Incoming President – John Skinner

It really is the greatest privilege to be elected President of the British Orthopaedic Association and this is clearly a year where Trauma and Orthopaedic surgery matters more than ever. The world remains unsettled as we traverse from the COVID-19 pandemic to it becoming endemic and we all learn to live with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. COVID has affected every one of us in different ways and we now need to restore our surgical services to the level that our patients deserve and so clearly need.

It is our patients who have suffered most. At a time when healthcare resources were diverted to treating this new and relentless disease, elective surgery was curtailed and waiting lists increased. With surgical and specifically orthopaedic surgery waiting lists at unprecedented levels, we now need to work together to solve one of the greatest challenges that the NHS has ever faced. Elective surgery is not optional, and these patients really need their operations. Orthopaedic surgeons are highly skilled, hardworking and resourceful and I know that between us we will find a way to prevail for the good of our patients.

It is important that we leave the profession in safe hands and ideally in a better place better than we found it. Our trainees have had an extremely difficult time during the pandemic and feel frustrated that they have not gained the surgical experience that they need. So much surgery was cancelled in the last 18 months. They have responded admirably in the crisis showing themselves to be resilient, flexible, team workers who are willing and able to respond to the greatest clinical need. Orthopaedic surgery still attracts the brightest and best trainees, and we now need to look after them more than ever, teach and guide them and get them operating again to enable them to hone their surgical skills and reach their potential. We need well trained, dynamic young Consultant colleagues now, more than ever before.

At a time when our patients really need us, this is a time when the NHS is listening. The BOA Leadership team will do everything in our power to influence those charged with NHS institutional and systems leadership, to provide the most effective and efficient environment in which we can deliver our extensive responsibility for our patients. Most of us overestimate what we can achieve in a day while underestimating what we can achieve in a year. I am very much looking forward to meeting up with as many members and Fellows as possible at this year’s Congress in Aberdeen. I am always happy to hear directly from Fellows if I can be of any help. Despite the inevitable challenges ahead, the leadership of your Association will do all that we can in order to continue “Supporting surgeons Caring for patients.”