Last year a questionnaire was sent to all known Staff and Associate specialist (SAS) doctors working in elderly care medicine. The aim of the survey was two-fold. One was to ascertain the problems SAS doctors were having in fufilling their CPD commitments.

The other was to update and expand the BGS lists of SAS doctors. We are eager to make contact with all doctors in this grade working in elderly care medicine. If you have been missed from the questionnaire, know another SAS doctor who has been missed, or just lost your form – please make contact and I will e-mail or post one to you – or just pick up the phone. If you are not on our register you will miss out on BGS SAS activities and relevant information. Please make contact by one of the means listed below. We cannot help you if we do not know who you are.

English Council
Earlier this month I attended my first English Council Meeting as SAS representative. I would like to thank the chair and members of the Committee for a warm welcome. I took the opportunity of presenting to the committee what had been achieved by the SAS group so far. This includes the drawing up of a constitution, regular subgroup meetings at the main Autumn BGS meetings, contacting all SAS members, defining problems experienced by SAS doctors undertaking their CPD, and establishing this column. I also outlined further thoughts I had on increasing the involvement of SAS doctors within the BGS. Although there has been some success in establishing contact by correspondence, there was still a very poor attendance at the Autumn BGS subgroup meeting, with few SAS doctors attending Harrogate. I am therefore proposing an additional strategy of encouraging SAS doctors to attend their regional meetings. In order to try and establish a format for regional meetings to adopt, I am endeavouring to pilot this within the SW Thames Region. If you are an SAS doctor working within this region please keep a look out for further information on the next regional meeting. The English Council offered support to SAS doctors working within elderly care and is supportive of the initiatives to try and increase SAS involvement at BGS meetings.

Next meeting of the SAS Committee
Let me remind you that membership of the SAS group is open to all members of the British Geriatrics Society but also, it is open to non-members of the BGS by invitation of the Committee. The latter is very important if we wish to be an inclusive group trying to attract all SAS doctors working within elderly care medicine. Hopefully if we can gain their involvement this will in turn lead to a wider and more representative BGS membership. The next subgroup meeting will take place at the Autumn BGS meeting in Harrogate. This year’s meeting is taking place on October 5-7th . Please put this date in your diary now and apply for study leave as soon as you receive details of the programme. This will include topics on neurology such as Parkinson’s Disease, Dementia, Dizziness and cardiology and will fulfil your external CPD requirements for the year. I hope to see you there and welcome you to the subgroup meeting. Lunch will be provided.

Sue Morgan
Chair
Staff and Associate Specialists Sub-Committee