All of us at the RCPsych are devastated by the sad passing away of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and join the country in mourning the great loss of our sovereign.
As a medical royal college, we particularly feel the nation’s sad loss of one of the most significant and influential figures of the last century.
The Queen leaves a legacy of tireless, dignified public service and we remember her as an inspirational figure for healthcare workers and the NHS.
Her son, King Charles III is an ardent supporter of our work and we send our heartfelt condolences to His Majesty, The Queen Consort, their families and friends.
The sad news of The Queen’s death was delivered during yesterday evening’s College EGM, which was being run concurrently at nine venues across the UK, and I took the difficult decision to cancel proceedings, to show our respect as a medical royal college.
We are sorry that so many members travelled to the various venues only for the meeting to then be cancelled as a result of the sad news.
We would like to thank all 200 members who attended the meeting and would like to offer to cover reasonable travel costs for all those who came last night.
To apply for a refund for your travel please email membershipservices@rcpsych.ac.uk.
We will update you in due course as to our future plans on when we will debate the proposed rule changes to extend voting rights to College Affiliates and to switch to holding online general meetings.
Apart from exceptional cases, we will not be hosting any member events for the immediate future.
If you have paid for an event that is cancelled, you will automatically receive a refund of the fee paid within the next four weeks.
Due to the need to ensure our trainees can proceed into national recruitment, next week’s diet of the CASC will go ahead, as planned, so as not to disrupt anything that could affect patient care.
All of our offices will be closed today, Friday 9 September, although the College will remain operational and staff members will work from home.
In this time of mourning, we remember the Queen held a strong sense of duty and courage, as well as warmth and compassion.