In the latest President blog, Ranee Thakar shares news of the launch of the College’s new Curriculum 2024, a new gynaecology dashboard which reveals the scale of UK non-cancer hospital waits, and an update on the College’s Maternity Safety focus.
Hello, and welcome to my August update.
It is always a (pleasurable!) challenge to select which highlights to include in my blog from the breadth of work the College is busy delivering. This shines through in the recently published RCOG Impact Report, which covers the ambitious and innovative range of programmes delivered between July 2022 and December 2023. There is so much in here for us to be collectively proud of, and I do hope you can spare a moment to read the report here.
At the heart of the College’s work is our goal to support the O&G specialty, with our focus always driven by what you tell us you want and need from your college. As such, I hope you will spend 10 minutes completing our 2024 Membership Survey. It is live until 31 August. We genuinely want to hear from all our UK Fellows, Members, Trainees and Associates and international Fellows, Members and Associates. Find out more here.
Since I last wrote to you, the global political landscape has been evolving. Several national elections have taken place and are in progress around the world. Of course, we are keeping a close eye on what this means for our global members and the implications for the health and well-being of women and girls.
In the UK, we saw a new government come into office in July, which may mean a more ambitious vision for women’s health being set out. The RCOG will continue to use our influence and work in partnership with government colleagues to deliver positive progress on critical women’s health issues - and you can find our five key asks for the new government in our election manifesto here.
One critical area we are calling on the new government to take action on is tackling NHS waits for gynaecological hospital care, to deliver on their election pledges of prioritising women’s health and cutting waiting lists. This continues to be a top priority for the College, and last week we published a new data dashboard revealing the size, scale and nature of non-cancer gynaecology waits in the UK. Data can be powerful in driving change, and the College developed this novel dashboard to bring publicly available datasets into the same place for the first time.
Demonstrating the variation by provider, region and ICB level, we hope RCOG members will also find it helpful to see how service provision in their local area compares to the national picture. You can access the data dashboard here and our launch news story here. Later this year, we will publish a full report identifying effective policies and initiatives to address waiting lists, including survey findings from clinicians in gynaecology and urogynaecology services.
With maternity services stretched to their limits, we believe it is also critical that the new UK government commits to implementing fully funded cross-government policies and programmes to ensure all women receive high-quality, personalised and safe maternity care. Further recent publications, including the APPG birth trauma report, the Sands’ Saving Babies Lives report, and the latest MBRRACE-UK perinatal mortality report, all show why this is imperative. The College’s responses to these important publications can be found here.
The MBRACE-UK report data shows women from minority ethnic groups continue to face unacceptable inequalities in the rates of stillbirth and neonatal mortality. This incredibly important issue was discussed by a panel of inspirational speakers at the recent South Asian Maternal Health conference, which I was honoured to host at our Union Street office in London. I was also pleased to author a blog for the Inequalities in Health Alliance, which is campaigning for a cross-government strategy to reduce health inequalities. I strongly believe that a whole-government focus on health inequalities is a crucial part of sustainably improving the health of women, girls and people accessing obstetric and gynaecology services in the UK.
Through all our work and our membership of the Alliance and other networks, the College is fully committed to reducing inequalities in care affecting those from minority ethnic backgrounds. As the RCOG President, I participate in the NHS Race and Health Observatory’s Maternal and Neonatal Health Working Group and the UK Government’s Maternity Disparities Taskforce to support progress in this critical area. I will continue to advocate for this at the highest levels and have already written to Wes Streeting, the new Secretary of State for Health, and Baroness Gillian Merron, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Patient Safety, Women's Health and Mental Health, to request a meeting to discuss our priorities and theirs.
To support our future work on maternity safety, the College recently formed an Independent Advisory Group for Maternity Safety, bringing together individuals with knowledge and expertise in the maternity safety field. However, it is equally critical that we listen closely to our members to hear your concerns and ideas for system-wide improvements that would make a difference to patients, our doctors, and midwives. We will be asking for your views via regular posts on our ‘Have your Say’ website page here.
It was also great to see so many of you join the webinars at the end of July to launch the Green Maternity Challenge initiative. This is a collaborative project to identify and address carbon and inequity hotspots within the maternity care pathway. We are now inviting applications from RCOG and RCM members in the UK, and six multi-disciplinary teams will be selected to implement local initiatives, with support to develop and measure the impact of their ideas. This programme is part of my presidential commitment to developing more sustainable O&G care. Find out more and apply here.
Expanding opportunities for training, professional development and innovation within our specialty is another key focus for my Presidency. We are excited to launch the new Curriculum 2024 on 7 August, which will help to shape our profession for many years to come. I am so proud that the experiences of our learners, trainees and of women were integral to the curriculum’s development, and you can find a wealth of information, including a blog by my fellow Vice President for Education, Ian Scudamore, FAQs, training resources and much more on the College’s website here.
Following our hugely successful 2024 National Trainees Conference in June, we have more fantastic events coming up in the months ahead including the RCOG World Congress in Oman on 15-17 October. This is a wonderful opportunity to meet with your fellow members of the global O&G community, and to hear about the latest innovations in our specialty. I am also delighted to be able to confirm that our 2025 RCOG World Congress will be held in London, in June. I really hope you can join us for both!
Finally, I wanted to take this chance to reflect on the power of mentorship, which has shaped my life and professional growth, building a bridge between potential and achievement. In every success story, there is often an unsung hero—a mentor—who has inspired, encouraged, and challenged someone to reach beyond their limits. After the loss of two of my fantastic mentors, Professor Stuart Stanton and Prof Linda Cardozo, both eminent Urogynaecologists, I have been even more acutely aware of this relationship. They were amongst the many people who supported me to get to where I am today. They inspired, encouraged, and challenged me beyond my limits. But remember - mentorship is a two-way street. It is a relationship built on mutual respect, trust, and a shared vision.
If you don’t have one, I encourage you to find a mentor or, even better, to become one! Together, we can create a legacy of continuous learning, growth, and success within our wonderful specialty and global O&G community.
Until my next blog in the autumn, or when I see you at Congress 2024, my best wishes to you all.
Ranee Thakar, RCOG President