From Anxiety to Achievement: How One GP Rediscovered His Confidence in Minor Surgery
From Anxiety to Achievement: How One GP Rediscovered His Confidence in Minor Surgery
When Dr Helal Ali first arrived at Cornerstone’s Minor Surgery course in Leicester, he parked outside the venue and sat in his car for a few minutes longer than planned.
“I just stared at the steering wheel thinking, What am I doing here?” he admits with a grin. “It had been years since I’d picked up a scalpel. I was half-convinced I’d forgotten everything.”
Helal had been working as a busy GP partner in Leicester, juggling patient lists, management meetings, and the endless treadmill of NHS admin. Somewhere in that routine, the procedural side of medicine - the small, satisfying art of excising, suturing, and repairing - had quietly faded away.
“I used to love minor surgery during training,” he says. “But after qualifying, there was never the time, the space, or the setup to keep it going. Gradually, you lose confidence without even realising it. Every time a patient needed a cyst or lipoma removed, I’d refer them instead. It just became habit.”
Then one day a colleague mentioned Cornerstone’s Minor Surgery Course. “He told me, ‘You’ll enjoy it - they make it feel human again.’ That stuck with me. I didn’t want a lecture; I wanted to get my hands moving.”
From the moment Helal walked into the training room, the atmosphere was different from what he expected. There were no egos, no awkward silences - just clinicians genuinely excited to learn again. Surgical kits gleamed on the benches. A faint scent of antiseptic filled the air. Faculty circulated, smiling, already chatting to delegates.
“The first thing the lead tutor said was, ‘This isn’t about proving what you know. It’s about rebuilding confidence safely.’ That line settled every ounce of anxiety I’d brought with me.”
By mid-morning, Helal was gloving up for his first excision on a realistic model, guided patiently by one of the faculty. “He stood beside me, talking me through each step - incision, dissection, closure. Nothing rushed. When my sutures came together neatly for the first time in years, it was like muscle memory waking up. I can’t describe that feeling.”
Lunch was filled with laughter and light-hearted reflection - stories of crooked sutures, triumphs over trembling hands, and rediscovered skills. “Everyone in that room had a similar story,” Helal recalls. “People who’d stopped doing procedures for years but wanted to reconnect with why they became doctors in the first place.”
By the end of the day, the nervous GP who’d hesitated in the car park was gone. In his place was a surgeon again - not defined by hospital walls, but by competence and confidence.
“I went back to practice on Monday and ordered a new set of instruments,” he says, still smiling. “Within weeks we’d started running a minor surgery list again. Patients loved it. One said, ‘It’s so good to have this done here rather than waiting months.’ That meant the world.”
What surprised Helal most wasn’t just the technical knowledge - it was the culture. “Cornerstone’s teaching style is so encouraging. It’s not just about technique; it’s about mindset. They create a space where you can relearn without embarrassment, where questions are welcome, and where every small win is celebrated.”
When asked what he’d say to others hesitating to take that step, he pauses. “Honestly? Just go. You’ll walk in anxious and walk out taller. It’s not just about learning how to suture or remove a cyst. It’s about remembering who you are as a clinician.”
At Cornerstone, stories like Dr Helal aren’t rare - they’re the heartbeat of what the organisation stands for: creating safe, empowering spaces where doctors can rediscover confidence, connection, and pride in their craft.
Author - Prof Abbas Tejani, MBChB, FRCGP, DOccMed, PGCCE, LFHom, CoBCA
Honorary Associate Professor of Primary Care