It’s a great honour to be President Elect of the BSG, and certainly in interesting times.   

The current news is of, for all specialties, of sustained shortages, backlogs, financial black holes, and from Wes Streeting that ‘the NHS is broken’.  Despite increasing staff numbers, we have huge waiting times and resources increasingly required for emergency in-patients.  Lord Darzi has reviewed and declared the NHS ‘in a critical condition’.  Encouragingly he has highlighted the pressures staff are under affecting morale and engagement.  He recognises the need for capital investment and the use of technology, such as AI.   

This is all helpful, but workforce issues remain paramount, underpinning all gastroenterology activity.   In my workforce experience, looking at issues both for the BSG and RCP and possible solutions, we need to strengthen and support the whole gastroenterology team.  The BSG has membership from and represents the whole gastroenterology workforce.  The use of virtual meetings has helped engage with the membership across all four nations, and I’m currently talking to sections leads on how the BSG can help progress their work, and what sections can do, including joint initiatives.   

Gastroenterology is in exciting times, in all areas, with change afoot.  Gastroenterologists are innovative and rise to challenges.  We do research and adapt practice.  Lord Darzi’s emphasis is on taking management to the community, which has been spoken about before, but how we keep patients in the community and what this means for gastroenterology will unfold.   

The BSG was set up by Sir Arthur Hurst in 1937 to advance gastroenterology, and this has not altered.  The BSG continues to lead on guidance and practice, education, training and research.  He also added that the BSG was for ‘the promotion of friendship amongst those who have a special interest in the disorders of the alimentary tract’.  The BSG is it membership, which continues to grow and thrive, led by a great group of capable enthusiasts, to effectively navigate in changing and challenging times, and it is a great privilege to be part of this charity. 

Harriet Gordon