Reflecting on my education over the last few years, I think I may have learned most from Twitter. There is a seriously erudite group of geriatricians dropping pearls of wisdom there, of which Dr Henry Woodford is just one.

It was of course an honour to receive the BGS Rising Star award, five years ago in 2017. An unexpected benefit of this was the photograph taken of the then President Dr Eileen Burns, presenting me with the award, which now appears regularly as a stock photo in BGS comms.

Despite Prof. Bernard Isaacs (a fellow Scot) naming incontinence as one of the geriatric giants in the 1960s (along with immobility, instability, and impaired intellect/memory), it was still a topic that, decades later, was not taught (at least not well enough to recollect) during my undergraduate days. Speaking to care of the elderly registrars, this is largely unchanged.

With the national agenda to create virtual wards has come an increasing demand to develop Hospital at Home (hospital@home, H@H) services. Guys and St Thomas’ H@H, operational since 2014, “takes the ward to the patient’s home”.

One of the key challenges of being a geriatrician is to be able to gain a sense of the wider perspective of ageing. Although geriatricians and gerontological nurses are the gerontologists who have the most day-to-day contact with older people, this is often with those who are frail and living with multimorbidity.

Michael Allcock had never really given medicine as a career any serious thought growing up, until a stint at an Acute Frailty Unit (AFU) led him to find his passion.

The BGS Autumn Meeting 2021 marks the beginning of the term of office for a number of new BGS officers. We are incredibly grateful for the energy and commitment that all our officers bring to their roles.

Dr Duncan Forsyth’s co-authored book is one of the best specialty certificate examination (SCE) geriatrics books on the market. In fact, it is one of the only SCE geriatrics books on the market.

The leadership and enthusiasm of the BGS Scottish Council, along with the support of the BGS conference team, ensured that the BGS Scottish Spring Meeting was back on the calendar for 2021. 

Even as a medical student I was drawn to elderly patients, but as a Senior House Officer (SHO) in a busy London hospital I soon found that I did not thrive on the acute ward.

Would I recommend the role? 100% yes! It really has been a brilliant opportunity! I have felt warmly invited into the BGS family and have also loved getting to know the other trainee officers in the other roles on the council.

As we come up to a year since COVID-19 was officially declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization and ‘normal’ life as we knew it was halted, BGS President Dr Jennifer Burns reflects on what has happened over the past year.

Lucy Lewis, Chair of the Council, opened the conference’s online lunchtime session with a welcome to all. This is the second year the NAHP Council committee has brought together the wider Council membership at the BGS Autumn Meeting 2020 to meet the Committee representing them and to provide an opportunity to listen and engage and to hear what is important to them.