“There is always a connection but, if the link has never been made before, nobody knows it’s there.”

James Burke made his name by finding connections and making entertaining and educational programmes for television and popular science journals over the last few decades.

As I read this month’s newsletter and the latest missive from my medical defence organisation, I too made connections.

Regulation, accreditation, measurement
The European Community continues to grow, ten new countries to become member nations shortly. The influence of the community on our personal and professional lives is increasing. For most of us, the inexorable creep of influence is largely invisible, but at some time in all our lives, we suddenly wake up to the fact that the Union dictates a large part of our civil and professional lives. It would not be unkind to say that many citizens see the European Community as an ever-expanding bureaucracy, obsessed with regulation and its soul mates accreditation and measurement.

You can read in Ian Hastie’s article that there is much going on in Europe in relation to the speciality of geriatrics, as the continent rises to the demographic challenges that face us all. Ian’s article outlines the organisations which have evolved in the last number of years, dealing with such issues as training, service delivery and organisational developments. Those interested in our speciality in Europe now have an ever-increasing dialogue and there is much to be learnt and pondered. Our members, not surprisingly, have been at the heart of this burgeoning communication and the Society is now considering its role in these endeavours. The membership should have cogent views on this as the Society beds down devolution and looks outward in planning its strategy for the next number of years.

What then of the epistle from my defence organisation? Editorial comment to members in their latest casebook reminded me that doctors are undergoing an unprecedented change in the ways of working in the Health Service and its regulation. *CHAI, NCAA, GMC, revalidation, job planning, CPD, PA negotiation and performance management, NPSA, NICE are just a few that come to mind before I start feeling quite tired.

Soothing tones were offered to remind defence organisation members that their Society was well placed to help with any of the challenges these new developments provided. The underlying message exhorts readers to think positive and maintain professional self-confidence.

Therein lies the connection between European issues and medical defence organisations.

**Eeyores amongst us will see an ever-increasing bureaucratisation of our professional lives with a questioning as to how this improves our patients’ experiences of the Health Service. More positive folk may see that increased collegiality with our European neighbours and our professional colleagues is an allowance to ensure that we can maintain our professional self-confidence and deliver on best care to our patients.

The editor therefore leaves you with the question this month “Whither British Geriatrics Society and geriatrics in Europe”?

*CHAI - www.chi.nhs.uk
NPSA - www.npsa.nhs.uk
NICE - www.nice.org.uk
NCAA - www.ncaa.nhs.uk

**Character in Winnie-the-Pooh

Kevin Kelleher