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| Staff and Associate Specialist Educational Day new joint venture / BGS and London deanery |
| Email your comments New opportunities are here for Staff and Associate Specialist (SAS) Doctors since £12 million has been made available by the DOH for the development of staff working at these grades. The distribution of the funding is supervised by the deaneries and the Southeast the London Deanery has been particularly active with its Frontier project The Deanery will support a series of specialist educational days and the first elderly care day was held at an attractive venue in Hatton Gardens last month. The structure of the day was designed so that the morning sessions were based around clinical issues and the afternoon covered generic issues currently affecting SAS doctors. The first morning session was on epilepsy, chaired by Bridget MacDonald, Consultant Neurologist at Mayday Hospital, Croydon. Bridget has a special interest in epilepsy and recently delivered a session on the management of epilepsy at the RCP(L). Her expert contribution was highly appreciated by attendees. The first presentation was given by my colleague Jumoke Abili with an enlightening talk on post-stroke fits and the problems of managing epilepsy in general practice. Aza Abdulla then prresented an expert view on epilepsy in the elderly, from his perspective as a developer of future NICE guidance. Two further talks were delivered on the diagnosis of epilepsy followed by the emergency medicine perspective by myself and Meng Aw-Yong. The second academic session on therapeutics was chaired by Simon Conroy and delivered a fascinating insight into the unintended consequences of medication, whether by inducing falls (Simon), impairing cognition (Luke Solomons), or a range of unwanted effects in Parkinson’s Disease (Jagdish Sharma). The afternoon session was devoted to workshops targeted on the specific needs of SAS doctors with one session on mentoring and one on job planning. The latter is affecting all SAS doctors moving over to the new contract and clear guidance for individuals at this time was welcome as we noted in the feedback. The expertise provided by Anthea Mowat and Prem Ohri was much appreciated. The mentoring session was delivered by Anna Streeruwitz and Nikola Kern who run the SLAM mentoring service, with myself providing the insight on how mentoring can aid SAS doctors and details about the London Deanery’s mentoring scheme. The quality of the day was recognised by the feedback and the RCP(L) who credited it with 6 CPD points. I enjoyed designing and organising the day and wish to thank the London Deanery for inviting me to do this and for providing the administrative support. Hopefully there should be further opportunities in the future. A special thanks to all the contributors to the day Aza Abdulla, Consultant Physician & Geriatrician, Princess Royal University, Hospital Bromley (Epilepsy in the elderly) Simon Conroy, Senior Lecturer and Geriatrician Leicester University (Falls) Jagdish Sharma, Consultant Sherwood Forest Hospital Nottingham (Parkinson’s Disease) SAS contributors Jumoke Abili, Associate Specialist in Stroke, Mayday Hospital, Croydon, General Practitioner, New Addington, Croydon Meng Aw-Yong, Emergency Medicine - Hillingdon Hospital, SAS advisor London Deanery Anthea Mowat, AS Anaesthesia member of the BMA SAS Committee and Negotiating Subcommittee. Prem Ohri, SAS Doctor RCP subgroup SLAM contributors Anna Streeruwitz, Mentoring Scheme Co-ordinator, South London and Maudsley Trust. Nikola Kern, Specialist Registrar, South London and Maudsley Trust Luke Solomons, SpR Old Age Psychiatry and Neuropsychiatry Sue Morgan BGS Newsletter, July 2009 |