The Operating Department Practitioner It is surprising to know
that in the centuries prior to the twentieth, the position of
surgeon and surgical assistant was in nearly all cases
undertaken by men. The reason behind this was simply because the
surgeon needed to be physically strong. The surgeon also
required several assistants during the procedure, (prior to
anaesthesia) who were powerful enough to hold down and restrain
the patient; these assistants were called Handlers. 6 There is
recorded in one of the London Hospital journals, that a bell was
rung to assemble the Handlers to hold down the patient prior to
surgery. On hearing this bell a cold shiver would run down the
spines of some of the patients on the ward, they knowing that
some unfortunate individual, who was about to be operated upon,
was shortly going to suffer excruciating pain; they themselves
having gone through the self-same tortuous experience. 7 Edward
Morris wrote in his book The London Hospital: “The introduction
of anaesthetics is undoubt