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Authors:

• Dr Natalie Constable, ST6 Anaesthetic Registrar, Department of Anaesthesia, UHBW Foundation Trust, Bristol
• Dr Fiona Oglesby, ST6 Anaesthetic Registrar, Department of Anaesthesia, UHBW, Bristol
• Dr George Bainbridge, Anaesthetic Clinical Fellow, Department of Anaesthesia, UHBW, Bristol
• Dr Helen Howes, Consultant Anaesthetist, Department of Anaesthesia, UHBW, Bristol
• Dr Rachel  McKendry, Consultant Anaesthetist, Department of Anaesthesia, UHBW, Bristol

The Bristol Royal Infirmary’s Difficult Airway Response Team (DART), developed in 2017, is a successful, innovative, cross-specialty response unit designed to expedite the arrival of clinical expertise and advanced equipment to the patient’s bedside in complex airway emergencies. Five years following DART’s inception, we intend to highlight the challenges intrinsic to maintaining the service and how we have attempted to overcome these. 

Every year, anaesthetists in training (AiTs) undergo an Annual Review of Competency Progression (ARCP). ARCPs are a legal requirement and ensure that doctors are providing safe and high-quality patient care. They are used to assess progression against curriculum standards and provide evidence for General Medical Council (GMC) revalidation that happens every five years.

For AiTs, the ARCP panel reviews evidence submitted as part of the Educational Supervisors Structured Report (ESSR) on the Lifelong Learning Platform (LLP). The ESSR contains 16 sections and is the only thing visible to the ARCP panel, so it needs to be complete with all information required to ‘pass’ the ARCP!

Fortunately, the College has produced an in-depth checklist that outlines the requirements for a successful ARCP. This document clearly states what is required in each of the 16 sections for an Outcome 1 at ARCP. The ESSR itself must be created on the LLP after submission of all the prerequisite forms for all forms to pull through.

This first report, an assessment of the scientific basis of climate change and its impacts and future risks, highlighted the importance of climate change as a global challenge with universal consequences which required international collaboration, cooperation and action.

Unfortunately, all these years later we haven’t made as much progress as we should have done across the world. The latest (2023) Lancet Countdown Report 'underscores the imperative for a health-centred response in a world facing irreversible harms. Climate inaction is costing lives and livelihoods today, with new global projections revealing the grave and mounting threat to health of further delayed action on climate change’. How can we take action? What can we do? You can all achieve so much more than you believe, and we would like to guide, support and empower you to do so.

It's time for us to take action together.

Dr Claire Shannon, President outlines what's coming up in 2025 and why it's important to support each other and work as part of a great team.

Happy New Year to you all. I know many of you will have been working over the festive period, but I hope you also had some time to catch up with friends and family and take a well-earned break. 

Winter is never an easy time in the NHS. During the more challenging times of the year, I’m always particularly grateful for the support of my colleagues and the benefits of working as part of a great team. I hope that’s true for you too as we look to the year ahead.  

The following new appointments were approved, and with sadness we record the deaths of some of our fellows. 

In recent years, the College Council has grown the number of co-opted members of Council to include representation from anaesthetists in training, FRCA examinations, defence anaesthesia and regional advisors anaesthesia. 

Since September 2022, the College Council has welcomed new representatives to support all clinical, professional, and health policy matters. Following on from the four new Council members featured in April’s Bulletin, you can read more about our new members below.