- Dr Michael Dixon, Chair of the College of Medicine, reflects on positive changes made in 2024
It’s been another exciting year for The College of Medicine. Here, our Chair, Dr Michael Dixon, picks out his highlights in his annual Christmas message, and looks ahead to the work we’ll do in 2025…
Having just become a grandfather for the fifth time, the theme of birth is very much in the forefront of my mind. In so many ways, 2024 was a year of re-birth for the College of Medicine.
Whether it be our sold-out three-day conference on integrative and personalised care at the beginning of June or our conference on social prescribing with the National Academy of Social Prescribing at the end of June, it seems that ideas that the College has championed, as midwife, for the past ten years plus are now becoming mainstream.
In tandem, our College Council has moved from a Council of words – advising and planning – to one of action with every member of the Council now having their own integrated portfolio and each becoming leaders of action in their various areas of interest.
Tired of waiting for the Centre to implement Wellness Communities of the National Food Strategy, the College has just launched its own Eatwell Communities in Burnley and Cambridge led by Dr James Fleming and Dr Liam Loftus respectively.
At the same time, we are giving birth to our Sage Practices initiative aiming for as many primary care practices to provide and as many patients to receive care that goes “beyond pills and procedures” and enables individuals and communities to improve their health and happiness.
The Sage march will be led by Doctors Laura Marshall-Andrews and Jane Myat.
Meanwhile, another recent birth was our Musculoskeletal Faculty led by Orthopaedic Surgeon Mr George Ampat, which will educate and demonstrate how we can reduce the NHS orthopaedic waiting list using prehabilitation.
Over the coming months, the Integrated Medicine Alliance led by Dr Naveed Akhtar will be describing how complementary medicine can relieve the burden on NHS services and offering more education events.
Meanwhile, another birth, The Integrated Health Alliance led by Dr William Bird will be joining forces with all likeminded organisations such as The British Society of Lifestyle Medicine with the aim of seriously addressing those social determinants of health, which account for 70% of disease.
The College will continue to be a home for The National Social Prescribing Network led by Siân Brand and whose work Sir Michael Marmot has described as being the most important means of addressing social inequalities apart from national policy.
Christmas is not just about birth – it is also about nurturing, and this has also been a big theme of the College’s work in 2024.
Nurturing our school nurses, whose numbers have dwindled by a third in the past ten years alone and co-hosting two seminars and delivering a petition to No. 10 Downing Street.
Also nurturing the doctors/nurses and allied health professionals, who feel un-thanked, overregulated and disconnected resulting in 20,000 doctors alone leaving the NHS last year.
The College has called for parity of respect between hospitals, primary care and health. In general practice, in particular, we now need a culture that allows and encourages proper holistic medicine and thus a more caring and cost-effective service led by clinicians, who can then feel fulfilled in their work.
This nurturing role of the College of Medicine extends to schools, where we are publishing a report on our Social Prescribing in Schools Project and to farming and sustainable agriculture, where we are publishing our Twinned Farms and GP Practices work led by Professor Debbie Sharp.
Nurturing our young people will be a theme of the new Bodymind Faculty led by Dr Simon Lewis who recently hosted a very successful inaugural study day which was well attended and offering people a new life is the idea behind our initiatives on social prescribing with HMP and NHS England.
Like that old advertisement for Heineken lager, the College is aiming to “reach to those parts of health and illness that medicine currently does not reach”.
Whether it be the two thirds of our population that are overweight or obese or the 25% of young girls, who are self-harming, the College of Medicine will continue to look at new approaches and solutions that will seriously improve the suffering around us.
Our Harmony work led by Michael Dooley, ran a successful conference in Bournemouth in the summer looking at community led solutions to health, and he is working closely on social prescribing in prisons.
At the end of November, I attended the launch of the APPG “Beyond Pills” Chaired by the new Gloucestershire MP and GP Simon Opher.
The APPG, which has joined forces with the College of Medicine to take on the title of our own campaign was attended by a substantial number of MPs and Members of The House of Lords the room full to bursting with numbers and enthusiasm.
With 20% of the adult population of the UK on antidepressants, it was inspiring to see the College behind this substantial force for offering patients something better.
The following week, I attended another inspiring APPG on “Creative Health”, which represents another of the College’s missions to show the enormous potential of the arts to improve our health.
A few years ago, we joined forces with The English National Opera and University College, London to show how singing could improve the lung function of those with post Covid syndrome (“ENO Breathe”).
I have heard many stories of those with serious mental health problems being completely restored to health after joining a reading, singing or creative arts group and a statistic that sits in my own brain is University College’s finding that you are three times more likely to recover from depression if you take up a hobby.
Nurturing is also about the next generation. Whether it be our new fearsome Faculty of Future Health Leaders led by Bogdan Chiva-Giurca, Hamaad Khan and Ellie Crossley who will be ending their first year with a two-day residential course in Windsor Castle.
It is also about our new Institute of Commonwealth Young Leaders led by Professor Jonathon Gray, who are working with the Commonwealth Office and gaining momentum internationally.
Another idea incubated by the College is Hope for Future a campaign by a group of young health professionals, including College Young Leaders and students from across the country who want to change professional education radically to meet the needs of the future.
They recently launched their Manifesto at the House of Lords, promoting a vision of health professional’s education based on disease prevention and health creation. The authors, a group of young health professionals and students presented their manifesto for changing professional education based on their experience and focussed on the needs of the future, this idea was born out of the College’s Manifesto, Hope for the Future, although this is now an independent group of young leaders Rethinking Health.
Christmas also reminds us of the importance of faith. The College teamed up with the Bishop of London to bring representatives of all faiths to the table at The King’s Fund with the aim of maximising the faiths contribution to social prescribing and for those involved in social prescribing to understand the importance of the faiths.
I was surprised not only by the enthusiasm of the faiths to increase their input to social prescribing but also by their genuine commitment to work with each other. More recently, we were present at another House of Lord’s roundtable continuing the important work.
And that is what Christmas is all about. Hope for the future and looking after those less fortunate than ourselves.
It is a mission of giving that is led by the example and the work of our patron, His Majesty the King.
For the College to achieve this mission requires a level of restlessness, ambition and self-sacrifice that is omnipresent among our sponsors, supporters, our Council and Trustees, our management team led by Amanda King.
It is a pure joy and privilege to be working with people of such passion and commitment and who truly represent the values of our NHS.
Happy Christmas
Michael
Dr Michael Dixon
Chair, College of Medicine