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WORKFORCE, TRAINING & LEADERSHIP
Thousands of members and hundreds of years member.
institution, having been founded back in 1518 by Royal Charter from Henry VIII, with its members now working across 30 medical specialities in every general hospital in the UK and others based around the world.
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For the first time in its nearly 500 years, its membership has topped 30,000 (see box out), with 5,000 new members in just the last four years.
Head of membership engagement Laura Fleming credits two main factors: its increased
The 30,000th member The RCP’s 30,000th member is not just a name on a spreadsheet, but another active doctor
working to improve healthcare. Dr Clare Farrington is a consultant in palliative medicine, based at Barnsley Hospice and Barnsley district hospital in south Yorkshire.
To commemorate the landmark for the RCP, Dr Farrington was awarded a stay at William Harvey House, the RCP’s Regent’s Park hotel for members and Fellows; an RCP gift set; and free entry into ‘Medicine 2015’, the RCP’s new flagship conference taking place in Harrogate in March 2015.
She said she joined the RCP to gain access to the online CPD (continuing professional development) diary, and to get easy access to the RCP’s high-quality clinical documents and reports, such as the landmark Future Hospital paper.
She said she felt the RCP’s role is to “provide leadership, benchmarks and support in an ever- changing NHS environment”.
RCP president Jane Dacre said: “I am delighted to welcome Dr Clare Farrington as our 30,000th member. This is a significant milestone in the history of the RCP. The strength of the RCP lies in its members and Fellows and their involvement with the RCP, and their strong commitment to the highest standards of patient care, a position which continues to help us advise both the public and the government.”
30 | national health executive Sep/Oct 14
he Royal College of Physicians (RCP) meets every definition of an august
focus on doctors at the start of their careers, and its increasing relevance in today’s NHS with landmark reports like ‘Hospitals on the Edge?’ and its Future Hospital Commission.
In 2011, the RCP introduced two new membership categories for medical students and foundation doctors, and now has over 1,000 members in these categories.
Fleming told us: “We have been increasing our presence at medical schools, careers fairs and through all channels to reach out to medical students, junior doctors, core medical trainees (CMTs) and specialty trainees as well. As the
numbers have increased in those categories, we’ve started to also see the numbers increase in our ‘Associate’ membership grades (pre- MRCP UK), which includes CMTs.”
The number of Associate members has risen from 500 in September 2011 to 1,100 as at July 2014 (an increase of 120% in less than three years).
“We’re driving engagement, building relationships, and increasing their familiarity with the RCP, and then as the years have gone on, we are starting to see that translating into membership upgrades,” Fleming said.
In the two most recent membership engagement surveys, in 2014 and 2012, educational and career support was named as the top reason for members at an earlier stage of their career deciding to get involved with the RCP.
Fleming said: “In response to that, we have introduced a new ‘medical careers support programme’. That is in its early stages, but we’re taking that interest and building on it to try to give more bespoke support – doctors at the start of their careers have very different needs to our Fellows and collegiate members, who are at a later stage in their careers.
“We’ve now got a career support mentoring scheme in its pilot stages this year, which should be quite an exciting development. We’ve got 32 career development mentoring partnerships in place.”
The RCP has recruited a full-time member of staff and an RCP officer to lead on the new
Laura Fleming, head of membership engagement at the Royal College of Physicians, explains why so many people are choosing to join, after the organisation recently welcomed its 30,000th
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