News and opportunities

Breaking news

• For some years it has been mooted that training rotations should be confined to HEE LETB geographies and specifically that London rotations should no longer rotate into East of England (EoE) territory. We were unaware of any actual plans to make this happen. We have just been informed that there will now be a complete separation of rotations along those geographical boundaries by August 2018. We are not sure at this stage what impact this will have on trainees who are already in post but it has been hinted that there will be a choice to either move to EoE or stay in North London. There are potential impacts on training opportunities, travel, variety of rotations as well as clinical referral pathways etc in the longer term. This will affect 10 North East Thames posts. UCLP would like to know whether trainees support or oppose these proposals or have no strong views either way. We need to feedback on 14th March.
• Publicly available documentation on the HEE process that led to this discussion is available in their published minutes of the November meeting.
• There will be time to discuss this, and any other matters, at the next training day in Harlow when time has been put aside for a ‘business meeting’ during lunch. If you are unable to attend the training day please email us with any comments.

Training Programme

• The next NET Training day is on 29th February at Princess Alexandra, Harlow. The programme looks excellent (available for download) – we’re particularly looking forward to sessions on CTEPH from Papworth Consultant Dr Pepke-Zaba, and a discussion on the ethical principles in medicine.
• The Royal Free, on behalf of UCLP, are running a Simulated Medical Procedures Course for SpRs, covering thoracocentesis, central line insertion, arthrocentesis and sengstaken tube insertion. Dates are: Friday 5th February 13.30 – 17.00, Wed 17th February 09.00 – 12.30 and 13.30 – 1700, and Friday 19th February 13.30 – 17.00. Follow the link to register.
• Do you have ideas for future themes we should cover? Let us know. The teams organising upcoming days are trying to match up to gaps identified by our ongoing curriculum mapping (which you can download in all it’s glory, complete with traffic light system). Consultants are, however, very open to suggestions for topics.
• Don’t forget to have a look at the ‘clinic aide-memoires’ on the Resources page and ‘favourite papers‘ from Consultants around the region.
• Many of you will have received emails from us in the last week, requesting information we can use on the prospectus pages about each hospital on the rotation. Please consider sending info on your current or previous jobs directly by email, or through the anonymous survey. If you are currently out of programme please send information on your most recent, most liked or most hated post!

External Training

• Upcoming Teach-Ins at the Royal College of Physicians include: Diabetes management on the general ward and during surgery on 1st March. 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.
• Prof Wisia Wedzicha will be giving the Samuel Gee Lecture at the Royal College of Physicians on 21st March. The title is: “Treating COPD, against all odds.” It is free and starts at 18.00.
• Upcoming BTS short courses include: Thoracic Ultrasound in Oxford on 10th March, Interventional Bronchoscopy and Thoracoscopy in Preston 25-26th May, Preparing for the SCE in York 22nd June and Lung Transplantation on 22nd September.
• The Essex Ultrasound Course is taking place at Basildon Hospital on 3rd March, which includes hands-on experience with patients with pathology, and is a very reasonable price of £75. Contact Christina Rafferty for more details
• Don’t forget courses on occupational lung disease at the National Heart and Lung Institute, including occupational asthma study day on 19th April and Occupational Lung Disease: keeping up to date on 13th September. The NHLI team are also running new courses: introductory medical statistics course (2 days) and intermediate medical statistics course (1 day) on 26-27th May and 24th June.
• The RSM are planning a study day on Lung Transplantation on 9th June – which would help you on your way to cover the requirements for this subspecialty. It is not open for booking yet but book off your study leave now and we will share further details when they are available.
• A source of reasonably priced and high quality GIM points are the Cambridge Medical Seminars – look out for the 2016 programme.
• The BMA also run training events available to members. These are both in person events and through Webinars. Upcoming events include: Influencing and networking webinar on 29th February, and Time Management Webinar on 17th March. 
• The BTS site Respiratory Futures also holds webinars. There are plans for a dedicated trainee section on this site in the next year: watch this space.

Conferences

• European Lung Cancer Conference 13-16th April, Geneva
  • abstract submission closed
• ATS 2016 13-18th May, San Francisco
  • abstract submission closed
• IPCRG 25-28th May, Amsterdam
  • abstract submission closed
• International Sleep Medicine Course and Hands-on meeting 6th-9th June, Cardiff
• BTS Summer Meeting 23-24th June, York
  • deadline for Grand Round submission 8th April
  • early bird deadline 5th may
• COPD10 Conference 29th June – 1st July, Birmingham.
  • abstract deadline 31st March
• ERS International Congress 2016 3-7th September, London
  • abstract submission closed
• BTS Winter meeting 7-9th December, London
  • abstract submission expected to open in March
• Annual BTOG Conference 25-27th January 2017, Dublin

Jobs/Research opportunities

• The ERS has a number of short and long-term fellowships to fund research, which may be more accessible than full MRC/Wellcome/NIHR fellowships for some trainees.
• The BTS highlights a number of funding opportunities relevant to Respiratory trainees.
• We are still waiting for National guidance on OOP which is likely to be 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. Trainees will not normally be allowed to take time OOP in the final year of training other than in exceptional circumstances.
• Remember that even if specific research jobs are not advertised, Consultants with academic positions are always looking for enthusiastic SpRs to join them. They may have pots of money for projects, or may have ideas that could become an MD/PhD. You’ll never know if you don’t ask. Ask around, and get in touch with anyone on the research pages for more info.

Committees

• TPMC
  • The next TPMC will be on 14th March. Please get in touch to raise issues you want us to bring up. Let us know what concerns you so we can be an effective trainee voice on the committee.
• BTS 
  • Remember that a number of our trainees hold positions on BTS committees: Abi Moore has joined the BTS Specialist Trainee Advisory Group committee, focusing on education and training and LJ Smith is ‘Digital Champion’; Jess Potter is on the TB Specialist Advisory Group; Ricardo Jose and Hannah Woodcock are on the Science and Research Committee; Elspeth Potton is on the Lung Infection Specialist Advisory Group; Zaheer Mangera is on the Tobacco Specialist Advisory Group;  . Why not ask them about their roles at the next training day, and consider joining a committee yourself? The BTS frequently advertises for trainees to join a range of advisory groups, committees and working parties. If a committee doesn’t have trainee representation why not email the Chair and offer your services?

Other

• We hope you are keeping your morale up in these times of uncertainty regarding the junior doctor contract. Support each other, and your colleagues in other healthcare professions. If you are struggling and would like to talk please get in touch, or consider contacting the Professional Support Unit at HEE (the old London Deanery).