December 2020 – Monthly BHS Update
Dear BHS Members
For our December news update, I would like to highlight:
The BHS Annual Meeting 2021
We are delighted to announce that the BHS will go ahead with a face-to-face meeting in 2021, to be held in Bournemouth from Wednesday 9th June to Friday 11th June 2021.
I visited the Bournemouth International Centre (BIC) last Friday, for a site visit to review the facilities, and took the picture above from one of the hotels we are contracting with for the event. The BIC offers us a far larger floor space than had been planned at our alternative venue, allowing us to proceed with a full BHS conference that is compliant with social distancing. With our conference organiser, Jai Mistry, we are excited to be making plans for a physical conference at which we can all meet with colleagues from around the country and renew our friendships. I am also delighted to say that the Education Committee has decided that the BHS Instructional Course will be running for its second year, also at the BIC on Friday 11th June and we are grateful to everyone who has volunteered to teach on the course next year. More details on how to register for BHS 2021 will follow in the New Year, but in the meantime may I take this opportunity to remind you all that abstract submission for the BHS conference in 2021 is open here, and the deadline for abstract submission is 31st December 2020.
“Coping with COVID” Webinar Series
Following the success of the first webinar, on “Elective operating and the second wave of COVID-19,” the BOA and BHS in partnership are pleased to announce the second webinar in the series. We hope you can join us on 16 December, 7pm-8pm for “Supporting surgeons though the challenges of the Covid era.” The session will be co-chaired by Deborah Eastwood (BOA Vice President Elect of BOA) and Jonathan Howell (President of BHS), and with the following speakers:
- Raju Ramesh, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Torbay
“Showing Acts of Kindness: The Torbay experience of improving departmental morale, a pre-Covid initiative”
- Joanna Maggs, Trauma Fellow, Bristol
“Setting up a support system for juniors redeployed due to Covid”
- Tony Clayson, Orthopaedic Surgeon and Consultant Lead for Staff Wellbeing, Wrightington
“Setting up pastoral care and leading on staff wellbeing during the Covid-19 pandemic”
- Lt Col Ben Caesar, Consultant T&O Surgeon, Brighton
“Avoiding a pandemic of burnout among clinicians”
As last time, the format for the webinar will be short presentations from the speakers, leaving plenty of time for questions and interaction. We very much hope you will join us for this important topic; details on how you can join in can be found here
British Hip Society Revision Hip National Advisory Panel
You will all no doubt be aware that the BHS is collaborating with GIRFT and NHSE in the development of networks for revision hip surgery across the UK. The BHS is keen for this process to be as inclusive as possible and in line with that approach we have organised a series of webinars over the summer and autumn that have stimulated much discussion.
These webinars have revealed that there are a number of very well organised and effective networks already in place around the UK, and that many local solutions have already been implemented.
The BHS Executive is keen to take the process to the next stage, through the formation of a National Advisory Panel, with the intention that it should represent all parts of the UK, reflect the views of different types of hospitals, and facilitate development of networks across the country.
We’re looking for surgeons who are interested in selecting members for the National Advisory Panel. In the first instance this will involve a virtual meeting, which will allocate surgeons to their specific regions, and each region will then select its own representatives to the Panel. If you’re interested in taking part in this process, please follow the link here.
2021 Clinical Excellence Awards
As you may be aware the ACCEA 2021 process is due to open on 7th December 2020, but at the time of writing the full guidance and forms have yet to be released. We understand that the process this year has been simplified and applications will be made online, full details of which will become available on the ACCEA website here, probably within the coming week. However, the application forms are also available in Word and OpenDocuments format, for applicants to work on their forms offline before completing them on the online system, and those forms are currently available on the ACCEA website. If you intend to apply for a Bronze, Silver or Gold award and you wish the British Hip Society to support you with a citation, please could you forward your ACCEA application form and a CV to our Secretary, Matt Wilson, at secretary@britishhipsociety.com before 12:00 on Monday 25th January 2021 and, due to the limited time available, late applications cannot be considered.
Applications received by the BHS will be considered by a panel consisting of BHS Executive Committee and Professional Affairs Committee members.
Some Words of Thanks
Over the last year or so the BHS has sent round a number of surveys to our members, some of which have been initiated by the BHS itself, and some of which have been requested for circulation, by our members, to our members. We are always grateful to those of you who take the time out of your busy lives to complete these surveys and we have recently been delighted to receive some feedback from Gulraj Matharu, regarding his survey on VTE prophylaxis regimens and trial equipoise, which was circulated to the BHS membership in March 2020. Gulraj wrote to us saying “We received responses from 80 BHS surgeons, but given many of them did TKR as well, this equates to data on over 150 VTE prophylaxis regimens. So a huge thanks to you and the BHS again for allowing us to send out the survey.”
Finally, I hope you all received the BHS Autumn Newsletter, which was circulated on 17th November, and I hope that you found this informative and useful. I would like to thank everyone who contributed articles to the Newsletter, and our Secretary, Matt Wilson, for his tremendous work in pulling that together.
I will write again next month, but in the meantime I hope that you and your families can enjoy some peace over the coming festive period.
With best wishes
Jonathan
Jonathan Howell
President, British Hip Society.
