Dear Member

A number of decisions were made at the Nottingham Annual General Meeting which require action. Also, the Executive Committee is continuing to work hard for the benefit of our membership with representation at, amongst other Department of Health Committees, that of non-medical prescribing.  I will be grateful therefore, if you will bring the contents of this letter to the attention of your Officers and members at the earliest possible opportunity.

More students are being taken on in our City and Guilds level 4 course.  Without exception, the students, all of whom thus far are mature, are keen to observe practice.  Since the students are widely dispersed geographically, I will be grateful if you will send a list of members who are willing to allow observation.  These practitioners will be described as 'Preceptors', will receive helpful documentation on how to act as such, and of course, the process will count towards Continued Professional Development.

Whilst on the subject of the course I would like to mention that each Unit is 'stand alone' and certificated accordingly.  Should any member wish to update their knowledge with a unit, then the cost is £300.00.  Your regional representative to the Executive Committee has a copy of the course handbook with the details in, or a copy can be obtained from Head Office.

With reference to a motion at the AGM, I am delighted to inform you that we have already received positive feedback from 3 schools of Podiatry concerning talking to their students.  If any of your members would care to do a 1 hour presentation to the third/fourth year students, please let Head Office know.  All that is required is that the individuals are knowledgeable, articulate, keen and can deal with possible detailed questioning.  Information concerning the benefits of joining the Institute will be provided and a short PowerPoint presentation will be available.

At the last Executive Committee meeting, and also pursuant to an AGM motion, a new Press and Publicity Committee was formed.  Basically, this is to supplement our existing activities and to be much more proactive in our approach to the media.  What is needed from the branches is a number of individuals who are willing to read the local press, listen to the radio and television and respond to anything foot related.   Again, any representative should be confident, knowledgeable and articulate.  When you have a list of volunteers, please feed back to Head Office and more information concerning our corporate stance will become available.

It was clear that the membership feel strongly that the profession and the Institute in particular should be aggressively promoted.  Therefore please determine where such promotion will be most effective (the relevant motion at the AGM mentioned Universities, 6th Form Colleges etc.) and how contact can be established.  As mentioned, the Schools of Podiatry are being targeted nationally but any other suggestions are very welcome.  When you have decided your targets, please let Head Office know how many leaflets you want together with the description.  If you did not see these at the AGM, specimens can be sent to you.  These will be charged at cost.  Whilst mentioning leaflets, you may have seen the new leaflets to hand out to patients.  These are excellent quality, represent superb marketing and are a very cost effective method of promoting individual members practices.

I am delighted to inform you that the Institute is now represented - in the person of Martin Harvey - at the Medicines Commission committee on non-medical prescribing.  The Department of Health level is very high and we have made an extremely strong case for access to prescription only medicines for the private practitioner - and this was accepted.  However, there is a long way to go and we need to show that we require as wide a range as possible of Prescription Only Medicines.

Can you please let Head Office have lists of prescription only medicines that members are requesting via Patient Group Directives or simply requesting through patients G.Ps.  This should include all antibiotics, steroids, MSK medicines etc etc.  in fact any drug that can be legitimately thought of, however rarely used but must appear in the British National Formulary or the Irish equivalent.

Finally, please do advertise and persuade members to support the new CPD courses.  These are designed to be rapidly applicable in individual practices and lead to new patient streams and an immediate increase in income.  These will be rolled out across the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland in due course, but sufficient numbers are required to avoid financial loss.  The courses are advertised in the journal and on the web site.  Any suggestions for new courses will be very welcome.  In the meantime, if you need lecturers for your own branch, please contact Head Office as skilled lecturers who are willing to attend for expenses only are readily available.  In another new initiative, arrangements have been made with certain of our favoured trade houses to also provide lectures free of charge.

Keep up the good work!

With kind regards

Yours sincerely

 W J Liggins

Chairman Board of Education