Thursday, 15 March
Whilst we all watch what is happening with the
Health and Social Care Bill, I have been trying to get on with the
pragmatics of daily life.
Yesterday I met with Dr Ian Starke who chairs
the CPD subgroup at the Academy of Royal Medical Colleges. This is
a group in which Dr JS Bamrah has been very active and very
helpful. I met with Ian because within our respective roles in the
UEMS (European Union of Medical Specialists) - supported by
the Policy Lead at the Royal College of Surgeons, Simon Edwards
- we are beginning to see how we can have a very strong UK
voice in the UEMS for both matters of CPD and accreditation of CPD;
this is particularly for us, in influencing the future shape of
psychiatry in Europe, but also further to help influence the
developing curricula across thew hole of medicine.
Later, I met with Professor Vivienne Nathanson
and Professor Averil Mansfield, who both play very significant
roles in the BMA, particularly with regard to ethics, governance,
and the
BMA Board of Science work. Again, this is an area that I was
introduced to by JS Bamrah, when I advised on a project on child
and adolescent mental health some time ago. They have current
projects on: transport and health; drugs of dependence, which our
Addictions Faculty chair Dr Owen Bowden-Jones is involved in;
resilience to extreme events; and one driven by their immediate
past-President, Professor Michael Marmot, on the medical and social
care of children. This will involve an update of their publication
on growing up in Britain, which looks at inequalities in child
health, nutrition, childhood injury and abuse, physical, sensory
and cognitive disability, emotional and behavioural problems, and
fetal origins of adult disease. This clearly has great resonance
with all the work we do.
This morning of good working relationships
continued in the afternoon, as I went to the Academy of Royal
Colleges to discuss the developing curricula that the Royal College
of GPs have made. They presented their plans for further training
in the specialties, including pediatrics and mental health. We
clearly want to support them in this, as this will be one very
practical way of integrating primary and secondary care in mental
health.
Sue
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