Dr Christopher W Wells, a consultant gastroenterologist, has been awarded the prestigious William Cullen Prize for his world class patient care and teaching programmes for trainee doctors at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust. He was presented the prize at the UK Medical Conference held in Stockton on 15 May, organised by The College.

Left to right: Dr Deepak Dwarakanath, Dr Christopher Wells, Professor Derek Bell.

The award, by The College, recognises Dr Wells for being generous and flexible with his own time to ensure that trainees receive high quality education, training and assessments – therefore benefitting patients in East Durham, Hartlepool and Stockton on Tees. Dr Wells has developed training posts in the challenging field of eating disorders.

Dr Wells’ skills were a key reason for ensuring that the Northern Regional Endoscopy Training Unit is now situated at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust. The unit covers key training on endoscopy, therapeutics and colonoscopy. Training courses have run at the unit for over 5 years, with excellent feedback from trainees and faculty members.

Dr Wells’ passion for teaching endoscopy skills has extended to Sierra Leone, where he and other colleagues have trained several Endoscopists and have developed distance learning and mentorship.

The award was presented by Professor Derek Bell and Dr Deepak Dwarakanath.

Professor Bell said:

The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh has Fellows and Members all over the world, but this prize particularly recognises local or regional training, clinical and research excellence. Through this award, we wanted to celebrate Dr Wells’ valuable contribution to educating the next generation of doctors, to medical research, and to patient treatment. We want people to know what a tremendous asset he is to North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, to patients in the area, and to medical teaching both locally and nationally.

Dr Wells said:

It was an unexpected honour to receive such a prestigious prize. Delivering teaching and mentoring colleagues is a highlight of my work. I am so lucky to work for a forward thinking trust that has allowed me to develop and deliver national endoscopy training courses. Our junior doctors and nurses are also a credit to our organisation and all are keen to learn and better themselves. It is great to work in such an environment that has teaching and learning at its heart.

Paul Gillen

Contact: Paul Gillen p.gillen@rcpe.ac.uk 0131 247 3658