, so we can show our instruments in the same kind of environment as the theatre where a surgeon would learn to use them. We can show the quality of the product because it’s here and the designers are here: that helps us to build up a full marketing package.
How has your recent personal experience of surgery changed your perception of your professional role?
We have notices around the building about quality, saying The next person this instrument is used on could be you. When it actually happens to you, that brings it home: it makes you proud of what we’re manufacturing. This product isn’t just a widget, it’s something that can save lives. I’ve been walking around, showing everyone my little scars and saying, Just look at the difference it makes having something like this. It makes you realise how important what we’re doing is for people everywhere, all over the world. That’s the key point. We make sure everything that leaves here is as good as it possibly can be, because it’s going into somebody’s body.
If I’d had the same operation 10 to 15 years ago, I’d have ended up with a very large scar across my body. But it’s virtually impossible to see where I’ve had the operation. For someone who’s really concerned about their appearance, that could be a key driver.
I’m not a keen fan of hospitals: I have a huge personal fear of them. But now I’m going into theatre to see the instruments being used. Because I’ve been on the receiving end, I want to know what they’re like from the other side: what the operation I’ve undergone entails. We spend a lot of time talking to surgeons; our design team are in theatre all the time, and are very knowledgeable on the medical front. That’s hugely important for the company, and it’s something I want to develop for myself now.