Foreword

Welcome to the Spring Edition of your newsletter and the sense of cautious optimism we can all now share in, as a result of the successful UK vaccination programme.

However, there is no doubt that COVID-19 has had a profound impact on health and care systems across the world, which in turn has caused significant disruption to the education and training of doctors in Scotland and the rest of the UK. And whilst we have worked with partners across the UK to mitigate these impacts, we now face a substantial legacy of disrupted training, and a substantial programme of work and investment to recover the situation. Your Deanery is fully committed to the task we all face, and we will keep up to date with what is planned and actioned, chiefly through our Scotland Deanery website.

The Scottish Medical Education Conference is almost upon us and we give you more information about the programme and the main themes this year.

Prof Stewart Irvine NES Medical Director shares best practice and drive current thinking in the field of medical education and training.

It has always been vitally important to ‘call out’ risk of harm and the ability to do so is now backed up by new NHS Scotland ‘whistleblowing’ policies aimed at protecting individuals who have any concerns. Further details and links are provided. Next up we publicise details of our excellent and innovative Clinical Academic Fellowships, inviting applications to join the programme.

Drawing on the work of our Safety Improvement Programme,

We then discuss safety culture in organisations and signpost further resources for those who may seek further insights.

into this very interesting and critical field of work. Also, look out for details of an upcoming seminar on sexual offences best practice working and two Bereavement Care seminars we are holding in April and May.

At the end of the newsletter, you will find details of the 4th DEMEC joint national UK medical education conference that we co-organise with other prominent UK education and training bodies. DEMEC seeks to provide delegates with the ideas and information to improve their educational practice and collaborate across organisational and geographic boundaries - to support and develop educational leaders for now and the future.

Professor Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer for England, will deliver the keynote speech to the conference floor and be joined by other medical leaders for what should be another outstanding conference.

My best wishes to all of you, in these most testing of times.