Following the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) in March 2024, the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) vice president for Wales has today written to all fellows and members, updating them on the progress of the post-EGM short life working group.
Dr Hilary Williams has been invited by RCP president Dr Sarah Clarke to chair the independent working group that has been set up to develop a detailed action plan in response to the EGM ballot results. All five EGM motions were passed, covering scope of practice, accountability, evaluation, the impact on training opportunities, and the pace and scale of roll-out of the role of PAs. The group will report to RCP Council on 21 May.
The group will meet for the first time on Thursday morning this week (25 April). The terms of reference and membership of the group will be published after the first meeting.
Dr Hilary Williams, a consultant medical oncologist and RCP vice president for Wales, said:
‘I am determined to ensure that the work of this group is informed by a wide and diverse range of voices, with members from across different specialties and career grades. It is especially important to me that early career doctors – the next generation of physicians – are represented in this work, and already we have invited foundation programme doctors, internal medicine and higher specialty trainees, specialist, associate specialist and specialty (SAS) doctors and international medical graduates to be involved in the group.
‘It is vital that we listen to the lived experience of colleagues and act on their concerns. I am grateful to all those colleagues who have offered their time and energy to be part of this work so far; many of them are already juggling their clinical responsibilities with teaching, research or leadership roles, not to mention their lives outside medicine. This is a hugely important piece of work, and we must make it count.’
If you have feedback for the group, you can contact them at PostEGM@rcp.ac.uk.