In this issue of the President Blog, Ranee Thakar discusses 2024 highlights, including the College’s new Curriculum 2024, the continuing focus on racial equity across the specialty, the launch of the ‘Waiting for a Way Forward’ report, and looks ahead to key areas of focus for 2025, to support our global members and the women we serve.
It seems unbelievable that twelve months have flown by so quickly and that this is my final blog of 2024. When I took office nearly two years ago, I was told my feet would not touch the ground. I can certainly say that at times, it has felt literally true, given the travel, meetings, and events I have attended.
These visits are a real privilege of my role and never fail to reinforce my belief that our speciality is unlike any other – with all the opportunities we have to support and improve the lives of women and girls. Like me, you will see how the impact of this goes beyond the individual women we care for. It ripples out benefiting families, communities and society at large. Equally, we also know that when things go wrong—when resources are limited, when systems fail—it is women, their families and the teams that care for them who bear the consequences. This brings a sense of responsibility and, sometimes, very real pressure.
Despite the challenges, I remain constantly inspired by the innovation, resilience, and sheer dedication I witness daily from our members. Frontline staff continue to find pragmatic and often innovative ways to care for their patients and to support their colleagues under challenging circumstances. This spirit of collaboration and professionalism makes me so proud of the O&G community, throughout my career and now as President.
When I return from a trip, I find myself reflecting on my conversations with colleagues. Where are we succeeding for women? What are the critical issues affecting our members? How can we learn from and support each other? This is at the heart of the College’s mission – to champion the speciality, support life-long learning, build a resilient and connected global community, and shine a light on where health systems and governments need to do better. Through this, we work towards our goal of improving the health of women and girls around the world.
This year, it has been a real pleasure to speak at 9 membership ceremonies in 2 countries, London and Muscat, Oman, welcoming 615 new Members and Fellows, with all the opportunities this brings for their future careers. It is also incredible that the College delivered a combined total of 10,307 exams across 56 countries in 2024 – including our largest ever MRCOG Part 3 exam diet last month, with nearly 900 candidates sitting exams in Cairo, Hong Kong, Kolkata, Abu Dhabi, London and Mumbai.
We truly are a global college, and this provides so many amazing opportunities. This was reflected in the theme of our incredible 2024 World Congress in Oman - ‘Transforming women’s health through global collaboration’ - where we welcomed 2,100 delegates from 88 countries. I truly did feel the power of global collaboration in action across a brilliant three days. Planning for our 2025 Congress in London has already begun!
As the year closes, it is certainly a time to both celebrate what has been achieved and reflect on where we need to focus for the future together. One area that we must continue to make progress on is racial equity across our specialty. This issue is deeply personal to me, and I am committed to ensuring we push for change.
I am therefore proud that this month we published our Race Equity Project Report, building on our previous racial equity work, which addresses the scope of racial inequality in obstetrics and gynaecology and provides a roadmap for action. While the report may be uncomfortable to read, I am inspired by our membership’s collective commitment to making real, lasting change. Together, we can create a profession where everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed and feel valued. You can read the report here.
Other 2024 highlights have included the launch of the College’s new Curriculum 2024, representing an important milestone after many years of work, which will help shape the O&G profession for many years to come. We also launched an innovative three-year project focused on improving O&G surgery, to shape the future of training provision. Do look out for the interim report from this work in the early New Year.
I am also so proud that the College continues to elevate women’s health and move the political agenda forward. All four nations across the UK are actively developing or implementing plans and strategies to improve women’s health services because of the College’s sustained advocacy for women and the O&G profession.
Just last month, we launched our ‘Waiting for a Way Forward’ report to expose the scale and impact of gynaecology waiting times. Unbelievably, the numbers of women now waiting would fill Wembley stadium eight and half times over. While waiting times have worsened in all parts of the UK, the impact is disproportionately affecting those living in more deprived areas of the UK, worsening health inequalities. We also found that more women also now need emergency care to manage severe symptoms, with gynaecology emergency admissions in England increasing by a third between 2021 and 2024. Therefore, it is clear that we need a more holistic approach and a focus on women’s health if we also hope to tackle this crisis.
We are calling on UK governments to commit to long-term, sustained funding to address the systemic issues driving waiting lists, alongside delivering an urgent support for those currently on waiting lists. To launch the report, we welcomed MPs, Peers, policy makers, women, healthcare professionals and stakeholders from across women’s health to the House of Commons. We were honoured to hear from Baroness Merron, the Women's Health Minister, who reiterated the government’s commitment to prioritising women’s health, and the College will continue to work with parliamentarians and policy makers across the UK to drive change in 2025. We were delighted at the extensive press coverage the report received, which certainly kept me busy doing interviews with every possible news channel!
In November, we also published a policy position on racial and ethnic equality in women's health, which I hope you will read and share within your networks. Building on our UK election manifesto, this important document sets out key recommendations for NHS England and the UK government to address inequalities in Black, Asian and minority ethnic women’s health and care, including maternity safety. It is encouraging that the UK government has now committed to introducing a target to end the higher risks of maternal mortality experienced by Black and Asian women, which the College has long campaigned to see out in place.
This year, we also commenced an important joint project with The Royal College of Midwives, The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare and The Sustainable Healthcare Coalition. Through this, we are engaging the multi-disciplinary maternity community as well as women and people with lived experience to identify and tackle carbon and health inequity hotspots in maternity pathways. The ultimate aim is to produce findings that inform future maternity care delivery more sustainably, while prioritising outcomes and equity. As one of my Presidential priorities, I look forward to seeing this progress in 2025.
Other successes this year include seeing the introduction of buffer zones around abortion clinics, which we have campaigned for with partners for many years. We also joined with other Royal Colleges last month to co-sign a letter to encourage MPs to vote yes on the government’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which has huge potential to improve maternity outcomes and create the healthiest generation of children ever.
It simply is not possible for me to cover the huge range of 2024 successes in a single blog. Despite the challenges we all face, it is important that we recognise and celebrate what has been achieved. This gives me the impetus to continue to advocate for the women and girls we look after and healthcare professionals on the front line, which goes hand in hand.
This simply leaves me to offer my sincere thanks to our membership around the world, and all those who have contributed their expertise and time to support the College’s work this year. As the year concludes, I feel more honoured than ever to be the College’s President.