I sit writing these words in the ‘cold glow’ of early December a few weeks after the Autumn Statement by the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, trying to find some crumbs of comfort. It is always good news that I might possibly get to work a little quicker in the future, (he committed to investing in transport […]

The first day of a new calendar year seems to ‘hard wire’ into many of us a need to reflect and also look forward – hopefully with optimism, a healthy dose of sceptism and almost certainly with plenty of stoicism when it comes to working in the Emergency Dept! Factoid of the Month – the […]

December- a month for ideas, planning and action as we head for the festive season! At the College, life has been no different over the past few weeks and months as a range of activities have finally come to fruition and with great success. In late October, we were delighted to complete on the purchase […]

And so it begins! A new presidency, with its heady mix of hard work, sweat, excitement and a little trepidation. Similar perhaps to a busy late shift in the Emergency Department. That late shift also in many senses is a microcosm of the strengths, opportunities and frustrations of our specialty at present. It reflects the […]

Excitement, honour, utter privilege, trepidation, commitment, passion, team, pride, service! These are a just a few of the words that have tumbled around in my head over the past few months since you elected me to be your next RCEM President. In the coming months I will add to all those words ( in a […]

I write my final blog article before handing over to our new president – Taj Hassan on Tuesday at our AGM. I am delighted that over 600 people are registered for the conference. With the weather set fair I am certain it will be a great combination of science, expertise and camaraderie. The past three years […]

August 2016 and with only 6 weeks left of my tenure as president there must be many counting the days! Having written forty of these monthly missives I am conscious of the burden I have placed upon my readers; an idiosyncratic mixture of college policy, opinions on national EM challenges interspersed with personal experiences, anecdotes […]

Recently the college published a key report entitled ‘Why does winter in A&E get worse every year’. The report is on our website but appreciating that time is a scarce commodity I have summarized some of the key messages here. A similar summary was recently published in ‘The House’ magazine  – a publication circulated to […]

Is the NHS offering patients a failed channel management strategy?   This month we have a guest blog from Gordon Miles, chief executive officer of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), who has noticed that some of the urgent care plans proposed by NHS agencies have been tried elsewhere… I frequently spend time in […]