Professor Siriwardena attended the Society for Academic Primary Care Annual Scientific Meeting which this year was hosted by Barts and the London Queen Mary University of London took place at his alma mater of St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College, with the main conference sessions at the Guildhall School of Music and the Barbican Centre. The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Learning from Europe and populations on the move’.
The first day taken up by the Heads of Departments meeting, was punctuated by the RAF centenary flypast over London. Highlights of the conference included the 5th Helen Lester Memorial Lecture given by Professor Anne McFarlane, with the enigmatic title ‘The leper’s squint: spaces for participation in primary health care’. There were further plenaries given by Professor Val Wass on ‘Populations on the move’ and Lord Victor Adebowale, past Chancellor of the University of Lincoln on ‘Primary care: exclusion, inclusion and community’.
CaHRU’s research ‘Explaining differences in Membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners Applied Knowledge Test performance associated with candidate sex and ethnicity’ which featured as an oral presentation in a session on education was well received. There were many excellent and interesting oral presentations, posters and workshops including an interesting session facilitated by Prof Deborah Swinglehurst (QMUL) and Dr Stefan Hjorleifsson (University of Bergen) on ‘resisting too much medicine’.
Finally there was an excellent social programme including drinks in the Great Hall at Barts, dinner at the Tower Hotel beside the Tower of London and an interesting walk though London with Dr Sally Hull.
By Prof Niro Siriwardena