A current hand fellow I know of trained in general surgery residency and now has been hired as a hand surgeon by a group of hand/upper extremity surgeons who take no general call.
Hand surgery is a small community, especially in orthopaedics. Although it makes sense that orthopaedic surgeons would "hire their own", keep in mind that if a general surgery resident trains at a well-known/respected ortho-accredited fellowship, it may go a long way to bolstering that group's confidence in that individual.
I would couch my answer in everyone's favorite way: each situation/individual is different - judge each one on a case-by-case basis, yada yada...
If asked to grossly and unfairly generalize, I would say that it's more difficult for a general-trained person to get an ortho hand fellowship spot.
