British Geriatrics Society

We all know that medicine is one of the more stressful career options but most of us probably get a good deal of satisfaction from practising medicine otherwise we would not continue doing so. A degree of uncertainty about career progression is normal, but the majority of us who are currently working as consultants (particularly those who have been SpRs since the 1993 Calman report) will have been able to see the path ahead from the moment we decided to pursue a career in geriatric medicine.

This newsletter gives readers a very good picture of activities in “BGS central”, plus some of the innovations that individual members are developing in services and training.

I have explained before that we identified two specific areas for our attention in this period – care homes and acute hospital care. Our timing has proved right in that both issues are hitting the headlines, generally bad news. Our job is to offer professional solutions to inform the public discourse and, hopefully, influence the policy responses.

On 7 March, the BGS released an analysis of survey data collected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC)  which was given to us under a data sharing agreement.

Our analysis suggested that older people in care homes in England had variable access to NHS health services and commissioners regarded the provision of such services as a low priority.

On 9 February, the BGS hosted a commissioning workshop in London, bringing together 15 invited delegates including BGS members and external commissioning experts.