Letter from Glasgow
Paul Knight, Secretary of RCPSG

When the editor asked me, at the Spring meeting, if I could write an article for the Newsletter about my activities as Honorary Secretary for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow (RCPSG), I wasn’t actually sure that I knew what these were.

I was only a few months into the post and had not had the benefit of the 3 year run in period as deputy secretary that normally happens. So before giving you some insights, in an Alistair Cooke style, perhaps some background would be in order.

Founded in 1599, RCPSG is unique amongst the medical royal colleges in that it encompasses amongst its membership, physicians, surgeons and dentists. Currently we have around 8000 members, 40% of whom live in areas of the UK other than Scotland and one third are abroad. Some of its more famous Fellows from the past include Lord Lister, David Livingstone and, of course, Sir Ferguson Anderson who was a past president. Last year we managed some 4000 candidates through various examinations and had 2,300 people attend our educational events. The current President of the College is Graham Teasdale, the originator of the Glasgow Coma Scale. The College is located on St. Vincent Street, perched atop of one of Glasgow’s drumlins. The building dates from the 1820’s, and was originally a private house. The location is perhaps appropriate as the street is named after the naval battle off Cape St Vincent. This was one of Nelson’s early successes and earlier this year the College loaned the surgical instruments of Sir William Beatty, the surgeon and College fellow who attended Horatio Nelson after the battle of Trafalgar, to the bicentennial Trafalgar exhibition at Greenwich.

The job of an Honorary Secretary
So what does the Secretary do? Well, essentially they provide clinical input into the management of the College’s affairs, from meeting minutes to staff salaries. For me this has meant a very steep learning curve. For instance, what is basic surgical training? Why do we not examine more often in the MRCS in India? Why is the Senate of Surgery such a disorganised group? And why does it include Ireland? Not to mention a myriad other dental and surgical topics. Equally dizzying, has been a crash course in the management of the MRCP (UK), the possible future format and role of knowledge testing in various medical specialities and the combined interests of the Federation of the Royal Colleges of Physicians in the UK. Conversations with Dame Carol Black are never dull!

These are just routine business meetings where topics such as MMC, revalidation and PMETB are discussed with varying degrees of specialty spin. All of the physician and surgical colleges are trying to work out where their place is in this brave new world, whilst improving services to an increasingly sceptical membership who wish to see far better value for money. To that end, I found myself pitched into an ongoing strategic review within College on my first day. Over the last seven months my main task has been to help create business units within College and subsequently reorganise its staff. As I write this we have appointed a new Chief Executive and are two thirds the way through appointing heads of our business units. Hopefully, this will give us a more robust outlook over the next few years.

As I have alluded to, RCPSG is not just a Scottish College and part of my role is to manage the replies to the 50 or so formal consultation exercises that we get involved in each year. These can come from quite disparate groups including the Scottish Parliament, the House of Lords, the Department of Health in England and the Medicines Commission. I had a good grounding for this work when I chaired the BGS Policy Committee.

Although the Medical Royal Colleges are primarily about setting and maintaining standards they also have a role in supporting the profession. In the near future I can see that both the Federation and Senate will need to think far more constructively about their relationships with the specialty organisations. We should be working together in an equal partnership, not pushing apart.

So, there is never a dull moment. Just a small number of the challenges I can see on the horizon include, the management of post-graduate medical education, entry criteria for specialist medical training, the role of College diplomas, the divergence of the organisation of health care north and south of Hadrian’s wall and the emergence of workplace assessments. I am sure that will keep me going for a few months!

Paul Knight
Hon Secretary
RCPSG