At Medical Skills Courses, we deliver CPD-accredited training for healthcare professionals across the UK. Our expert trainers provide hands-on teaching in minor surgery, joint injections, and suturing — helping clinicians build practical skills they can use with confidence.
of Educational Excellence
Mission
Our mission is to support innovation, informed perspectives, and collaborative learning across the healthcare community.
Fun
We take pride in our fun and engaging teaching style. While we can’t promise fresh jokes each day, we try to update them at least once a year.
Passion
Our tutors are experts in their field, bringing passion and expertise that create a dynamic, informative, and engaging learning environment.
Expertise
Our content is continuously refreshed by a diverse team of subject matter experts, ensuring you learn the most up-to-date evidence, guidance, and best practices.
“We empower healthcare professionals to develop new skills, to extend their scope of practice, and to love the job they do.”
Dr Mike Smith
CCO & Founder
Get to know the passionate professionals behind our success, dedicated to providing top-notch education and support to every one of our learners.
MBBS MRCS (Eng) MRCGP
Mike is the founder of Medical Skills Courses. Having made the switch from plastic surgery to general practice, he found minor surgery teaching for GPs dry, dated and hard to come by, so he wrote the Minor Surgery Course with a plastic surgery colleague more than 17 years ago and has led its teaching ever since. The courses have now trained over 20,000 clinicians.
Alongside teaching he has held senior NHS leadership roles across primary, secondary and community care, currently as an executive medical director and, from October 2026, as a chief medical officer. He is also medical director of a private health and wellness group.
He still practises as a GP and continues to perform minor surgery and joint injections, so what he teaches is what he does. He tries to be an optimist despite the pressures otherwise, and spends most of his free time with his family, his friends and at rugby, not always in that order.
BSc MBChB MSc PhD FRCS (Tr&Orth), PGCert (TLHE) FHEA
Mike is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Professor of Trauma & Orthopaedics at the University of Bristol, Head of School for Clinical Academic Training HEE South West & Bristol Medical School. He is a strong advocate of helping patients find ways to best address their symptoms rather than focusing on surgery as the only way to solve problems. He has published over 200 research papers and held research grants of over £5 million as lead, and £10 million as co-applicant including research into the use of joint injections
MSc MCSP FHEA
Tara is an Associate Professor in Physiotherapy at Brunel University of London, providing leadership in advanced musculoskeletal medicine, including injection therapy (landmark and ultrasound guided), musculoskeletal ultrasound and advanced musculoskeletal practice. Alongside her academic role, Tara works as an Extended Scope Physiotherapist with close to 30 years’ experience in the NHS across primary, secondary and tertiary musculoskeletal services.
MSc MCSP
Nic is an Advanced Physiotherapy Practitioner. He has spent 20 years working alongside Orthopaedic Surgeons, Rheumatologists and Pain Consultants at the Royal Free NHS Trust. During his last post in London he was the Clinical Lead for Camden MSK, a hugely successful single point of access service covering North London. Nic now leads the First Contact Practitioner service for Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, bringing his extensive knowledge and experience into Primary Care. He does not follow myths, trends or historical practice with musculoskeletal medicine, but instead he seeks swift, evidence based and equitable treatment for all his patients.
MBChB MRCS MRCGP
Duncan has extensive surgical experience, having moved to general practice from neurosurgery. He has interests in sports and exercise medicine, regularly delivering joint injections, and is a Minor Surgery GPwSI, performing carpal tunnel decompressions and other procedures. He is a senior trainer for Medical Skills Courses and NB Medical Group, and Clinical Lead for an extended Minor Surgery service. He also likes the occasional triathlon.
MB ChB MRCS MRCGP
David has been a GP for over 16 years. Before entering general practice he undertook Basic Surgical Training in Yorkshire, passing the MRCS (Eng) examination before completing further training in Orthopaedics. He is a GP Partner in Slaithwaite and Holmfirth, where he continues to run regular minor surgery lists alongside his general practice work, and his surgical experience includes community carpal tunnel surgery. David has taught on the Medical Skills Courses Minor Surgery Course for over 10 years. His teaching combines formal surgical training with many years of performing minor surgery in general practice, and he particularly enjoys helping GPs develop the practical skills, confidence and clinical judgement needed to provide safe and effective minor surgery in their own practice.
BSc MCSP
Emma is an Advanced Physiotherapy Practitioner and Upper Limb Clinical Specialist. She treats complex shoulder conditions within the Leeds Musculoskeletal Service and Leeds Teaching Hospitals, alongside the Upper Limb Orthopaedic Consultants. She is a CASE accredited ultrasonographer and uses these skills for diagnostics and ultrasound guided injection therapy. She has been qualified in MSK injection therapy since 2008, and is also an Independent Prescriber.
