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Continuing the successful workshop format begun in Bournemouth, the BGS 2009 Autumn meeting features workshops on six topical themes.

Prof Margot Gosney’s project with a difference goes under the deceptively bland title “Nutrition”. As geriatricians, we should be more than able to recognise the problems that our patients experience with regard to nutrition, but are we really aware of the lack of evidence about oral nutritional supplements (ONS) and dysphagia products? The economic cost of preventable malnutrition in the NHS is said to be £2-4 billion per year, yet we persist in prescribing ONS, when published data has shown that patients dislike them and waste up to 72% of what is provided.

On wards and in the community, speech and language therapists advise on the consistency of liquids to prevent aspiration. Surely, none of us has failed to see “purée diet and double cream consistency of liquids” in a patient’s notes but what do the various consistencies really mean?

There has been much progress in both of these areas by researchers in Reading. The workshop at Harrogate on 7 October will present data on how our taste thresholds change with age, how older people on hospital wards differ from healthy volunteers, and what happens when one manipulates different aspects of ONS. Questions that will be answered will include “what happens to the various aspects of taste of ONS at different temperatures?”; “is it just the sweetness that patients dislike?”; and “how can we decide what patients with cognitive impairment like?”

As part of the work on ONS, Margot’s team has evaluated the rheological characteristics of dysphagia products in an attempt to standardise some of the advice that is given by speech and language therapists. You will hear what happens to the various consistencies of dysphagia products when they have been mixed with saliva. Do not miss this year’s Autumn meeting. Do not miss the workshop! It combines the expertise of a number of disciplines, provides up to date, as yet unpublished data and will help everyone who attends, to address everyday issues pertinent to ONS and dysphagia products.

Other workshops running on Wednesday cover the ever topical issue of intermediate care, fractured neck of femur (rapid improvement programme), measuring and modelling systems for delivery of care (good to see Peter Millard in action again), the Specialist Certificate Examination and the National Hip Fracture Database.

State of the Art
Prof Wisia Wedzicha from UCL Medical School, whose major interest in the causes, machanism and impact of COPD exacerbations and who runs an active research group on the topic, will speak at the state of art lecture on the Thursday. For those with an interest in the psychological landscape of our patients, we have the state of art lecture on sexuality in later life (Claudin Domoney) and the Trevor Howell Guest Lecture on mental disorders in older people (Ingmar Skoog from Sweden).

Of hearts, falls and minds
An excellent range of sponsored symposia include the following titles:

• “Cardiologists, geriatricians and chronic stable angina: do new options alter the current balance?
• Celebrating 40 years of Levodopa
• Co-morbidities, medicines and dementia
• Sleep disorders in chronic neurological disease

Say goodbye to Harrogate!
Harrogate has many virtues. As a venue it is has a relatively compact and elegant layout, with plenty of facilities for the wide range of activities which now characterise our meetings. It is reasonably priced, helping us keep registration fees down.

Harrogate, the town, is shopper- and pedestrian friendly, with a wide range of high street and specialty shops. Betty’s has extended its unique brand of hospitality to many a geriatrician over the past 10 years with, no doubt, many a “fat rascal” being washed down with cups of Earl Grey by delegates of BGS Autumn meetings.

For those of us less interested in bending plastic, there are plenty of places to visit and sights to enjoy. Harrogate is known for its gardens. Its museums and galleries are as fine as any you will find in the UK and it has the great advantage of being within a very short distance of the beautiful Yorkshire dales.

Apart from boasting some of the most beautiful landscape in the UK, the Yorkshire Dales has museums, such as the Dales Countryside Museum and the famous Mother Shipton’s Cave near Knaresborough. Mother Shipton was England’s most famous prophetess and lived 500 years ago during the reigns of King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I. The Cave, where she was born, is near to the famous, unique, geological feature, The Petrifying Well, with waters so strong in lime, they turn anything thrown into the well into stone. It is claimed that The Petrifying Well is England’s oldest visitor attraction, having first opened its gates in 1630.

Sadly, the public transport links to Harrogate serve to undermine the venue’s considerable merits and this has affected attendances over the years, so this will be our last meeting and your last opportunity to enjoy the excellent facilities that this Spa town and its beautiful surroundings have to offer. We hope to see many of you there to enjoy a superb programme and the opportunity of catching up with old friends.

R J Atkins
Sub-editor

BGS Newsletter, September 2009
Issue 23 ISSN 1748-634000 23