A message from the President of RCSI

12 December 2024

Dear Fellows and Members,

As 2024 draws to a close, it is timely to look back at a few recent highlights and to look ahead to the 2025 Charter Meeting.

47th Annual Millin Lecture

In my last letter, I reported on the superb programme of the 2024 Millin Meeting and the wonderful buzz of activity around the College that day. The final event of the meeting was the 47th Millin Lecture, delivered by Ms Christina Fleming FRCSI on the topic of 'Future-Proofing Surgical Training – A Template for new Technologies'.

At the outset of her lecture Christina referenced the recently published New Technologies for the Future of Surgery in Ireland Report, which identified concerns among the surgical community regarding their preparedness to keep up with the pace of new technologies entering the operating theatre. The focus of her lecture was on how training in new surgical technologies can be integrated into traditional surgical training structures.

Discussing robotic surgery, she pointed to the lessons that should be learned from laparoscopic surgery, noting that it took almost 16 years after the introduction of laparoscopic surgery to establish structured laparoscopic training programmes. Drawing on her own experiences as a trainee, and now trainer and General Surgery Lead within the National Robotic Surgery Leads Group, her lecture provided an excellent summary of how robotic surgery has evolved.

The good news is that a new curriculum for Robotic Surgical Training will be launched in 2025 – and advances in surgical technology will be a key theme of our Charter Day meetings. I am pleased to say that Christina’s Millin Lecture was recorded and encourage you to watch it back.

Winter Conferring

On Monday, 9 December I was delighted to attend the conferring of 37 Fellows and 98 Members. Joined by family, friends and colleagues, it was a fantastic occasion and an excellent opportunity to recognise their hard work and perseverance. You can view photographs from the President’s Reception for newly conferred Fellows in this edition of Bulletin. All of them were invited to participate in the RCSI Early Career Surgical Network, which was launched recently at the Millin Meeting.

On the day, I also awarded an Honorary Fellowship to Sr Orla Treacy, Director of the Loreto Mission in Rumbek, South Sudan. Hailing from Bray, Co. Wicklow, Sr Orla lived and worked throughout Ireland before volunteering in 2006 to join a new mission in Rumbek. 18 years later, Sr Orla is now the director of a girls boarding secondary school, a primary school for boys and girls, and a child health clinic.

A passionate advocate for girls’ education and preventing child marriage, Sr Orla has persevered through the consequences of war and famine, to grow the school and is currently building a new mission in Aweil, a town bordering Sudan.

Given the current severe impacts of conflict and war throughout the world, Sr Orla’s address was a timely reminder of the importance of education. RCSI has supported surgical education and training around the world for many years, so it was a pleasure to lead an Irish delegation to the 20th anniversary celebrations of COSECSA in Harare in December.

In a collaboration commenced and guided for many years by our late colleagues Professor Gerry O’Sullivan, Past President, RCSI and Professor Sean Tierney FRCSI, RCSI supports COSECSA in developing training capacity and delivering postgraduate examinations for surgeons in their region. We also provide online resources to more than 7,000 learners from 170 countries through SURGhub, recently recognised as the Technological Innovation of the Year by the Times Higher Education awards.

Charter Meeting 2025

Preparation is on-going for Charter Meeting 2025, which takes place in early February. The theme of the meeting is 'Next Generation Surgery', and our gaze is firmly fixed on the future. The programme includes a strong focus on the role of technology and robotics and the organising committee is particularly excited about our plans to have a 'Robotic Village' for the first time as part of our exhibition at 26 York Street.

We are also delighted to announce that on Thursday, 6 February, Dr Carla Pugh, Professor of Surgery at Stanford University, will join us to deliver the Johnson & Johnson Lecture. In another first, the Early Career Surgical Network will host a session, and we look forward to hearing their perspectives.

Of course, another facet of surgery in the future is the changed regulatory and clinical governance environment in which we practice. Work is ongoing by the Expert Group on Clinical Governance in Surgery, chaired by Council Member Mr David Moore FRCSI, and across the meeting we will hear from a range of experts on the subject to inform our views, culminating in the 32nd Carmichael Lecture, to be delivered by Professor Deirdre Madden, Professor of Law at UCC, on Friday, 7 February.

More information about all aspects of the meeting is available in the Charter Day programme and online registration is now live. I look forward to seeing you there.

Festive celebrations

As I sign off on my last update of 2024, I am mindful that while others are celebrating the festive season, many of you will be hard at work delivering care and on call duties. Your work to maintain high standards of surgical care, 365 days a year, is incredibly valuable and while it may often not be recognised, is life-changing for patients and their families.

You should look back on 2024 with great pride. While it can be difficult to find the time to unwind and spend time with family and friends, I encourage you to do so, and to make every effort to recharge and look after yourself.

I wish you good health and happiness in 2025.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Deborah McNamara
President, RCSI

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