The BGS is delighted to announce that Professor Sir Chris Whitty has been awarded the 2026 BGS President’s Medal. Each BGS President has the opportunity to nominate someone outside the BGS who has made an outstanding contribution to older people’s healthcare for this award.
Not many medical professionals become household names, but Chris Whitty is someone of whom that can truly be said. As England’s Chief Medical Officer, he played a key role in the national response to the COVID pandemic. His contribution to older people’s healthcare, as well as to the health of the whole nation, is unparalleled through his work in that role and as a physician and epidemiologist.
Professor Whitty’s 2023 CMO report, Health in an Ageing Society, placed healthy ageing on the national agenda, highlighting the importance of preventing disease and disability, maintaining independence and addressing the growing challenge of multimorbidity and frailty. He stressed that healthcare for older people should not be defined by treating individual illnesses, but by looking at the person as a whole and helping them remain healthy, active and independent for as long as possible.
The themes of his report formed the basis of discussion at our two roundtable events held in 2024 and 2025, and we were honoured to welcome Professor Whitty to both.
His drive for evidence-based solutions and his call for the inclusion of older people in medical research align with BGS calls for greater recognition of older people's specific needs in healthcare and research.
For these reasons, and countless others, BGS President Jugdeep Dhesi is honoured to award Professor Sir Chris Whitty the 2026 BGS President’s Medal. Professor Whitty will be at our Autumn Meeting to receive his medal and give a keynote lecture.
Professor Chris Whitty said:
It is a great honour to be recognised by the British Geriatrics Society (BGS). As the proportion of the British population who are older increases, addressing the needs of the older population should be a major priority for public health, the NHS, social care, and wider society. Reducing the period of older age spent in ill-health and living with frailty as well as maintaining independence for longer are central to the aims of most older people and are achievable. BGS has long led work to do this.
Professor Jugdeep Dhesi, BGS President, said:
During my time as President of the BGS, I’ve had the great privilege of working with Professor Whitty on more than one occasion, and given all he has done to champion the importance of healthy ageing and the need for age-attuned healthcare, it was clear to me that he would be a worthy recipient of this award. His ongoing support for implementing policy and practice changes has been, and will be, pivotal in enabling many more people to live longer, healthier lives with more disability-free years. I look forward to following Professor Whitty’s ongoing achievements and offer my gratitude to him for his devotion to the health of us all.
