Congratulations Elspeth and your committee on running a successful
conference.  It is becoming increasingly difficult for trainees to meet and
discuss issues pertaining to their future these days what with demands on
study leave budgets for appropriate courses such as life support provider
and instructor courses. etc

329 to 70.  Sounds scary.  Rest assured us 'grown ups'  don't  want our
specialty to progress that way and we will do our best to keep things
advancing.  But also sounds like you all had a very worthwhile social and
academic gathering.  Keep up the good work

Looking forward to seeing Helen's paper in print soon

Regards



----- Original Message -----
From: eworthington <[log in to unmask]>
To: Acad-ae-med (E-mail) <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, October 04, 1999 06:37
Subject: Cardiff BAETA 1999


> The annual BAETA conference was held this year in Cardiff. I was lucky
> enough to go (along with 65 other delegates) and, on the suggestion of
John
> Ryan, I've taken it upon myself to give you all a report of the meeting
> (gossip excluded - not that there was any...........that I noticed
anyway!!)
>
> The setting was the tranquillity of St. Mellons Country Club, with its
> beautiful gardens and luxurious golf course  - made all the more
attractive
> by 3 solid days of rain!
>
> All the more attention on the interesting selection of speakers.
>
> It was great to see so many young trainees there, as us oldies slowly
start
> to fall of the ladder.
>
> The conference got off to its usual start with a free paper session on
> Sunday afternoon. The prize (a bottle of champagne) was won by Dr Helen
> Draper from Kingston Hospital, Surrey, with an interesting presentation on
> "Rapid occupational therapy intervention for safe discharge of patients
> attending an A&E department".
>
> The common-or-garden BAETA curry was substituted for a fine chinese meal
in
> Cardiff city centre that evening with wine flowing, songs sung and of
course
> the cheque provided by BAETA funds. The long wild night out in Cardiff
> halted only by the lack of any premises open serving alcohol after
10.30pm,
> but all was not lost as the bus took us back to St Mellons where an
> unmentioned few supported the bar and night porter till 20 to 6 in the
> morning.
>
> A surprisingly good attendance on Monday morning for the opening speaker.
> The
> theme of the conference was 'A&E - past, present and future', and over the
> next 2 days we listened to some inspiring talks on issues such as risk
> management, other departmental stresses in life as a consultant, how to
kill
> your patients (in the hidden toxicological sense) and life-adventures
around
> the world in A&E.
> On Monday afternoon, Dr Peter Driscoll from Manchester spoke to us about
the
> FFAEM examination - a very informative lecture, leaving myself and the 5
or
> 6 other soon-to-be examinees very pale and anxious. It was far more
> information than the faculty had provided directly and  soon should  be
> summarized on the BAETA page of the BAEM website.
> Another significant piece of information was given to us by Dr Keith
Little
> as an added-on section to his talk on millennium planning. This was about
> the
> cut in A&E trainees from 329 to about 70 over the next 5 years; this has,
of
> course, already been much discussed over this very medium.
>
> Back to the current BAETA celebrations and the traditional black tie
dinner.
> The food and wine went down well, unsettled only by some of the tasteless
> jokes to follow -a few were genuinely funny! The evening was rounded off
by
> a
> lively disco playing anything but rap and rave (phew!).
>
> Tuesday mornings talks were the future of A&E - some flavour of which I've
> already mentioned above.
>
> The conference closed with the BAETA business meeting - a first for a high
> proportion of the committee voted in at Belfast. Certainly the first one
> chaired by myself. There were no riots, uncontrolled arguments or severe
> beatings, so a relative success. Full minutes will be available at the
next
> BAETA meeting at the Faculty meeting in London (3rd-4th December) and also
> hopefully posted on the BAETA page of BAEM website.
> But the important issues raised were:
>
> 1. The issue of associate membership of BAEM: this was discussed and has
> been made available to A&E trainees at a reduced cost since BAEM in
Belfast.
> Moving from full to associate membership however also forfeits your voting
> rights on any BAEM matters, for little financial gain once you've paid the
> additional fee required for the journal.
>
>
> 2.The independent BAETA website has been closed and BAETA issues will be
> displayed on the BAETA page of the BAEM website. 2 separate sites seemed
> excessive.
>
> I hope this has been informative for those of you who couldn't make it to
> Cardiff and an inspiration for those of you who didn't know if it had any
> purpose.
>
> I'll end with the first official advert for BAETA 2000 in LIVERPOOL.
> Thursday, Friday and Saturday in mid/late September 2000, dates yet to be
> finalised. For academic quality, loud and lively company and an
introduction
> to the nitelife of Scousers -----not to be missed!
>
>
> A rather lengthy contribution as my first on this mailing list - I've only
> been a listener until now. I think I'll go quiet again for a while.
>
> Elspeth Worthington
> SpR Mersey Region, BAETA President 99/00.
>
>
>
>
>
>



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