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We continue to welcome applications for CPD accreditation of courses and events, and those that are approved are featured in the Lifelong Learning Platform (LLP) and on our website.

During 2023 we have received more than 950 applications for CPD accreditation. The numbers received by month were typically between 70–80 applications, but the months of March and September were particularly busy with 112 and 92 respectively received. This is an increase by more than 50 when compared against the same reporting period from last year.

Welcome to this special issue of the Bulletin, where we will showcase the work of some of the projects from the College’s Health Services Research Centre (HSRC).

We will also hear from our patient and carer group, PCPIE, who have been crucial in ensuring projects have meaningful involvement from development and delivery through to reporting. We are grateful to them for their wise counsel and insightful challenges. HSRC projects could not run without the dedication and vision of their leads and of the project teams supporting them. This includes strong involvement from our HSRC fellows (who, while often in post for only a year, never really leave the team), and we are delighted to have just welcomed our next six fellows to NELA, PQIP, SNAP, and quality improvement projects.

In this second of our ‘Education resources of the quarter’ feature, we’re taking a look at recent College talks and podcasts on airway matters, and taking videos from our events and podcast programme from the last few years and re-sharing them here.

The ACSA scheme has the concept of continuous quality improvement at its heart, and departments who engage with the scheme have to demonstrate this in order to gain and retain accreditation.

One way we drive improvements is through our annual review of the ACSA standards, where we introduce new standards to focus departments’ energy on areas of growing importance to the specialty. New standards introduced in the 2022 edition cover responsible opioid stewardship, environmental sustainability, leadership within departments, and protecting time for clinical-governance activities. Through these new standards we will also be able to collect examples of good practice, which we then share with other departments via the ACSA portal.

As the season of spring gently unfolds while I write this here in London, there is a sense of renewed fervour for times to come. I have the pleasure of celebrating two ‘New Years’ annually, a uniqueness which I have always appreciated for one reason – however the Gregorian new year starts, I have another to bring optimism, since once again find myself looking ahead to Tamil New Year on 14 April – Puthandu Vazthukal to all those celebrating this.

New chapters of professional life transitioning from one season to another is the subject of an article by Dr Lauren Elliott and Dr Nipun Agarwal, who eloquently detail the range of experiences that come towards the end of training – the consideration of location, colleagues and job plans blends excitement with an understandable anxiety. For those wanting to understand more about navigating this juncture in a career in anaesthesia, I wholeheartedly recommend the College’s Preparing for CCT and beyond podcast series as a supplement to the piece in this edition of the Bulletin.

Welcome to the autumn edition of the Bulletin.

As I write this, there is a sombre atmosphere as the funeral arrangements for Queen Elizabeth II proceed, and I want to take the opportunity to pay my respect to her and to her devotion to duty in this editorial. Although it was not unexpected, I was surprised how deeply her death affected me – I felt keenly what a historic moment the death of the longest-serving monarch in British history, and the second-longest in world history, was.

This is also my last editorial as editor of the Bulletin as I take on the vice-president’s robe and hand the Bulletin role to one of my colleagues. It has been a pleasure, and I have very much enjoyed the challenge of curating, commissioning, and advising our authors. I am so proud of the achievement as we head towards a much better digital version of the Bulletin, and I particularly want to thank the publishing co-ordinators, Anamika and Mandie, for the support, encouragement, chasing and cajoling they have done. Without them the Bulletin would be a shadow of what it is.

Welcome to the April 2023 anaesthetist in training (AiT) edition of the Bulletin. As I write this, NHS doctors in training are imminently embarking on industrial action following an unequivocal ballot; unprecedented since 2016. Whatever your opinion on industrial action, the common thread is that these are intense times for those of us within the NHS. It is often these times, however uncertain and unsettling, that further solidarity for the betterment of care for patients and each other. The conversations I have had with anaesthetists across the UK bring forth this sentiment; we are in this together.

‘Adapting to change’ is the theme for this edition of the Bulletin. No better place to start than to introduce our new anaesthetist in training members of the Bulletin’s editorial board, Dr Lauren Elliott and Dr Nipun Agarwal, who have been an absolute joy to work with for this issue.

Dr Jon Chambers picks up the reins as Editor of the Bulletin and welcomes you to the year's first issue.

As I pick up the reins as Editor of the Bulletin, I do so with an appropriate degree of trepidation. The Bulletin has been a constant throughout my anaesthetic career, and it remains a window into our specialty that combines a mix of news, developments within the specialty, personal stories and guidance. In my short time in the role, I’ve already been humbled by the quality of contributions from the anaesthetic community willing to share their stories and their work with colleagues.

The start of a new year is often a time to look to the future and the new challenges ahead. In the midst of this newness I have always believed that we should also take the time to look back, and to learn from and reflect on the lessons of our past. In the run up to LGBT+ History Month (February) Professor Andrew Hartle does just that, and he writes openly and honestly on the challenges he has faced as an out gay anaesthetist throughout his career in the NHS and the military. His reflections take us through his journey of exclusion and stigmatisation, and then ultimately of acceptance, recognition and celebration. It is an incredible journey and ends with him rightly encouraging us all to feel prouder in 2025.