PRESIDENT’S FOREWORD NEWS & UPDATES
Teamwork and respect is a recipe for success
S
ir Eardley Lancelot Holland was born in 1880 and educated in Edinburgh at Merchiston Castle School, graduating with a first-class honours MBBS from London in 1905. He was gold medallist, MD, FRCS and FRCP. He was one of the Foundation Fellows of this College at its formation in 1929 and the fifth President of this College from 1943 to 1946. He was regarded as one of the most pre-eminent obstetricians and gynaecologists of his time.
Prior to his death in 1967 he entered into a trust deed with the College which established the Eardley Holland Gold Medal Trust (see page 29), under which terms the College awards a gold medal every five years to a Fellow or Member of the College for original work of outstanding merit in O&G, for outstanding work as a practitioner or teacher or for the authorship of a literary work or works upon such sciences. At the September 2015 Fellows’ Admission
Ceremony I had the honour of awarding the 2015 Eardley Holland Gold Medal to Professor Kypros Nicolaides. He stands among the giants of our specialty since Chasser Moir was awarded the first such medal in 1960. In addition, 117 new Fellows were admitted to the College from 17 different countries, alongside five Honorary Fellows from diverse specialties yet all closely allied to obstetrics and gynaecology. None of us would have achieved such positions without the help and support of colleagues working in high-calibre, motivated teams. The leadership qualities of individuals awarded Fellowships today will all have been different. However, each and every one of them will have demonstrated vision and drive, care and compassion, integrity, the ability to value others equally and, perhaps above all, respect for others. Many of the issues we observe in the health
service today surround lack of teamwork, failure to respect each other within one’s
O&G November 2015
own discipline and in allied specialties and a perception of being undervalued. For me this has become ever more apparent with the impasse over the junior doctor contract negotiations. The threat of extending the ‘plain time’ working week from 60 to 90 hours to include Saturdays, lack of pay protection and progression for out of programme experience, which may include parental leave (among other concerns), hardly supports the notion of valuing our trainees and future consultants. Add in the freeze of consultant discretionary awards recently announced for Northern Ireland and already the case in Scotland, and one can see how this plays havoc with morale. At present we have excellent specialty recruitment. O&G is a great specialty to work in and is attractive to medical students and foundation doctors. However, that level of recruitment and also retention may suffer if a satisfactory compromise to the contract is not reached. Maybe issues such as these are always in the frame or lingering in the background, but I do feel that for the first time since the 1970s the level of disquiet may lead to strike action. I have supported our trainees in a joint Royal Colleges’ Presidents letter to the Secretary of State and again at a meeting with Jeremy Hunt which I attended as Vice Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. We stressed the need to return to negotiation but above all to be seen to value trainees across the board and their contribution to high quality health care seven days a week. Failure to do so will compromise patient care. Stating that the contract will be imposed in August 2016 doesn’t seem a good initial negotiating stance to me. I wrote to all Fellows and Members in
June and July about the recommendations of the Representation Working Party and the outstanding debate about who should vote for the Officers but above all the President of our College. This has traditionally been the elected members of Council. Since receipt of
Dr David Richmond, President
None of us would have achieved such positions without the help and support of colleagues working in high-calibre, motivated teams.
the report in January, Council has debated the issue at three separate meetings. I am visiting as many regions and countries over the next three months to canvas opinion before placing a resolution(s) before a General Meeting in February 2016. I have visited India and Canada, spoken with International Representatives from UAE, South Africa, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, as well as the English regions of London, the South West and Birmingham and West Midlands over the last four weeks, and opinion is varied! There seems a general enthusiasm for a broader electorate than that solely of Council; however, this is yet to be decided. I shall write further to summarise the views before Christmas.
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