Enhancing care,
Advancing health science

If music be the food of love, play on.

Dr Patrick Byrne Consultant Physician and General Practitioner

Patrick is dually accredited in Internal Medicine and General Practice. An Irish graduate, he spent 10 years in the rural fenlands of Cambridgeshire, and then 13 years in Fort William, rural Scotland. He now runs the Ventilator Unit at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability in (not-so-rural) London.

His MSc dissertation (Medical Education) was on effective reflective practice. He is Lead Convenor for RSCEd’s Training the Trainers Faculty, and an Honorary Lecturer at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College Faculty of Medicine, London.

He is a fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of both Edinburgh & London, the Royal College of General Practitioners, and this year was awarded FRSCEd (ad hominem) by the President & Council for over a decade of training surgical educators.

Out-with medicine, he plays piano (although not as well as he wished), and loves tennis (albeit a better spectator than player), and loves his 10 nieces and nephews.

Everything we taught you about inguinal hernias was wrong, and why it matters

Terry Irwin Retired Colorectal/General Surgeon/Author of Medical Presentations: a prescription for success. Retired consultant surgeon, presentation skills trainer and author.

Long Term Condition Management

Dr Eimear Darcy is a GP partner at Grange Family Practice Omagh, having graduated from Queens University Belfast in 2012. Passionate about Primary Care Type Two Diabetes Cardiovascular-Renal-Metabolic Review (CVRM), she sits on the Northern Ireland Diabetes Formulary Implementation Group and has recently completed a PG Cert in Diabetes with Distinction from the University of Leicester. She is co-author of the nationally published Medscape Primary Care Type Two Diabetes Cardiovascular Renal Metabolic Review Checklist and the Medscape Chronic Kidney Disease Primary Care hack, which she feels are aspirational care leadership documents giving a road map to Primary Care colleagues for real world implementation. She was the GP lead for a 2022 Northern Ireland Health Care Awards winning project focused on CVRM thought process implementation in Primary Care.

The Irish health service at a crossroads and moving to sustainability

Dr Philip Crowley is the National Director for Strategy and Research in the Health Services Executive.

In his previous national health service roles over the last 10 years he was national lead for quality and patient safety and national lead for quality improvement.

He leads on strategic planning, research, population health and wellbeing, global health, human rights, climate strategy and performance reporting to the HSE Board.

He is a doctor who works part-time as a General Practitioner. He worked for five years in Nicaragua, trained in public health in Newcastle Upon Tyne and worked for 6 years as Deputy Chief Medical Officer in the Department of Health.

UMS Presidential Address

A pragmatic optimists prescription for healthcare for the next 20 years

Providing healthcare leadership through challenges

Cathryn Edwards is a Consultant Gastroenterologist at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, having trained in post graduate Gastroenterology at Oxford and in undergraduate medicine at Newcastle upon Tyne. Prior to a career in Medicine, she read Modern History at The Queen’s College. Her D.Phil. studies were supported by an MRC fellowship.

She has been Registrar at the Royal College of Physicians since May 2021 where among other duties, she is the senior officer responsible for the RCP Membership and Fellowship, governance, and clinical and professional affairs. The Faculty of Physician Associates, and the invited review service also fall under her oversight. To date she has revised conduct and administrative procedures for membership, led the reform and implementation of the new fellowship process, and is leading the current constitutional review of the organisation. She is firmly committed to the RCP as leading professional membership charity organisation focussing on supporting the medical profession in their delivery of care.

Her main clinical interest is IBD, and related national roles have included the UK National IBD Standards Group, the IBD Registry and the National IBD Audit Steering Group. She is Associate Editor for BMJ_Open Gastroenterology. Other. She was President of the British Society of Gastroenterology until 2020 and led their COVID response for which she was awarded the OBE.

Cathryn was Visiting Lecturer at Groote Schuur Hospital, University of Cape Town October 2015 - 2016. She has a coaching and mentorship practice which she used to good effect in the gastroenterology department, where she is currently Visiting Professor. In February 2024 she completes a formal international coaching certification and during her tenure as registrar she has regularly supported the RCP Emerging Women Leaders programme and other events focussed on promoting women in fellowship. Outside of the RCP, her non-clinical role is as a Trustee at Rowcroft Hospice where she was Chair of the Board until 2019.

Insights, contradictions & tensions in healthcare innovation

Insights, contradictions & tensions in healthcare innovation; a design perspective on systemic change.

Lorna Ross is an internationally recognised leader in the area of design-led innovation. Her career spans 30 years of professional experience leading strategic design activity across a range of industry sectors from technology and healthcare to government services. While Design Director at The Mayo Clinic, she pioneered the first service design team embedded in an academic medical institution, working to transform the patient experience.

Nationally, Lorna sits on the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment’s Expert Group on Future Skills Needs and The Dept. Public Expenditure & Reform Design In Government; Design Our Public Services. She acted as design advisor to the Department of Education, Research, Innovation & Science during the Creating Our Future citizen engagement in research strategy campaign.

In 2018, while at Accenture’s Global Innovation Centre, The Dock, she founded the Human Insights Lab, in partnership with Trinity College School of Humanities, exploring the ethical and philosophical implications of disruptive emerging technologies. As part of her role on the RTE/ Science Foundation Ireland documentary, Big Life Fix, Lorna became a nationally recognized spokesperson for Irish Design in innovation and an advocate for design acting at a human scale on social issues.

Lorna is currently Chief Innovation Officer at Vhi Health & Wellbeing and adjunct faculty on the Digital Health Leadership Program at the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland.

Leading change: learning from projects that spread

This session will examine how three projects have been taken from an initial idea, through local development and on to spread across Scotland. Each project has a different focus – medicines safety, video consulting (NHS Near Me) and environmentally sustainable prescribing – but all three take a multidisciplinary approach with quality improvement at their core. The session will draw out some of the key lessons learned that can be applied to leading change in any health care setting.

Clare is Director of Community Engagement at NHS Healthcare Improvement Scotland. The Community Engagement directorate’s purpose is to enable inclusive engagement of people in shaping health and care services through evidence, improvement and assurance.

Clare has extensive experience in quality improvement, having completed the Scottish Quality & Safety Fellowship and the US Intermountain Advanced Training Program. Her improvement work includes creating the Near Me video consulting service in NHS Highland using a co-design approach, and then scaling it up nationally as the Scottish Government’s National Near Me Lead during the Covid-19 pandemic.

She started her career as a pharmacist 25 years ago and was previously the Director for Scotland at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. Her medicines safety work includes creating the Medicine Sick Day Rules cards.

She was awarded an MBE for services to health care in 2018, and an honorary doctorate from the University of the Highlands and Islands in 2022 for her contribution to enhancing access to health services.

Liberating Postgraduate Medical Education: Principles and Practice

Dr Camille Harron is Postgraduate Medical Dean and Director of Education at NIMDTA. Previously she was Medical Director for NIMDTA Single Lead Employer. She has held a number of senior education roles including Associate Dean for Careers and Professional Support, Deputy Head of School of Medicine, Training Programme Director for Core Medicine and College Tutor. She has been a Consultant Nephrologist in NHSCT for over 20 years. She graduated from Oxford University in 1990 having completed her preclinical studies in Cambridge with a degree in Physiology. She undertook her Speciality Training in Renal Medicine and General (Internal) Medicine in Belfast and Glasgow and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London). She has completed a PhD investigating the role of vasoactive factors in diabetic nephropathy, a Masters in Clinical Education with a dissertation looking at the use of technology in medical education and a Masters in Career Development and Coaching (Warwick University). Her educational interests include career coaching, wellbeing and mentorship and promotion of the VALUED strategy for doctors in postgraduate training.

Diabetes care: Technology now and the future

Emma Wilmot is an Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham, Consultant Diabetologist in Derby and founder of the Diabetes Technology Network UK. She has over 100 publications and has been Principal or Chief Investigator on a range of diabetes studies. She was previously awarded the University of Leicester medal for excellent PhD performance “Type 2 diabetes in younger adults”. As founder of the award-winning Association of British Clinical Diabetologists (ABCD) Diabetes Technology Network UK, she led the organisation to support improvements in access to diabetes technology in the UK, developing and delivering policies and educational resources for both health care professionals and people living with diabetes. Emma is an ABCD committee member, deputy lead for the ABCD audit programme and ABCD academic sub-committee member. She is also a DAFNE structured education executive board member and expert advisor for the National Diabetes Audit programme. Emma is regularly invited to deliver national and international lectures.

Liver disease in pregnancy

Dr Johnny Cash is a consultant Hepatologist in the NI regional liver unit, RVH,. His main clinical interests are liver transplantation, genetic haemochromatosis and the complications of cirrhosis, particularly portal hypertension. He was appointed to BHSCT in 2010 and has previously held a number of leadership roles, including clinical lead of the regional liver unit and assistant medical director of BHSCT. He also has an interest in healthcare modernisation and was awarded the IHM medical leader of the year (NI) award in 2013 for his work in founding and developing ambulatory services in the Belfast trust. He is currently the chief clinical information officer (CCIO) the medical lead for the encompass project for Belfast trust. He also previously sat on the board of the Irish society of Gastroenterology 2011-2017.

Sir William Whitla and the Apocalypse

Michael is a Clinical Reader in the Centre for Medical Education at Queen’s University, Belfast and a Consultant in Acute Medicine at the Royal Victoria Hospital. He studied medicine at the University of Dundee before returning to Belfast where he trained in General Internal Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics. Having developed an interest in the delivery of acute care, he was appointed as Consultant in Acute Medicine in the Belfast City Hospital – the first such post in Northern Ireland. He has been involved in postgraduate medical training including as Training Programme Director for Acute Medicine and Head of School of Medicine at NIMDTA. In 2016, he moved to his current post as a clinical academic where his responsibilities include internal medicine, clinical ethics and clinical reasoning. He was editor of the Ulster Medical Journal from 2020-2023.

Delivering person-centred care: a diabetologist's perspective?

Seán Dinneen is a Graduate of UCC Medical School. He completed Internal Medicine Residency and Endocrinology sub-specialty training at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine in Rochester, MN. After a period of postgraduate training and work experience in the USA (Mayo Clinic), Canada (McMaster University) and the UK (Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge) he returned to Galway as an Academic Endocrinologist in 2004. He served as Head of the School of Medicine from 2013 to 2016 and National Lead for the Diabetes Clinical Programme of the HSE from 2016 to 2022. He has served as an Editor for Diabetic Medicine, Vice-Chair of Postgraduate Education for EASD and Clinical Lead for Schwartz Rounds in Galway University Hospitals. In March 2021 he became Programme Lead of the PPI Ignite Network aiming to increase the capacity for high quality Public and Patient Involvement in health and social care research in Ireland.

His clinical/research interests include developing and evaluating programmes of self-management education and support for people living with diabetes, developing optimal models of community-based diabetes care and understanding the diabetic foot.

Pandora's Lego - assembling the components of tomorrow's healthcare

Dr Shane McKee is a Consultant in Genetic and Genomic Medicine based at Belfast City Hospital. He is Clinical Director for the Regional Molecular Diagnostics Service and Deputy Chief Clincial Information Officer for Belfast Trust. He is heavily involved with the implementation of the encompass Electronic Health Record system (Epic). As NI Principal Investigator for the UK 100,000 Genomes and DECIPHERing Developmental Disorders (DDD) Projects he has been using genome sequencing to deliver important diagnoses to many of the most clinically challenging Rare Disease cases in NI. He also enjoys cycling, particularly in the Middle East, raising funds for Nazareth Hospital in Northern Israel.

Embracing Planetary Health: a generational opportunity for modern healthcare

Dr Sean Owens is a full-time GP working in Blackrock, Co. Louth. Sean has a special interest in nutrition, lifestyle medicine and planetary health. Hailing from County Down, Sean initially studied pharmacy at Queens University Belfast before studying graduate entry medicine in UCD Dublin, and has graduated from the North East GP Training Scheme thereafter. Sean has additional diplomas in Lifestyle Medicine and Women’s Health. Sean is currently the chair of the Irish Climate and Health Alliance, a member of Irish Doctors for the Environment and he chairs the Sustainability Working Group within the ICGP. In April 2023 the ICGP published their “Glas” toolkit on sustainable primary care, demonstrating how primary care can lead on sustainable. Sean firmly believes healthcare professionals hold a key role in advocating and leading the way to a healthier and more sustainable future.

Presidential Address - Portrait of a Clinician

Athinyaa is a diabetes doctor working in Derry. She undertook her under-graduation in Chennai, India and pursued her postgraduate training in Northern Ireland and completed her speciality training in 2012. Athinyaa now works as a Consultant Physician in Endocrine & Diabetes at Altnagelvin Hospitals in Derry/Londonderry @WesternHSCTrust and is a Fellow of the Scottish Quality and Safety fellowship Cohort 9 @SQSFellowship and a qualified quality improvement team coach @FCACoaching. She is trained in clinical and improvement coaching. She is Director of Medical Education at Western Trust.

Athinyaa’s interests are Medical education, quality improvement, type 1 diabetes, diabetes in pregnancy and diabetes care in the young person. Her interests lie in exploring new interfaces and technology that can enhance the experience for the user in both health care and education.

Mottos that best describe Athinyaa’s approach to life:

Festina lente (make haste slowly);

Be the change you wish to see in the world.

You can find her on twitter @athinyaa

Drawing on my experience of Parkinson’s Disease

Dr Jonny Acheson Emergency Medicine Consultant, Parkinson’s Advocate, Artist

In partnership with the Belfast City Hospital Medical Staff Committee

Drawing on my experience of Parkinson’s Disease

As a keen artist Jonny will take you on an artistic journey around his diagnosis, how he continues to adapt both inside and outside of work and the challenges that he and his family have faced over the past seven years. He will talk about his advocacy work, the support he gets from other health care professionals living with the condition and why people with Parkinson’s should receive their Time Critical Medication when they need it. He may even have time to explain why it’s time for a Northern Ireland Parkinson’s Football Team to travel to Copenhagen in Sept 2023 to play in the annual European Parkinson’s Football Competition.

Jonny is a QUB graduate who moved to the East Midlands in 2004 to complete his Emergency Medicine Speciality Training. He has been an Emergency Medicine Consultant in Leicester since 2009. His Postgraduate Emergency Medicine education work from 2012-2015 was recognised nationally with an HSJ award in 2016 and he was appointed as an Honorary Associate Professor in Medical Education the same year. Having been the Clinical Lead for Assessment at the University of Leicester Medical School he is now working with the GMC implementing the CPSA. Diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2016 he strives to live as well as he can everyday with a focus on exercise, diet and reducing stress. He took up art as a hobby again a few years ago and uses this to educate about Parkinson’s but also to draw people’s pets amongst other things. In 2022 he was appointed as the Director of Engagement and Communication at the Parkinsons’ Excellence Network. He is married to Heather and they have two children Ben and Anna.

Dr Davog McCaffrey and Dr Niamh Woods

“Remembering your why… - putting the spark back into your medical career”.

With waiting lists at their worst ever, a system ready to collapse with pressures exacerbated by the Covid-19 Pandemic and the lack of any form of stable government, it’s so easy to get sucked into the negative and often depressing rhetoric of #MedTwitter. ‘Making healthcare better’, is no easy task and we evidently require system reorganisation and leadership from our elected representatives to do so. Despite all of this, we as the ‘people of healthcare’ may also need to take a step back to remember our ‘why’ and consider the reasons why we embarked on a healthcare career in the first instance…

Forgetting the clichés, we genuinely have the enormous privilege to journey with our patients from the beginning to the end of life, through all the ups and downs. We have access to state of the art technology and world class training and resources. We get to work with amazing colleagues from a vast array of backgrounds and many different walks of life.

Without ignoring the challenges, there are so many opportunities to embrace (or re-embrace) a career in healthcare. We are better when we work together, and if we remember our ‘why’, we might just be able to put the spark back in our careers and inject some of the energy, passion and zeal required to set out on the journey of making healthcare better!

“Who’s still willing to fight for a national health service?”

In 1948 Aneurin Bevin stated that “the NHS will last as long as there are folk left to fight for it.” Since 1948 the pressures on national healthcare systems have grown exponentially. With pressures on healthcare staff being greater than ever before, who’s still willing to fight for a national health service? Dr Niamh Woods will draw on insights gained through various national leadership roles working alongside junior doctors and medical students as well as sharing her own insights as a doctor commencing her career in 2020.

Davog McCaffrey is an FY1 Doctor currently working in the South West Acute Hospital, Enniskillen. He is completing the Specialised (formerly Academic) Foundation Programme and will return to the Centre for Medical Education at Queen’s University, Belfast during his FY2 Year.

Davog was the President of the award-winning QUB General Practice Society from 2020-22, and the inaugural Chairperson of the All-Island Association for Undergraduate Societies in General Practice Ireland (AAUSGP) during the 2021-22 Academic Year. His interests lie in medical education and leadership and the delivery of person-centred care.

Dr Niamh Woods undertook both her undergraduate Medical Degree and Public Health Masters at Queens University Belfast. During this time, she held the title of President of the Northern Ireland Healthcare Leadership forum for five years. The leadership forum organised conferences bringing together up to 600 attendees including students, staff and system leaders to explore collectively how to improve aspects of healthcare systems. Throughout medical school, Dr Woods did a management fellowship in London spending time shadowing senior medical leaders within NHS Arms-Length bodies where she saw first hand the importance of understanding a healthcare workforce when trying to pave a better future. Through her Masters degree, she undertook a piece of research formally supported by the Rebuild Management Board in Northern Ireland releasing a survey to all NI doctors that explored their perceived ability to progress innovation ideas within their workplace. After qualifying in 2020, she moved to Glasgow to undertake Foundation Training. In her second year of Foundation Training she was appointed as national leadership fellow within the UK Foundation Programme . Dr Woods is working currently in the Emergency Department in Glasgow Royal Infirmary and is working on launching a UK-wide innovation platform for junior doctors. She looks forward to being an honorary lecturer at Harvard University School of Public Health in August 2023.

The UMS: From an Old Museum to a New Institute

Professor Emeritus Alun Evans QUB

The UMS: From an Old Museum to a New Institute

After holding its meeting in the General (Royal) Hospital since its inception in 1862, the Ulster Medical Society (UMS) changed its venue in 1885. This was with the aim of, “bringing the members into closer fellowship one with the other.” The venue chosen was the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society’s Museum in College Square North, where a “Social Cup of Tea.” was recommended. The UMS met there “amidst stuffed birds, jars of snakes, and Egyptian mummies,” for the bulk of the next 17 years. At the UMS’s Annual Dinner in 1901, William Whitla announced his intention of providing a permanent home for the UMS. Things moved apace and the Viceroy, The Earl of Dudley, launched the new Medical Institute in November 1902. Later that day, The Countess of Dudley unveiled the Dr William Smyth Memorial Window, which now graces the entrance to the Whitla Medical Building, at the University campus on the Lisburn Road. The launch involved considerable political undercurrents. Also, the paths subsequently pursued by three of the launch’s main participants took some strange twists.

Alun Evans qualified in Medicine with Honours at The Queen’s University of Belfast in 1968. He subsequently trained as a physician, before developing an interest in Epidemiology. In the late 1970s he was involved in clinical trials and community studies of coronary heart disease. In 1982 he became the Principal Investigator of the WHO MONICA (MONItoring in CArdiovascular disease) Project in Belfast. He was elected to the Steering Committee of MONICA in 1990 and chaired it from 1994-7. He coordinated the Project’s completion in 2004. He has been in receipt of numerous grants, has led two major EU funded projects, and has been a partner in 16 others. He has also taken part in an extensive research programme with France, through the ECTIM and PRIME Studies. He subsequently led a pooling project of cardiovascular cohorts in 12 European countries, which is still running. He has several hundred medical publications to his name, and, in 2004, was the second author of the 3 rd Edition of the WHO Monograph: Cardiovascular Survey Methods. He was awarded a Personal Chair in Epidemiology in 1990. Since 2009 he has been ‘Professor Emeritus’ and a Senior Research Professor in the Centre for Public Health of the Belfast Medical School. His current focus is on Medical History, with an emphasis on Social and Public Health, and has published more than 40 papers in this area. Until recently he was Secretary to the Medical History Section of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland. He is a member of Academia Europaea, and since 2020 has been President of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society.

The healthcare system of the future: how do we get better at getting better

Dr Helen Bevan Strategic Adviser, NHS Horizons The healthcare system of the future: how do we get better at getting better?

Practice-embedded research will ensure evidence-informed primary care deliv

This talk will highlight how practice embedded research can support clinical care delivery and improve patient health outcomes and experience of care. It will focus particularly on the generation of an evidence base for the cost-effective care of chronic conditions and multimorbidity.

Susan Smith is Professor of General Practice at Trinity College Dublin and works as a General Practitioner at Inchicore Family Doctors in Dublin 8. Her research interests include improving outcomes for patients with multimorbidity and related clinical issues such as medicines management, including access to medicines. She has been the PI or Co-PI on eight RCTs of interventions for chronic disease management in Irish primary care settings. She is an editor and author with the Cochrane Collaboration and is an advocate for Evidence Based Medicine and Shared Decision Making. She also has an interest in health equity and coordinates the Deep End Ireland Group, which advocates for appropriate primary care services for socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. During the COVID-19 pandemic she has been a member of the HIQA COVID19 Expert Advisory Group, which provides evidence based guidance to inform public policy and guidance.

Delivering better outcomes for diabetes in pregnancy

Professor David McCance Consultant Physician and Honorary Professor of Endocrinology

In conversation with 4 Chief Medical Officers: Reflections on a Pandemic

Professor Sir Michael McBride, Professor Sir Chris Whitty, Professor Sir Gregor Smith, Sir Frank Atherton Chief Medical Officers

Event will start at 7.30pm, registration and refreshments available from 7pm.

Reflections on health reform in Ireland (Sláintecare)

Dr Sara Burke Associate Professor of Health Policy, TCD

Using decades of recent Irish health system and policy analysis, this presentation will draw on the work of Prof Sara Burke and colleagues in Trinity College Dublin’s Centre for Health Policy and Management to understand the politics of health policy making and what influences major health system change in the Republic of Ireland.

Sara Burke is Associate Professor in Health Policy and Management, in the School of Medicine in Trinity College Dublin. Prof Burke is the Director of the Centre for Health Policy and Management and of the SPHeRE PhD programme. Her research interests are health policy, health systems, health inequalities and access to healthcare as well as the politics of health reform. She is currently PI on a HRB-funded project, researching the potential of the Irish COVID-19 health systems responses to inform the effective implementation of Sláintecare. Prof Burke is the module lead on Health Systems and Policy on the SPHeRE PhD programme, the Trinity MSc in Health Services Management and the fellow’s programme of the Global Brain Health Institute. Read more

Reporting on health with fairness and impartiality

Ms Marie-Louise Connolly Reporting on health with fairness and impartiality - my role as BBC NI’s health correspondent

The BBC is the world’s leading public service broadcaster. It builds its reputation on impartiality, independence, creativity along with aiming to entertain and educate the public. Whether aware of it or not – the BBC plays a big role in public life. It might be in a person’s peripheral vision or right bang in the centre – either way the BBC is out there telling the stories that impact our lives. As a publicly funded organisation, the BBC has an obligation to be fair, balanced and accurate. While all this reads well – how difficult is it to apply when reporting the news agenda?

In this lecture, Marie-Louise will describe the highs and lows of working as BBC NI’s Health Correspondent. We will hear what the main issues are facing the health and social care system and for those who lead it.

Also what makes a good health story and what are the components that determine whether it makes it to broadcast. And the professional difficulties of reporting on hugely important issues that affect us all in the digital age.

Marie-Louise Connolly is BBC NI’s Health Correspondent. Most recently Marie-Louise was on our television screens almost daily taking us through the pandemic’s every twist and turn. Her contribution, over 2 years, has been described as an invaluable channel of factual information for the public.

Her brief includes all matters health and social care. While her role is to report on what is happening with Hospital waiting times, the challenges facing GP’s, Surgeons, Nurses and all those health voices within social care, Marie-Louise has also promoted women’s health issues including the Menopause. During covid she broke her silence about coping with the condition. That contribution has helped other women to come forward with their stories and has helped highlight the lack of HRT in NI and the impact that can have. Marie-Louise joined the BBC in 1992 and works across TV, Radio and digital news. She uses her platform to promote good practice and shares ideas about how we can try to live a more healthy and active lifestyle. Married with two children, she’s a keen runner and reader.

Making sense of street chaos

Dr Austin O Carroll is an inner-city GP since 1997. The focus of his career has been improving access for communities affected by marginalization or deprivation to quality primary healthcare. He founded several initiatives:

Safetynet (2007) which provides GP services to over 6000 marginalized patients annually throughout Ireland. He initiated specialised services in several food halls/drop-ins/hostels; GP services for Roma community in two medical centres; a Mobile Health Unit for rough sleepers; a Mobile Health Screening Unit; He was Medical Director from 2007-2017.

GMQ, a primary care programme for homeless people which also specialises in addiction services (including methadone treatment and alcohol and benzodiazepine detoxes.

Partnership for Health Equity, a research, education, policy and service delivery collaboration.

GPCareforAll, a new social enterprise that creates new GP practices in areas of deprivation.

North Dublin City GP Training programme, the first programme internationally that trains GP’s to work in communities affected by deprivation or marginalization.

He set up the GP service for the McVerry Stabilization Centre in Barrymore House.

He was Dublin HSE Covid Lead for the Homeless Population between 2020 and 2022. He completed a Doctorate in ethnographic research into the health service usage behaviours of homeless people. He was a co-founding member of Northdoc. He received the Fiona Bradley Award; the Time & Tide Award for his work with migrants; the Healthcare professional of the Year Award 2015 and was awarded an Honorary membership of the RCPI the Doolin Award 2019; and Gertrude Ronan Award 2019. He was awarded the 5 Star Doctor Award from Wonca Europe in 2020. He participated in 2016 Paralympics in sailing.

Dear Deconditioning: Recognising and addressing the other pandemic

Hospitalised patients are 61 times more likely to develop disability in activities of daily living than those not hospitalised and 17% of older medical patients who were walking independently two weeks prior to admission need help to walk on discharge. At least one third of adults aged 70 and older are discharged with a new disability that developed during hospitalisation.

This lecture will consider a harm event that may well be 10-100 times more prevalent than falls or pressure sores, that of hospital acquired deconditioning, which has been accentuated by the Covid-19 pandemic to impact well beyond the walls of hospitals into care home and domestic settings.

It will consider the impact of the #EndPJparalysis movement which encourages patients to get up, dressed and moving while in hospital and, finally, articulate why patient time is the most important currency in healthcare.

Prof Brian Dolan, OBE, FFNMRCSI, FRSA, MSc(Oxon), MSc(Nurs), RMN, RGN

Brian Dolan trained as a psychiatric at St Mary’s Hospital, Castlebar, Co Mayo and as a general nurse at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington and most of his clinical career was in acute mental health and emergency care as well as in academic General Practice. He is Director of Health Service 360, UK, and works in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and Ireland providing leadership and coaching programs.

Since 2005, Brian has held a rolling contract as Director of Service Improvement in Canterbury, NZ, one of the world’s most successfully integrated health and care systems.

Brian has published over 70 papers and is author/editor of seven books, mainly on emergency care and leadership. He is currently working on books on deconditioning, emergency nursing (4th edition) and ‘Ward Managers Survival Guide (5th edition), all of which will be published in mid-late 2023.

He is Honorary Professor of Leadership in Healthcare at the University of Salford, and Honorary Adjunct Professor of Innovation in Healthcare at Bond University, Queensland. He is also the originator of the Last 1000 Days and EndPJparalysis social movements which are about valuing patients’ time and encouraging early mobilisation of hospitalised patients.

In the 2019 Queen’s New Year’s Honours List, Brian was awarded an OBE ‘For Services to Nursing and Emergency Care’ and, also in 2019, was awarded Fellow by Election of the Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

In 2021, he became Honorary President of AGILE: the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists network for physios working with older people - the first nurse to do so.

Presidential Address : The remarkable potential of Primary Care

I have chosen as the theme for the year Making healthcare better. There are a multitude of meanings that could be taken from this title, all of them valid, and many of which I hope will be addressed through this year’s lecture series. The programme will open with my Presidential address in which I will explore “The remarkable potential of Primary Care” to make healthcare better. The series of lectures that will follow will explore how education, innovation, empowerment, advocacy, humanities, inclusion, the media, leadership, research, policy, Public Health, and the historical context, will help us to understand the many ways in which healthcare, can, be made better.

Professor Nigel Hart first graduated in 1990 from Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) with a degree in Computer Science. He worked in the IT industry for several years working in the UK, Japan, Switzerland and North America. He had a change of direction and was enrolled to study medicine at QUB in 1994, graduating in 1999. He completed his JHO year in the Belfast City and Royal Victoria Hospitals. He commenced GP training in 2000, enrolling in the GP Academic Research Training Scheme (GPARTS) and subsequently completed an MD in Stroke Risk Factors. He became a GP partner in a rural Practice in 2007 and was appointed to the position of Senior Lecturer (part-time) at the School of Medicine at QUB later that year. In 2015 he moved to a full joint appointment in the Centre for Medical Education in the School of Medicine where in 2016 he was appointed as Associate Director for General Practice and Primary Care to lead expansion of General Practice within the undergraduate curriculum. He has been in leadership roles in undergraduate education, GP Training, clinical research and quality improvement. He currently leads the GPARTS programme and is co-lead for the Primary Care group of the Northern Ireland Clinical Research Network.