News and opportunities

Training

• The next NET Training days are  21st September at Homerton, 22nd October at UCLH (ILD day) and 12th November at Basildon. We also expect a date in January at the Royal London. Ideas for themes we should cover? Let us know. The teams organising the days are trying to match up to gaps identified by our recent curriculum mapping. The ERS is also coming up in Amsterdam 26-30th September. Good luck to anyone presenting!
• Upcoming Teach-Ins at the Royal College of Physicians include: Stroke: modern management on 6th Oct, and Neurology for the general physician on 3rd November. These are free, and usually include high quality up-to-date speakers and presentations.  A good source of GIM CPD points and a bonus of living in London.
• Don’t forget courses on occupational lung disease at the National Heart and Lung Institute including: Occupational Lung Disease Keeping up to date on 22nd September, and Introductory Medical Statistics – Thursday 1st to Friday 2nd October 2015
• Upcoming BTS short courses include: Radiology for the Chest Physician in Oxford 14-15th September; Acute NIV in London 15th October; Home Mechanical Ventilation in London on 16th October; and Running a Lung Cancer Service in Manchester 6th November.
• Good luck to anyone taking the Respiratory SCE on October 21st. See the SCE page for some helpful resources, which have been recently updated. Be warned that the BTS have confirmed that any questions on pulmonary nodules will be following the old Fleishner guidelines and not the recently released 2015 guidelines.
• New ‘clinic aide-memoires’ have been added to the Resources page, including Air Travel and Chronic cough. More to come.
• Interested in Lung Cancer research? If so you may want to go to the ‘BIL TORCH’ workshop on November 13-14th. It is sponsored by Boehringer but is said to be educational and non-promotional. Some trainees may have concerns about the need for future disclaimers, so if you have any concerns about this aspect please speak to Neal Navani. The workshop is aimed at senior registrars and new consultants who want to learn more about the development of clinical research from initial research idea through trial design, funding, conduct, analysis and publication of your work. The hope is that mentoring continues after the workshop. Neal Navani is part of the faculty, so get in touch with him or his secretary for more information. You can also contact the BIL TORCH team directly.
• The London Advanced TB Course is coming up on 26-27th November at Imperial, offering a comprehensive update on the clinical management of TB cases and incidents, evaluating new diagnostic techniques available for TB and providing an understanding of TB epidemiology and TB services in the UK. Book before 26th October to get early bird rates.

Jobs/Research opportunities

• No new job or research opportunities this month. However, National guidance on OOP is expected imminently and is likely to be much more prescriptive than in days gone by. It should be a step forward towards fairness for all specialities and training programmes to follow the same rules, but this is likely to be at the cost of flexibility and consideration of personal circumstances. If you are planning for OOP time, please plan ahead and remember to factor in the rules around OOPRs and the necessary permissions and notice to the TPD and LETB.

Committees

• TPMC
  • The next meeting is on 9th November, so plenty of time to raise issues you want brought up. Please let us know what concerns you so we can be an effective trainee voice on the committee. Hot topics include:
    • gaps on the rotation and falling national numbers
    • ICU experience – location, duration, timing
    • Practical procedure experience – USS, Bronchoscopy, EBUS, thoracoscopy
    • OOP rules and guidelines
    • travel and relocation costs
  • There is also a UCLP meeting (all medical specialities) on 8th October where we can highlight issues in common with other specialities.
• BTS STAG
  • Excluding new diagnoses, in 2013 there were 10,338 patients with Cystic Fibrosis in the UK.  By 2025 this is expected to be 18,091. As per Standards of Care 2011, this would mean a requirement of 181 CF consultants, 72 fellows/trust grades and 72 registrars.   Due to this large expected increase in demand, the BTS would like to know more about the opinions of future potential CF consultants regarding training. Please complete this survey on people’s experience of CF is and why or why not you might pursue in career in CF: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CFtrainingsurvey2015 (it is very short!)
  • The BTS STAG will shortly be collecting information and concerns from trainees to collate and present at the BTS. A real chance to get your concerns, ideas and suggestions for training heard at a national level.

Other

• The Royal College of Physicians are looking for 2 speakers for their Careers Conference on Saturday 27th February 2016. The areas they are looking to cover are: “Taking time out to study” (PhD or Masters) and “Working abroad”. This is a great way to get involved with the RCP and usually leads to invitations to speak at other events and contribute in other ways. If anyone is interested in running a session on their experiences let Abi Moore know and she will put you in touch with the RCP conferences team.
• Health Education North Central and East London (HENCEL) has opened applications for its 2015 Education and Training Quality Awards. We all know how much time and work some people put into education and training, often with little official recognition. Now is your chance to highlight great projects and people across our region. If there is an innovative education and training project you’d like recognised; if you know a team that has done something outstanding in relation to education and training; or if you want to nominate an individual for their exceptional contribution to education and training have a look at the categories and complete the short application form. Don’t wait too long – the deadline is Sep 25th.