Dr Hanlie Du Plessis

Dr Hanlie du Plessis graduated from the University of Pretoria Medical School in 2000. Since then, she has worked and trained in various UK Hospitals before first becoming a Consultant in Anaesthetics in 2010 at Forth Valley Royal Hospital and subsequently Glasgow Royal Infarmry, Scotland. Since 2015, Dr du Plessis has taken on the role of Consultant in Anaesthetics at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. In particular, she focuses on anaesthesia for spinal surgeries (elective and trauma), emergency surgery, and elective urology. She has been nominated for the Oxford University Hospital Staff excellence award twice.

Dr du Plessis currently anaesthetise for spinal surgeries on a regular basis at consultant level. She works with patients with a combination of unstable cervical fractures as well as potentially difficult airways regularly anaesthetise for emergency surgical patients (often high-risk cases) from many subspecialties including general, vascular, gynaecology, and trauma surgery. She has a regular commitment to the elective urology and gynaecology service which is a tertiary regional centre.

Dr du Plessis’ research includes ‘Long-term sequelae following Post Dural Puncture Headache - a case series’ (2015), ‘Prospective randomised controlled trial of combination anti-emetic prophylaxis in patients undergoing breast surgery’ (2004), and ‘Observational Study of PtCO2 and SpO2 following sub-arachnoid block with 0.5% Bupivacaine and Diamorphine for Caesarean Section’ (2007).

Dr du Plessis is invested in teaching. She has taught as part of multiple Postgraduate courses, including currently teaching on Anaesthesia for Spine surgery, (FRCA teaching programme). She has also taught on various undergraduate and nursing staff courses, including taking the role of Honorary Clinical Lecturer at the University of Glasgow from 2008 – 2015. She has also attended many courses on teaching and training. She has a regular teaching commitment providing teaching and training for medical students from the University of Oxford on their anaesthetic rotation.

Dr du Plessis has published multiple articles, abstracts, and has completed poster presentations at international meetings. These have covered topics on work and wellbeing, as well as topics surrounding anaesthesia.

7

Currently, Dr du Plessis is the lead for an on-call group Morbidity and Mortality review. She is also on the management committee for the Nuffield Department of Anaesthetic Consultants (NDAC) and manages the voluntary consultants’ fund as treasurer. At a national level, she was a committee member of the Scottish Airway group (2010-2012) and Scottish Acute Pain Society (2008-2015).

7