Goodbye Kate, hello Subodh!

Dr Kate Lovett, who ended her five year term as Dean last week, has spoken about leading education and training during the pandemic, her proudest achievements in the role, and her excitement to be able to continue working for the College in her new post.

Dr Lovett, who demitted office at the AGM on 23 June, said:

“Being RCPsych Dean has been an extraordinary privilege.

“I have been determined throughout my tenure to support all psychiatrists to achieve their true professional potential.

“A desire to ensure that the College is accessible and an equally welcoming place for all members has motivated me to influence change.

“Of my achievements I am most proud of our #ChoosePsychiatry campaign. As a result we have achieved 100% fill rate to core training and influenced significant expansion in training numbers.

“The successful delivery of digitising all parts of our MRCPsych exam at pace during the pandemic has been the biggest challenge and achieved through sheer hard work and collaboration.

“I am also excited to have overseen the rewrite of all our curricula and am confident that we have a vibrant and modern curriculum which will support excellence in delivery patient care for the future.

“I can honestly say that I have relished the role and enjoyed working with College staff and members immensely. I am very pleased to be handing the baton over to Professor Subodh Dave. Education in the College will be in very safe hands.

“My links with the College will be continuing and I am delighted to be taking up the role of Presidential Lead for recruitment. The challenge to improve recruitment is far from over and I have been tasked with leading strategic and operational delivery of all our #ChoosePsychiatry activities over the next two years.

“Thank you to everyone for their confidence, support and having given me a mandate five years ago. Being your Dean has been an absolute joy.”

Professor Subodh Dave, said he was ‘delighted’ to start his term as Dean, and added:

“Taking over the baton from Kate is a huge privilege and I am delighted that she will continue to focus on #ChoosePsychiatry in her new role as the Presidential Lead on recruitment.”

Speaking of his plans in the role he continued:

“My overarching vision is to ensure that our training, assessment structures and CPD lead to improvements in patient care and clinical outcomes.

“To that effect, my key priorities are:

         1. To address health inequalities i.e. disadvantage conferred by poverty, disability including mental illness, early-life trauma, race and gender-based discrimination that lead to poorer mental and physical health outcomes.

         2. To improve well-being, because happy doctors equal happy patients.

“How will we do this? Through world-class training in neurosciences and social sciences; through lived-experience and community-based training; by improving Digital/data literacy; by making learning fun, intellectually stimulating and emotionally engaging; and by focusing on both recruitment and retention of psychiatrists.”

Back to our June 2021 eNewsletter.