News and Opportunities

Breaking news

• Congratulations to our new trainee Reps Catherine Rang and Anita Saigal. They will be attending the next TPMC meeting in March. It was a very close contest and all the candidates have great ideas so Camus Nimmo will also be contributing, and will replace whichever of the current reps CCTs first. We will be meeting in January to make plans on how we can support trainees in the coming year so please get in touch with any ideas/complaints/priorities.
• Two of our RespNET trainees, LJ Smith and Zaheer Mangera (in puppet and human form), and our very own TPD Angshu Bhowmik (in voice only) are featured in the Respiratory Futures Trainees 12 days of Respmas, along with nurses, researchers, charities and patients. Have a look at the YouTube video, and singalong by downloading the lyrics!
• Women of the Whit: a conference to inspire and support female doctors and medical students will take place on January 13th. Keynote speakers include Celia Ingham-Clark, Jacky Davis and Prof Jane Dacre (RCP President). Workshops will be run by a trio of consultant, trainee and medical student and include: building resilience by understanding yourself; conversations around death; compassion/human rights; what’s it like for women in maternal medicine; and diversity – really is this still an issue now? Any woman who is a past, current or future Whittington doctor can attend. To secure your place pay the £25, which will be refunded on attendance at the conference.

Respiratory Training Programme

• The next training day is Friday January 13th at Barts Hospital, with the theme non-TB infection. Afterwards there will be drinks at Smiths of Smithfield (which serves 70 Craft beers! Other beverages are available). Please try and stay for a drink as we have new ST3s and people returning from OOP so it would be nice for as many of us as possible to get together.
• Following this we have a number of training days booked in – thanks for the advance planning! If you don’t see your hospital on this list, why not ask them to confirm a date after June?
  • Tues February 7th, Newham
  • Wed 1st March, Whipps Cross
  • Tues 14th March Pan-London, Hammersmith Hospital
  • Thurs 30th March, Broomfield
  • Fri 12th May, Princess Alexandra (date changed)
  • Wed 7th June, The Whittington Hospital

GIM Training Programme

• The next monthly acute medicine teaching sessions, run by registrars for registrars at UCLP on Tottenham Court Road is on Microbiology for the General Physician 12th January, 4-6pm, Paterson Ross Lecture Theatre, St Bart’s Hospital. Book now on Eventbrite!
• After this, recommend your colleagues book in for: Respiratory Medicine for the General Physician 9th February, 4-6pm, John Ellis Lecture Theatre, Royal London Hospital (more details will follow shortly). After these sessions, all monthly teaching will take place on the second Thursday of the month from 4-6pm.
• The next regional GIM teaching day is yet to be announced. In 2017, we are told that GIM training days will take place in March, May, July, September and November. Don’t forget that all GIM info is on the UCLP site.
• A number of other UCLP training sessions are available, including “The Art of Presenting” half-day course on Wednesday 18th January. To book click the link and pay the (refundable) £32.45 deposit. Others include a medical procedures course for SpRs on 23rd January and 1st February. To book click the link.

External/Additional Training

• Springboard, the London School of Medicine return to practice event will be on Tuesday 24th January 2017. This is for anyone returning to Med Reg shifts after OOP E, OOPR, OOPC, parental leave or sickness. Sign up online.
• The Essex EBUS and Interventional Bronchoscopy Course will take place at Basildon Hospital on March 16-17th 2017. The programme includes a live case on day 1, and plenty of hands on experience, and costs £400. Get the date in your diary and book your study leave now!. Contact Christine Rafferty for further details and to secure your place.
• The 2017 BTS short course programme has now been announced and includes Thoracic Ultrasound in Bristol (10th March), CF in Birmingham (28th March), Pulmonary Rehab in Birmingham (26th April), Acute and home NIV in London (11-12th May), Integrated Care in London (7th June), and more!
• Upcoming Teach-Ins at the Royal College of Physicians include: Obstetric medicine for the general physician, 7th February, and Haematology update, 7th March. The RCP are streaming some events, including Teach-ins, and has an archive so you can catch up with events you missed. You can also book onto the RCP Advanced Medicine course in London on 13-16th February (although usually sells out). And on to the RCP annual conference: Medicine 2017, which will be in Manchester 16-17th March.
• The next Cambridge Medical Seminars meeting is in July covering Neurology, Haematology and Oncology. Good value GIM. Booking open.
• Sign up to the PLAN (Pan-London Airways Network) newsletter to hear of free educational events open to the Respiratory MDT – regular sessions on themes such as leadership, management and integrated care. A great opportunity to learn alongside MDT colleagues and sign-off curriculum competencies. Next meeting 8th June.
• Follow @resptrainees and take a look at the Respiratory Futures Trainees website. Recommend your own resources and share the love with your fellow Respiratory trainees.
• The Clinicians and Learners in Difficulty course from HEE will be on Thursday 21st February. This multi-professional workshop is designed to support supervisors in some of the challenges they face in working with learners and clinicians experiencing difficulty.
• Need an update on genomics? The Genomics Education Programme is the NHS’s method of ensuring its staff have the knowledge, skills and experience to ensure that the health service remains a world leader in genomic and precision medicine. Find the great, free resources at HEE Genomics Education.

Jobs/OOP/opportunities

• UCLH are currently advertising for a Clinical Research Associate in Respiratory medicine. The post will have significant clinical duties (around 3 days per week) working within the Lung Cancer team and assisting in running the interventional bronchoscopy service and in particular the EBUS service. The post holder will be assisting Sam Janes and working with Dr Neal Navani in the continuing development of a nationally recognised interventional bronchoscopy unit. The closing date is 3rd January.
• 2 clinical fellow posts in Respiratory Medicine are available at Watford. One post is for interventional pulmonology experience which will include EBUS/EUS (with some exposure to endobronchial stenting) and pleural (IPC, pleural vent and medical thoracoscopy) and the second post is for either Medical Education (PG Cert included) or Management (PG Cert included). Both posts are for a year. More information is available on NHS jobs. Interested candidates are welcome to contact Dr Andrew Barlow, Dr Matthew Knight or Dr Ragul Mogal for further information.
• A new (4th) Consultant post will be advertised soon at Newham Hospital. The official job advert will be out in the next few weeks. If you, or someone you know, is nearing CCT and is interested in working in East London then don’t wait! The job plan can include an EBUS session if the candidate is interested in this (with training available for those not ready for independant practice). Contact Dr Nivenka Jayakersera for more information and to discuss the likely job plan in more detail. She is happy to be contacted by email, phone, or via switchboard.
• Glenfield Hospital, Leicester, are advertising a Senior Clinical Fellow/OOP in Interventional Pulmonology for an ≥ST5. Start date is negotiable. Contact Dr Rakesh Patel for further information: Tel: 0116 250 2610/258 3798. Email: rakesh.panchal@uhl-tr.nhs.uk 
• The BTS highlights a number of funding opportunities relevant to Respiratory trainees on its’ pages.
• 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. Wondering whether you want to pursue a future in academic Respiratory medicine? Why not watch the BTS video featuring Dr John Hurst?

Committees

• TPMC
  • Please get in touch to raise issues you want us to bring up at the next TPMC, which will be in March. Let us know what concerns you so we can be an effective trainee voice on the committee.

Conferences

• Annual BTOG Conference 25-27th January 2017, Dublin

Other

• Do you have ideas for future themes we should cover in Respiratory training days? Let us know. The teams organising upcoming days are trying to match up to gaps identified by our ongoing curriculum mapping, but are keen to hear suggestions.
• Please send us 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!