Festive greetings after a year of change

A message from your Co Chairs:

Another year is coming to an end, and it’s a chance to reflect on what has been a time of important change in SAPC.

Perhaps the most challenging change for the Society has been the retirement of the wonderful Sue Stewart. Sue has provided invaluable secretariat support for SAPC for many years, and her enthusiasm, knowledge and dedication will be hugely missed by us all. We are extremely thankful to her for everything she has done for the Society, and wish her all the best for a very happy and well-deserved retirement. Moving forwards, we have now appointed the Association Management Company to provide secretariat services for SAPC. We now have a strong, new working relationship with Charlotte and Katie, who have done a fantastic job of stepping into Sue’s very big shoes, and we look forward to continuing to work effectively with the AMC team over the coming years.

Another important change has been that of the role of Chair, with Carolyn Chew-Graham handing over to the two of us in the summer. We’re both excited about helping to grow and develop SAPC over the next three years. We would in particular like to take the opportunity to thank Carolyn who has done such a good job of steering the ship during difficult times, as well as Jo Protheroe who is standing down as Treasurer, having skilfully managed the finances for many years. A note of thanks also to other members of the Executive team who have stepped down this year, Sudeh Cheraghi-Sohi and Suzanne Richards. And a welcome to the “new recruits” Greg Irving, Sarah Mills, Victoria Tzortziou-Brown, Jess Drinkwater, Umar Chaudhry and Emily Fletcher.

The summer also saw the welcome return of a successful face-to-face Annual Scientific Meeting, hosted courtesy of UCLan in Preston. It was great to speak with friends and colleagues again in the real world, after such a long period of virtual meetings, and wonderful to see that the academic primary care community remains so vibrant and exciting, continuing to undertake great research and educational activity despite the challenges of recent years. We look forward to welcoming everyone back again to Brighton in Summer 2023.

There are also a number of “smaller” changes, building on SAPC’s existing successful initiatives. We’ve strengthened our collaboration with our friends “down under” in AAAPC, with a number of successful webinars held to date. We anticipate this relationship continuing to flourish over the next few years. Another collaborative relationship that has flourished is that with our education colleagues in ASME. This year’s ASM saw joint sessions and awards, which will be continued next year – with some additional developments deepening that relationship.

Our Special Interest Groups remain an active and important part of SAPC; we’re pleased to welcome a new addition in the Quality and Safety Improvement group, and hope there may be new external collaborations developing on the back of some of our SIGs. And career development remains a core part of SAPC’s work, through the Early Careers working group and mentoring scheme, the latter which we expect to grow further by working with colleagues in the School for Primary Care Research.

So we look ahead to 2023 with a genuine sense of optimism, both because things seem to be returning to normal and because of the many important opportunities that we are confident the New Year will bring.
Wishing you all a relaxing, enjoyable and happy Christmas season, and with best wishes for a successful 2023.

Rupert Payne and Duncan Shrewsbury
SAPC Co Chairs