Commentary magazine

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Interview: Dr Hilary Williams

Meet your new RCP clinical vice president Dr Hilary Williams as she discusses leadership, her aspirations for the role and supporting doctors in training.

Interview

Meet the Resident Doctor Committee Co-chairs

Dr Nicola Maddox, RDC member and Commentary guest editor, speaks to them about their work as RDC co-chairs.

Features

How to run a patient-centred improvement project

Commentary guest editor, Dr Cleodie Swire, spoke to Excellence in Patient Care Award winners to learn more about their projects and how to run innovative projects that drive change.

Reimagining the hospital as a learning ecosystem: reflections across two generations

The hospital has always been more than a place of diagnosis and treatment; it is also a crucible of learning and professional identity formation. From the first lessons in history-taking and examination to the challenges of breaking bad news and leading resuscitation, the hospital environment shapes not only what we know but who we become as doctors.

Alternative training pathways: a radical shift in mindset

When Dr Simon Patten, deputy director of medical education at the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, reflects on the future of medical training, one theme stands out: flexibility. For him, alternative pathways into medicine, like portfolio pathway submission, are not a fringe experiment, but a necessary response to the shifting priorities of today’s doctors and the workforce challenges facing the NHS.

October introduction: a message from our resident doctors

Welcome to the October 2025 edition of RCP Commentary. It has been a fantastic experience for us and we are very grateful to have had this opportunity to contribute as guest editors.

Commentary news round up: October 2025

Since the last edition of Commentary in August, the RCP has been working to represent our members and support the work of physicians. Read our summary of the news from the last 2 months and the upcoming opportunities.

RCP Resident Doctor Committee – spotlight on the issues

The Resident Doctor Committee (RDC) is a vital group within the RCP; it aims to meet the interests and needs of doctors at the important first stages of their career. It offers resident doctors an exciting opportunity to feed into RCP policy development – and to shape education and policy at a national level.

Get involved with your RCP region

Healthcare policy and training often revolve around ‘national’ questions – especially within the NHS. It can be a struggle to ensure that local variations in health and care are understood and addressed.

Next Gen Physicians: the Next Generation Oversight Group

Let us briefly draw a stark vignette of the scenario that a resident doctor starting to work for the NHS today may face.

Make health your lasting legacy: supporting the RCP with a gift in your Will

The RCP recently took part in Remember a Charity Week. This national scheme encourages everyone to think about how they’d like to be remembered – and to consider leaving a gift to charity in their Will, alongside family and friends.

International

Hear about the work of RCP from across the globe.

Training in Iraq: interview with a resident doctor

The RCP Iraq Network was founded in November 2020 to improve education, health service provision and research for Iraqi physicians – from undergraduate students to newly graduated doctors, all the way to consultants.  

10/08/25

Selva alta; teaching tropical medicine in the ‘high forest’

Learn more about tropical medicine and imported fevers for the medical take in a novel course, run by Dr Austin Hunt, delivered from the temperate Atlantic rainforests of Dartmoor and Cornwall.

10/08/25

Roots to Routes: why South Asian Heritage Month matters to the NHS

I grew up hearing my father’s stories – his dramatic escape from communal violence that erupted around the 1947 partition of India, his struggles and losses. Stories of his arrival in Britain with just £3.50 in his pocket and his time on the hospital wards in north Wales, where he quietly built a life of NHS service. His journey wasn’t unique. It’s one of thousands like it that have helped shape the NHS today, writes Dr Binita Kane, one of the co-founders of South Asian Heritage Month.