Those readers who regularly following my musings in this column will be surprised to learn that out of apparent  randomness occasional linkages and connections may appear. Thus it is, that as I report a very successful CPD conference in Cardiff these same readers will react with some surprise to the news that I met the […]

Another busy month for the College and more encouraging signs of progress in delivering the #CEM10 agenda. We have had meetings with the CQC promoting our ideas for inspection standards in Emergency departments, Monitor to argue the case for urgent tariff reform and HEE to finalise arrangements for the new EM ACCS posts and the […]

Easter is upon us, and as I write this newsletter from the archipelago of small hills surrounded by water that was once the county of Somerset I can only hope that it has stopped raining. My regular train journeys to London now begin with an impressive ride across the Levels with flood waters stretching as […]

And so to March, and with it the hope that Winter is behind us. Of course there is actually very little difference in patient numbers and pressures in the Winter when compared to any other season. It is however often the case of a ‘straw breaking the camel’s back’ and indicates how fragile many systems […]

Life in the parish has been busy of late and activity has led to significant progress. As you will all know we published our ’10 priorities’ document last Autumn and it has had a major impact. Top 3 issues currently being progressed are :- As I write we are about to meet with the Secretary […]

And so into 2014! I trust the New Year’s resolutions are intact and any excesses of the festive season have been offset by the increased metabolic rate associated with good intentions. At the time of writing of course we have only just taken down the Halloween decorations and returned the Presidential Residence to its native […]

And so we find ourselves at the close of 2013. By now the Christmas season will be in full swing and no doubt many of you will be looking forward to spending an evening in the good company of colleagues whilst savouring the variable ‘feasts’ of a local carvery. At the time of writing this, […]

And so the winter has started and with it the inevitable increase in hospital occupancy rates, ED exit block, ambulance handover delays and the daily struggle to find sufficient staff to maintain even minimum levels of care. As I am writing this in mid-September you will see I am blessed with the gift of prophecy […]

‘Time and tide waits for no man’ and so although my first newsletter as President has yet to be published I am tasked with putting pen to paper again, to ensure early receipt at the printers to accompany the Conference supplement. As I write, I am sat a short distance from my boat (dinghy) on […]

As Monty Python noted in the ‘Spanish Inquisition’ sketch, ‘No one expects the unexpected’! And so I find myself President of the College! In the regular slot afforded to the president in this supplement, now as author rather than reader, it is with some apprehension that I follow my predecessors in their role as ‘leader […]