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PRESIDENT'S BRIEFING
August 2008
1. DARRAN WOODLAND
The tragic death of Darran Woodland last week has clearly deeply affected staff in the BAUS office, whom I have to commend for the way in which they have responded to the second death in a small office in two years. As you already know from the e-mail sent to the membership I have sent condolences to the family on behalf of members. In particular, I am very grateful to Anne Bishop, our CEO, and the other members of the BAUS office for their exemplary professionalism in very difficult circumstances.
2. ANNUAL MEETING
It is just over a month since the Annual Meeting in Manchester ended – we have had good feedback from attendees and exhibitors, which, on the whole, has been very encouraging and supportive. I think it was a good meeting on all fronts. Attendance was perceived to be low but actually the numbers were up on last year, with Wednesday being the most popular. We have already held a provisional programme meeting for 2009 and several changes will be made in response to the comments we have received. The first is to consolidate the inclusion of Section meetings within the Annual Meeting, and the second is to shorten the meeting by a day, by dropping Friday. This will however be balanced by increased activity on the Monday, starting earlier. I am also well aware of the increasing call for a new venue, and we have committed ourselves to looking at the new conference centre in Liverpool for 2011. Venues have to be booked several years in advance and BAUS block booked Glasgow and Manchester up to 2010 some years ago. At the time these venues alone offered the type of exhibition space we required and, as you are all aware, the support and participation of the exhibiting companies is an essential part of the BAUS annual meeting. As new venues come on stream we will look at them and as always we welcome your comments and views.
3. RECERTIFICATION
BAUS will become increasingly important for British urologists in the future as the process of revalidation and recertification is introduced. Although moving, possibly, to a more locally based assessment (including cumulative appraisals), recertification will be predicated on outcomes, CPD and standards and some kind of process that supports the conclusion that an individual’s knowledge is up to date.
BAUS is responsible for setting the standards expected of Urologists, putting in place a data and audit system and collating and quality assuring CPD. Adrian Joyce is the Association’s lead on this.
The CMO’s Report Medical Revalidation – Principles and Next Steps (July 2008) is available at http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_086430
4. NEW BAUS
As you will be aware following votes at our recent AGMs, the structure of BAUS is changing. We have introduced a new Regional Council (see below) which will set the professional and strategic direction for ‘new BAUS’ – which will become a Charitable Company limited by guarantee on 1 January 2009. The Charitable Company has a trading arm, which, at the present, we do not have a definable use for and it will lie fallow until the need arises. Under the rules of ‘new BAUS’, the President, Vice President, Honorary Secretary, Honorary Secretary Elect, Honorary Treasurer and Honorary Treasurer Elect are the trustees of the charity [regionally elected council members are not trustees] and will be referred to as the Trustees in future. We also intend to recruit a lay trustee for the charity, hopefully with particular skills and experience in finance or management. I am also keen to develop a patient grouping within BAUS and will be working with the sections to develop this resource.
5. REGIONAL REPRESENTATION
There are still unresolved issues over the roles of the newly elected Regional Members of Council, their work as Regional Specialty Representatives and their role in supporting surgeons in the workplace as the Royal College of Surgeons of England Regional Professional Advisors. It was agreed in Council that all three roles [in England and Wales] could be undertaken by one person. There are different issues in Scotland and Ireland. I have written to all the Regional Representatives concerning their roles and responsibilities and emphasizing this has to be considered as an evolutionary process, with flexibility at its heart.
With the election of the Regional Representatives onto Council we are working to put together the infrastructure that will help them deliver the service to their colleagues and I am very keen that all members feel they can influence BAUS’ direction.
6. TRAINING
There are many issues to be finalised, such as Urological training [the options of run through, mixed or entry at ST3] and local or national selection. It is essential we have a clear view and I, personally, support the Chair of the SAC, Ian Eardley, in going for a mixed economy [ie early selection at ST1 and the option for entry at ST3 to give maximum flexibility] and National selection for entry into Urology, rather than Deanery based.
7. CARE CLOSER TO HOME
It is clear that many departments are having conversations with PCTS regarding Urology in the community. Last week the Care Closer to Home commissioning toolkit was published by the DH. It is titled “Providing care for patients with urological conditions: guidance and resources for commissioners”. It is available on the web: http://www.primarycarecontracting.nhs.uk/news?article_request=492 and encapsulates the principles we put forward - namely:
No specialist practitioner should work in isolation:
• The implication of this is that a specialist [however defined] working in primary care must be part of, or affiliated to, the local Urology team for governance purposes [appraisal, CPD, recertification and revalidation].
• The leader of the Urology team must be a certificated Urologist [CCT or CESR holder] and on the specialist register of the GMC.
• GPwSI and extended role [nurse] practitioners [AHP] etc providing expert Urological care in the primary sector must be affiliated to the Urological team and have achieved proven urological competencies in their areas of practice.
• The Urological service in primary care must be Improving Outcomes Guidance (IOG) compliant (Improving Outcomes in Urological Cancers -The Manual (NICE 2002)).
8. SPECIALIST SECTIONS
BAUS had begun discussions on a reorganization of the sections and suggestions had been put forward for a Section of Functional Urology. I have found no great enthusiasm for this amongst the sections, and given the pressures on the BAUS office and the work in other areas that is pressing, I have decided, with the support of the trustees, to defer reorganization at this time and retain the current sections, namely Oncology, Female and Reconstructive Urology, Endourology, Andrology and Academic Urology. This will be reviewed next year.
We have again discussed the possibility of establishing a Section of General Urology, devoted to areas such as male LUTS and those conditions most commonly encountered in general Urological practice. I have agreed to float this in this newsletter to see what enthusiasm there is and to see if anyone might be interested in taking the idea forward. I would be very pleased to hear from you.
9. EDUCATION
Some of our members go to great lengths to improve training and education and Brian Ellis’ educational DVD of Ultrasound for Urologists is a great example. An enormous amount of work went into it and it is absolutely excellent – please consider getting a copy for your department – you can contact Brian on brian@graylands.co.uk
10. HISTORY OF UROLOGY
I have been approached by Peter Thompson, President elect of the Section of Urology at the RSM, to see if we are interested in starting group interested in the History of Urology – with the intention of a combined meeting during his tenure at the RSM, 2009-2010. I am strongly in favour of this link but need someone to take it forward. If anyone would be interested in developing this, please let me know. We are looking at having an unmoderated poster session covering the History of Urology at BAUS next year.
11. MEETINGS AND COURSES
Details of the following meetings and courses are available on the BAUS website. Please follow the links below to download programmes and registration forms:
• 2-3 October 2008 - Section of Endourology Dry Lab in Laparoscopic Urology, WIMATT Centre, Cardiff. Download Programme
• 5-6 November 2008 - Section of Endourology Wet Lab in Laparoscopic Urology, Tyco Lab, Elancourt near Paris. Download Programme
• 13-14 November 2008 – Section of Oncology Annual Meeting, Glasgow. Closing date for submission of abstracts is 12 September 2008. Download Programme and download Abstracts Submission.
BAUS is also supporting the Healthcare Events meeting Measuring and Monitoring Clinical Outcomes in Urology: ‘Gaining Consensus’ (Wednesday 22 October 2008, 76 Portland Place, London) – further details will follow by separate email shortly.
12. IN CLOSING
Clearly, there are many issues that are of concern to urologists and this e-mail cannot cover them all. I am delighted to try and answer any questions members may have. If there is anything that I or Adrian Joyce [Vice President] can do personally, please contact us through president@baus.org.uk - we will do our very best to help.
Derek Fawcett
President 2008-2010
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