ESPO 2023 Programme Update

MAY 2022

Preparations are in full swing for what we expect will be a really exciting get-together in May 2023. The theme is ‘Science, Clinicians and families- better together’, with an emphasis on how paediatric ORL specialists use scientific and technological developments to bring about better care for children and their families. The keynote speakers will highlight links between science and clinical practice. Infectious diseases paediatrician Prof Sir Andrew Pollard will be well known to many for his work developing the Covid 19 vaccine at Oxford, UK. His interests span a range of infections relevant to ORL, including the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). Prof Sir Stephen O’ Rahilly (Cambridge UK) is a distinguished physician/scientist whose discoveries have transformed the management of some cases of childhood obesity, but his main passion is in bringing research discoveries from the laboratory to the clinic.

Plenary sessions will include updates on Obstructive Sleep Apnoea, ORL infections, managing an airway service, new approaches to the skull base, tumours in the head and neck, and a new stream on innovation and education in paediatric ORL. Here much of the focus will be on the non-technical skills so important in the delivery of good patient care. ESPO Juniors are very much involved in planning the programme, and our young colleagues will be especially welcome at the Simulation Centre where we will have stations for hands-on teaching in a range of ORL procedures including bronchoscopy, tracheostomy, otological implants and endoscopic airway surgery.

Get the dates in your diary and bookmark the website for regular updates.

We look forward to seeing you in May 2023.

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Kind Regards, 

   Ray Clarke                   Sujata De

 On behalf of the Programme Committee for ESPO Liverpool 2023                             

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Welcome from the ESPO 2023 Programme Committee

FEBRUARY 2022

A warm welcome awaits ESPO delegates in Liverpool in May 2023.

We are working to put together a really special programme for the first face-to-face meeting since 2018 of ESPO friends and colleagues. It will be worth the wait!

The academic programme will focus on recent developments and challenging cases, with plenty opportunities for delegates to learn from acknowledged experts across the whole range of pediatric ORL. We are working with international colleagues and with our ‘ESPO Junior’ friends to make sure Liverpool ESPO 2023 will have something for everybody.

The ‘Simulation Centre’ will be a key feature of the conference, with opportunities for junior and senior colleagues alike to develop their skills in multiple ORL procedures including airway endoscopy, otological implants, tracheostomy and state-of-the art virtual reality surgical simulators under the supervision of a world-class faculty. Debates, hot topics, top tips, and lively panel discussions will ensure you leave wanting more.

Liverpool is a wonderful cosmopolitan European city with a rich heritage and with links to every corner of the globe given its long history as a major port. We have a top-class waterside conference centre, and you will have many opportunities to explore the birthplace of modern popular music.

We promise you a rich and rewarding experience, a dedicated and enthusiastic faculty, but most importantly the chance to meet friends and colleagues in a warm and relaxed setting following the long Covid-induced dearth of academic get-togethers.  

See you in May 2023.

Ray Clarke and Su De

ESPO 2023 Programme Committee

Some of the Liverpool team visiting Mathew Street.
The Cavern Club in the background, made famous by the Beatles

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Superlambananas outside the Museum of Liverpool

Welcome to Liverpool.

As you walk along the waterfront from the conference centre to take in the magnificent views

across the river Mersey you may be puzzled to come across a number of these odd hybrid

creatures! The ‘superlambanana’ was a large (5 metes tall) statue based on the artist’s

idiosyncratic vision of the future of genetic engineering combined with a look toward Liverpool’s

past. It is a fusion of a lamb and a banana, each of which would have been common sights on the

Liverpool docks in the days when the dockside was bustling with cargo ships. The original statue-

the creation of New York/Japanese artist Taro Chiezo – was bright yellow, and was adopted as a

symbol of the city during Liverpool’s year as European city of culture (2008). It became so popular and such an iconic feature of the city that multiple copies began to appear at various locations, and the tradition continues. Many are elaborately painted and decorated, and they have become a celebration of the quirky self-deprecating humour that Liverpool is famous for. A look to the future, with a glance at the past, perhaps a good metaphor for ESPO 2023. A great backdrop for ‘selfies’, see how many ‘lambananas’ you can spot on your rambles around the conference centre in May 2023!

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The ‘Fab Four’

The most popular backdrop to ’selfies’ in Liverpool is undoubtedly the bronze statue of

the Beatles at the Pier Head on the waterfront.  You can visit many of the sites

associated with the Beatles, there is a Beatles Experience Museum, several themed

walks and tours, and of course the music. Oldies (like me!) can relive the ‘swinging

sixties’, while youngsters can get a feel for why their Mums, Dads and grandparents

went wild about these four Liverpool lads. 

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The Tragedy of the Arandora Star

A monument on the Liverpool waterfront commemorates a sad event in the history of

the city, one that will have particular poignancy for Italian and German colleagues 
The ‘Arandora Star’ was originally a luxury liner. She was re-purposed during WW2 and

set sail from Liverpool in July 1940 with over 1600 passengers and crew on board.

The passengers were mainly civilians, Italian and German nationals living in the UK

at the outbreak of war who had been detained and interned. Many were elderly and

infirm. They were being transported to internment camps in Canada. Grossly

overcrowded and with few lifeboats, the ship was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland

and more than 800 lives were lost. Bodies were washed up on beaches for months

afterwards; many of the victims are buried in coastal graveyards in Ireland and Scotland.
You can see a model of the Arandora Star at the Maritime Museum, a short walk from the conference centre.

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'Back-to-back' houses

This terrace in Duke Street Liverpool boasts modern urban apartments much sought-after

by young professionals who like to live and work in the heart of the city. Their sleek

external appearance belies their origins. They were built in the nineteenth century as

‘back-to-back’ houses, so called because the houses behind were mirror images,

separated by a wall, so that there was only one combined entrance and exit for each

house. Housing and sanitation conditions for the poor in nineteenth and early twentieth

century Liverpool were shocking. Fire was an ever-present danger. Each of these

doors would have served up to four families, one per floor, with the worst living conditions

in the basement or ‘cellar’. Two outside toilets or ‘privies’ and one water pump would have provided for the whole terrace. Diphtheria, cholera, typhoid and dysentery were commonplace. Infant mortality rates were among the worst in the UK, prompting major reforms in public health policies.

Most ‘slum dwellings’ were demolished from the nineteen fifties onwards, but a small number -such as these- were modernized and converted in an urban renewal programme. Duke Street is now home to many fine restaurants which delegates can visit in May 2023.

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Liverpool's 'Baltic triangle'

Liverpool has long and much cherished links with the Baltic countries. In the heyday of the city

as a major port, ships from Northern Europe would unload their cargo here. Dockside

warehouses housed grain, wood and other merchandise from Northern Europe. As the

shipping industry declined, some of the old storehouses fell into disrepair, but an enthusiastic

urban renewal project in the last few years has brought the area back to life. It is now a ‘hip’

quarter, and home to craft shops, artisan bakeries, cafes, restaurants and art studios. The

warehouse walls are a favoured site for graffiti and an ever-changing variety of street art.

The Baltic Triangle is a short walk from the conference centre. All that education can be thirsty work, so take some time out to enjoy a craft beer!

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The Chinese Arch

We Liverpudlians are proud of our historical association with Chinese friends and colleagues.

The Chinese Arch in Liverpool marks the entrance to ‘Chinatown’, home to the oldest Chinese

neighborhood in Europe. The arch was gifted to the city of Liverpool by Shanghai, where it was put

together by skilled craftsmen and women. It boasts two hundred dragons, five roofs and two magnificent

bronze lions, positioned in accordance with the principles of ‘Feng-Shui’. The arch commemorates long

and much-prized trade and cultural associations between the cities.

Chinese dock workers arrived in Liverpool in the early nineteenth century, when they traded silk and

cotton goods. The Blue Funnel shipping line employed large numbers of Chinese seamen. Inevitably

many succumbed to the charms of the local Liverpool women! A strong and much-loved community soon

developed, and several Chinese businesses thrive to this day.

Chinatown is a short walk from the Conference Centre. Well worth a visit when you attend ESPO in the Chinese ‘year of the rabbit’, 2023!

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Roots, Rock, Reggae
The two metre statue of Jamaican reggae legend Bob Marley in the Baltic Triangle, Liverpool is the work

of local sculptor Andy Edwards, widely known for his iconic statue of the ‘Beatles’ (Fab Four) on the

waterfront. The work celebrates Marley and his message of love, peace and emancipation, but it is a

reminder too of the influence that musicians of African- and particularly Caribbean- heritage had on the

emerging popular music scene in Europe in the ‘fifties and ‘sixties. Paul McCartney has always

acknowledged the debt the Beatles owe to early pioneers such as Harold Phillips (1925-2000) who

settled in Liverpool and popularized calypso music in the post-war years. Phillips (nicknamed ‘Lord

Woodbine’) arrived in Britain as an emigre from Trinidad in 1948. Part of the first wave Caribbean

immigrants, he sailed on the celebrated ‘Windrush’ ship, and soon found work as a singer/guitarist and

music promoter in the Liverpool clubs. Here he came in contact with the young Lennon and McCartney

and arranged gigs for them in local venues. Lord Woodbine drove the Beatles to Hamburg in his

Volkswagen mini-bus in 1960 for their first overseas concert, where he played on stage with them as they

were enthusiastically welcomed by a young German following.
Check out some ‘positive vibrations’ in Liverpool at ESPO 2023
In the words of Bob Marley, ‘let’s join together and a-feel alright!’

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Liverpool Medical Institute

The grand bow-fronted portico of the Liverpool Medical Institute recalls the glorious libraries

and seats of learning of ancient Greece. It was designed by local architect Clark Rampling

during a period when the ‘Greek revival’ style was in vogue and opened in 1837 as a library

and meeting place for local physicians and surgeons. This was not well received by the local

population, who not long before had engaged in fearsome rioting (the 1832 Cholera riots),

attacking a hospital and setting upon medical men who were widely thought to be sending

patients to their deaths in the fever wards so that they could use the corpses for dissection!

Much of this ill-feeling was stoked by a notorious local criminal case in 1826. Three casks were found on Liverpool docks, labelled ‘Bitter Salts’ in readiness for transportation to the medical school in Edinburgh, Scotland. On inspection, the casks were found to contain eleven corpses, and were traced to a cellar in the city where a further twenty-two corpses, injected and prepared for dissection, were stored. Two ‘body-snatchers’ were convicted, and distrust of medical men grew.

Surgery was particularly fraught, with huge mortality, often due to sepsis. The surgeons- all men- who operated gloveless in their blood-stained overcoats, caked with pus and exudate from the previous patient and prided themselves on their refusal to wash their hands between cases - were slow to adopt the teachings of Semmelweis in Hungary and Lister in Scotland on the need for asepsis.

The site of the Institute, at the end of Hope Street and immediately opposite the workhouse, where impoverished and destitute paupers could see the physicians and surgeons in their frock-coats and silk hats descend from their grand carriages on-route to medical meetings- fueled more resentment.

The Institute now houses a beautifully preserved Victorian lecture theatre (still in use, although the gas lamps have been converted to electric bulbs), a wonderful collection of rare medical books and a variety of surgical instruments dating back to its early days.

Don’t be alarmed, visiting doctors at ESPO 2023 will be warmly welcomed by Liverpudlians!

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A Case History

The art installation on Hope Street by sculptor John King depicts a series of suitcases, hatboxes,

trunks and guitar cases, each inscribed with the name of a famous Liverpudlian. The work evokes

Liverpool’s history as a port, a site of both emigration and immigration. The great liners that

crossed the Atlantic would have ferried thousands of such cases between Liverpool and the ports

on the east side of North America and beyond. The ‘Hope Street Suitcases’ as they are known are

in the heart of the Georgian Quarter, where you can enjoy some of the best restaurants and bars

in the city. The building just behind is where the somewhat unruly pupils John Lennon, Paul

McCartney and George Harrison went to school. A few of the bars they frequented are nearby.

See if you can find their luggage when you visit!

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Canada's Liverpool Children
Liverpool boasts some of the grandest and most spectacular nineteenth century buildings in the UK, but there are many reminders of the appalling poverty, overcrowding and ill-health that was the lot of the Victorian poor. Maternal and infant mortality indices were among the worst in Europe; infectious diseases such as typhoid, cholera, dysentery and tuberculosis took their toll on children and young parents. Despite the huge wealth of many of the merchants and ship-owners, destitute orphans roamed the streets, begging for food.

A group of well-to-do philanthropists established the ‘Sheltering Home for Destitute Children’ in the late nineteenth century and appointed Louisa Birt, a Scottish woman who had worked as an activist to support children and widows in London, as superintendent.

Under Louisa Birt’s care, the ‘Sheltering Home’ housed, fed and educated orphaned children, teaching them skills such as carpentry for the boys and laundry work for the girls. They were prepared for emigration to Canada. A sister home in Quebec received over six thousand Liverpool children who were settled with Canadian families or given employment until the practice petered out at the outbreak of the first world war. Many Canadians can trace their ancestry to this time.

The building in Myrtle Street is now used by the University. It is adjacent to the old ‘Children’s Hospital’ which was the early precursor of our modern children’s hospital, opened by Her Majesty the Queen in 2014. If you get a ‘senior’ taxi driver when you arrive in Liverpool, he may remember having a tonsillectomy in the old Myrtle Street Children’s Hospital, a pioneering centre for pediatric surgery and anaesthesia.

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The 'Royal Liver' Building
Many of the city’s hotels have terraces with magnificent views across the Mersey estuary.

The ‘Royal Liver’ building here with its two clock towers and the mythical ‘Liver Birds’ on the

spires has graced the waterfront since its construction in 1911 to house offices of the Royal

Liver Assurance Company. At nearly one hundred metres tall, and one of the first buildings

to be made of reinforced concrete it was hailed as a ‘skyscraper’ in the local press at the

time.

The ‘liver birds’ have become recognizable emblems of the city. Legend has it that one is

male - Bertie - and is looking toward the city to see if the bars are open; while one is female

- Bella - and she is looking out on the river to see if she can spot any handsome sailors

coming in to port.

They were crafted in granite by the Bromsgrove Guild, a company very much to the fore in the ‘Arts and Crafts’ movement in design during the early twentieth century. The original design was by Carl Bernard Bartels, a sculptor and wood-carver from Stuttgart. Legend has it that if the birds take flight, the city of Liverpool will disappear.

Don’t fret, they are well anchored, and will be very much in evidence when delegates visit in May 2023.

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