April 2015 – From Christmas to Easter in one short jump – or so it seems! After the celebrations of last month with the granting of our ‘Royal’ title it is important to emphasise that ‘laurel resting’ is not something the RCEM can ever be accused of.
Feb 2016 – 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.
Jan 2016 – 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.
Dec 2015 – 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 patron Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal – it was quite an evening.
Nov 2015 – 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.
Oct 2015. 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.
Sept 2015 – 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 meet various manuscript deadlines.
August 2015 – 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!
July 2015 – July, and the prospect, for most, of some well deserved R&R, accompanied by the new intake of foundation doctors, core and higher trainees.
June 2015 – 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’