We all love a party, and the forthcoming Platinum Jubilee gives us ample opportunity for that! Many of you will have the bunting at the ready and street parties planned. Others will be simply looking forward to enjoying a four-day weekend and hoping for sunshine and an opportunity to spend time with friends and family. Whatever your inclination, I think you will agree that anyone who devotes 70 years of their life to the service of others should be honoured and celebrated. As a Medical Royal College, with our patron HRH The Princess Royal, we see this weekend as an opportunity to celebrate such a historic royal milestone. I hope that whether you are working this weekend or have the time off, you will have a moment to reflect and celebrate.
Thanking our volunteers
As we think about being grateful and saying thank you, it reminds me that 1 - 7 June is Volunteers’ Week 2022. This is an annual event marking the contribution that millions of people make across the UK through volunteering. RCPCH is totally dependent on over 2,000 volunteer paediatricians, and many others from the healthcare workforce, supporting us to deliver our wide range of activities – exams, recruitment, courses, all our committees... to name just a few. I am well aware that the vast majority of you do this in your own time. We are so grateful to you all. I also know that many of you are experiencing pressure to focus all your time and energy on your clinical work as the NHS recovers from the pandemic. The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, the General Medical Council and departments of health have produced letters to secondary care NHS employers in England and the devolved administrations, making the case for the release of clinicians for the purposes of carrying out work to support the wider system – not just Royal College work, but also expert witness work for the courts, and many of the other arm’s length bodies like the healthcare regulators and health education bodies. Clinicians giving their time and expertise to these organisations are vital for the wider functioning of the healthcare system in the UK. These letters are signed by Amanda Pritchard (Chief Executive Officer for NHS England), the four UK Chief Medical Officers and others. Take a look and consider using the letter during job planning discussions.
Cost of living crisis
The cost of living crisis is a matter we are only just beginning to understand the seriousness of. We are committed to highlighting the impact on children at every opportunity. We issued a statement in response describing how we see this problem impacting child poverty, making an already concerning situation even worse. I also have a piece in the BMJ calling on Government to take urgent action. We will use as many opportunities as we can to highlight this issue, which is only set to worsen once autumn arrives, and the next set of energy price rises take hold. We have an important responsibility to give voice to the issues we see in our clinics and on our wards and to help the children and families we care for.
Monkeypox guideline
This week, the College has published a guideline on the pathway and clinical considerations in the care of a child or young person (CYP) with suspected monkeypox, and a CYP contact of a confirmed case.
Acute non-A-E hepatitis
Novel non-A-E acute hepatitis continues to be a concern globally with no clear aetiology and pathogenesis. When a lack of high quality evidence exists, the next best approach is to develop expert consensus opinion. The NHS England Children and Young People Team, under the leadership of the National Clinical Director, Professor Simon Kenny, has developed a clinical framework, in consultation with a large group of hepatologists, infectious diseases paediatricians and others, which is now available on our website. This should be helpful to any paediatrician dealing with a possible case of this hepatitis. Please also remember that there is a British Paediatric Surveillance Unit (BPSU) Acute Hepatitis 22 study – do take a moment to report any cases you have seen since 1 January 2022.
External second opinions
Many of us care for patients with complex medical needs and know that a second opinion from a trusted external paediatrician can be extremely useful. A second opinion can help not just to improve diagnosis and planning but can provide transparency and openness in decision making that can be profoundly reassuring to families. We’ve launched a new resource that has been developed in partnership with Together for Short Lives, the Paediatric Critical Care Society, groups of clinicians and families – please take a look. I am really delighted with this new resource.
Have your say at our AGM
Our next Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held on Tuesday, 28 June 2022 at the College's Conference in Liverpool. All eligible College members are invited to join and vote, whether or not you have a Conference ticket, either in person or online. The AGM will contain two motions that will be of particular interest to members – the first proposal is to introduce a new post-nominal Diploma of the RCPCH (DipRCPCH) and the second proposal is to extend election voting rights to Associate, Junior and International members so they can vote for President, Registrar and other senior roles. You may have questions about what this all means and I encourage you to log-in to view our AGM pages for useful videos, FAQs and briefings to explain the background to these proposals – and please register to join the information webinars taking place on 15 June (on extending election voting rights) and 22 June (on DipRCPCH) to hear more from College experts.
Note these resources are no longer available - you can read the AGM results
Supporting Ukraine
We continue to support the people of Ukraine where we can. I am pleased that clinical support resources developed by our RCPCH Global Team are now available. This website has been created as a collaborative partnership and contains clinical guidelines and medical resources selected by experts for use by doctors, nurses and others in Ukraine. The clinical procedure videos have been translated into Ukrainian and cover neonatal, emergency, paediatric and obstetric care. We hope that this practical guidance will help those who find themselves in the position of giving care and treatment, and we are working hard to make sure they reach those in Ukraine who they may benefit, so please do share with any contacts you have.
We continue to advocate on behalf of refugees. Along with other organisations, we wrote to Priti Patel and Michael Gove to share our concerns about recent policy developments regarding refugees arriving in the UK. We also collaborated with Barnardo’s, NSPCC and Save the Children to produce a guide to provide advice and support to host families who are receiving new arrivals from Ukraine into their households. Welcoming people into your own home can be a deeply rewarding experience, but we know that it’s also a big commitment, and we hope this practical advice will help alleviate some of the common risks and concerns.
Finally…
Let me finish with a shout out to some amazing colleagues! RCPCH Climate change Working Group member Rajeeva Singh completed the RideLondon Essex over the weekend. Rajeeva and two consultant colleagues based in Leeds, plus his son Aditya, (known as The Quad Squad) cycled 160km on Sunday, and have raised over £5,000 in aid of the RCPCH climate change work, which is an incredible amount! You can see more detail here. Massive congratulations to The Quad Squad!
With best wishes to you for the Jubilee celebration and beyond, and take care,
Camilla
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