The British Geriatrics Society, British Society for Research into Ageing and the British Society of Gerontology have re-launched the British Council of Ageing.

The three learned Societies will use the Council as a platform to lobby for increased support for ageing research. The impetus for reforming this group came about in the wake of the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee enquiry into the Scientific Aspects of Ageing. To quote Lord Sutherland in the House of Lords follow-up report, “ The Government seems to look on an ageing population as a burden, not an opportunity.” The formal launch of the Council will take place later this year at the House of Lords (thanks to Sally Greengross).

Colour Prejudice
I regularly scan the Department of Health web-page for news about developments in the NHS. One report caught my eye the other day – the approach at Pennine Acute Hospitals whereby patients are given a different coloured card depending on how long they are going to stay in hospital. Rather than using Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze as for Clinical Excellence Awards this Trust is using Red, Amber and Green. Of course longer stay patients get the red card – an example of indirect age discrimination perhaps, but at least they are not receiving a “black spot”!

Nurses Consultants
We had a useful session with the Nurse Consultant SIG at Gateshead. They are organising a Special Interest Group session at the Brighton Conference and we hope that they will be able to have a special poster session there also. We expect that this step will lead to greater involvement of this important group in the work of the Society. Members of the Society are reminded that membership is now open to all health care practitioners.

At home and abroad
In the last 3 months I have been to three overseas conferences relevant to our specialty. The first in Abu Dhabi – Challenges in Primary Care was organised by Dr Abdulrazak Abyad who also edits the Middle Eastern Journal of Age and Ageing. There was a prominent geriatric medicine stream and Jean-Pierre Michel from Geneva also spoke. It was great to be able to relax on the beach in January! In March I spoke in Rotterdam at a very well attended meeting on anaesthesia and peri-operative care and it was a pleasure to meet our member Trischa van der Cammen again after many years. Most recently I went to Turkey to an international conference organised by the Turkish Geriatrics Society. Delegates attended from over 30 countries including a large contingent from Malaysia. Turkey has been awarded observer status at the EUGMS and colleagues there are looking forward to full membership when Turkey joins the EU. Finally, could I add my thanks to those of others for the team in Gateshead who organised a fantastic scientific programme with first-rate speakers. A hard act for others to follow!

Overseas Members
Alex Mair and I convened another meeting for overseas delegates at Gateshead. Once again only members from Australia and New Zealand attended. Are we using the right nomenclature? One positive idea emerged which might save the Society some money. Rather than receive the Newsletter by post they thought that an email to alert them to its publication on the web would suffice.

Congratulations
Finally, congratulations to Jean-Pierre Michel on his election to the Fellowship of the London College. Worthy recognition to a geriatrician who has contributed so much.

Peter Crome