Large disparities in health and access to adequate healthcare still remain a significant social health issue within the UK. There are UK-wide postcode discrepancies in the provision of care, particularly with respect to out-of-hours services and specialist surgical care. Significant service reconfiguration will be needed in order to improve access to surgical care and to ensure that the same standards are met, irrespective of postcode or time of day.

Membership of the newly established Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management is now open to all doctors, secondary-care dentists and medical students. Peter Lees explains why leadership has never been more important for healthcare in the UK

Leadership and medicine have a long history together. For as long as people have sought advice on their ailments, doctors have been seen as leaders. Daily, we are asked to lead clinical colleagues, patients, profession and even the NHS; yet I am not sure we always see it as leadership.

Mark Baillie speaks to Euan Frew, the RCSEd Fellow who emigrated to Canada over 30 years ago.

With Fellows and Members in almost 100 countries worldwide, it’s no surprise that the reach of the College extends to some of the most far-flung corners of the globe.

However, Euan Frew, Specialist General Surgeon at Nanaimo Regional Hospital, BC, could stake a claim as the current most north-westerly based Fellow.

Graduating from Aberdeen Medical School in 1968, Mr Frew went on to a post as Junior Lecturer in Pathology before entering surgical training in Glasgow in 1970.

The move with his young family to Canada in spring of 1974 came about through an offer of summer locum work from a friend in Alberta. “We felt this would be an ideal summer vacation as neither of us had been to Canada before and we jumped at the opportunity,” he remembers. “We had a wonderful time on the trip with marvelous weather and everyone was extremely kind to us.”