Well, we are properly into 2016 and there is much to report. I would like to start the year with positive news and there has indeed been good progress. Our STEP campaign is just 14 months old but is now ubiquitously referred to and bearing fruit. 1. Safe and sustainable staffing. As a result of […]

Welcome to 2016, I trust all of you have had some time with family and friends over the Christmas and New Year Holidays. As I write I have just returned from a ‘highlight event’ – presenting diplomas to the successful MRCEM and FRCEM candidates. This is always a particular pleasure as it combines ceremony with […]

We had a ball! Hot off the press as I write, the Inaugural Dinner of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine held last night was undoubtedly the highlight of the year. Two hundred and fifty guests, VIPs, alumni, giants of the specialty, front line clinicians from all countries of the U.K. and Ireland with our […]

Although you are reading this in November, as I write I have just returned from the RCEM Annual Scientific Conference in Manchester. It was quite an event! Our largest ever conference with more than 750 delegates, it showcased world-class speakers and the value, benefit and outcomes of emergency medicine research. So popular were many of […]

My last newsletter spoke of the pressing issue of how terms and conditions are central to maintaining and increasing the current EM workforce. At the time of writing (August 30th) I am preparing for my next meeting with the Secretary of State and shortly after the Prime Minister’s Special Advisor. In order that these meetings […]

Before I begin writing each newsletter I read the previous one to minimise repetition and hopefully ensure I cover new ground, thereby maintaining the readers attention. I was struck on this occasion by how prescient were the remarks of the August newsletter. As ever the newsletter was scripted almost two months ahead of publication to […]

August, and for some the prospect of a well deserved holiday; whilst for others the sense of déjà vu, as we explain the bones of the carpus, ‘reveal’ the secret of good medicine is in taking the history and pointing out that the discovery of CRP is not on a par with the discovery of penicillin! I […]

July – and the prospect, for most, of some well deserved R&R, accompanied by the new intake of foundation doctors, core and higher trainees. Importantly this year will see not only 100% recruitment into year one  but an expansion of posts by almost 100, thus creating over 300 ACCS posts. Even more importantly there has […]

Writing in the middle of a General Election campaign reminds me of the words of Nils Bohr ‘Prediction is very difficult – especially if it’s about the future’ The campaign to date has focussed heavily on health and in particular NHS funding. The annual deficit forecast by NHS England’s Chief Executive, Simon Stevens is at […]

As we move into May I suspect that many readers will have grown tired of campaigns. As we await the result of the forthcoming General Election in the UK, it seems prudent and indeed even refreshing to set aside issues of policy, disagreements and matters of contention. Instead I thought I might reflect on some […]