Welcome to our WSM London 2011!  The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre is the venue again and The AAGBI have put together a stimulating programme covering important contemporary issues in anaesthesia, pain management and intensive care medicine.

Core Topics Day has two parallel streams of lectures covering popular topics from obstetrics, airway management, sepsis and emergency paediatric care. Some of the speakers will be familiar to you but others have gained promotion from regional “Core Topics” events, where their feedback scores have been very good.

On Thursday for the keen runners and walkers the day will start with either a 2.5 Km walk or a 5 Km run around St James Park. Entry will be £5 and all proceeds go towards the Overseas Anaesthesia Fund.
There will be a Military/NIAA programme running in parallel to the anaesthesia programme. This has been organised by Col Pete Mahoney and we are very grateful for the stimulating sessions that will focus on all aspects of military anaesthesia, many of which are very relevant to standard NHS practice.
The Thursday anaesthesia programme includes intensive care, anaesthetic dilemmas and trauma. Trying to pick highlights is difficult as most general anaesthetists in their everyday practice probably encounter all the topics. Thursday finishes with a Viking invasion, up the Thames from Denmark, all the speakers in this session have published widely on their chosen subjects.

The keynote lecture on Thursday is from Allan Cyna from Australia a renowned authority on communication skills, which will compliment the military session perfectly. 

The annual dinner is back at the refurbished Savoy in The Strand, book your tickets early to enjoy the most sought after venue in London. I am sure that this will be an evening to remember.

Appropriately Friday starts with a focus on the new resuscitation guidelines, hopefully not needed after The Savoy. We are delighted to also introduce a new spec soc to the meeting, SOBA, who will be running a whole session on bariatric anaesthesia.

The GE Healthcare Lecture will be delivered by Sir Brian Jarman, distinguished past president of the BMA and founder of Dr Foster, who will talk about “The Quality of Care in Hospitals”. 

Pain and Obstetrics complete the scientific programme on the Friday.

As always Industry remain key AAGBI collaborators and we present them through the UK’s largest exhibition of anaesthesia equipment, drugs and services.

I hope you will all enjoy the meeting. I look forward to meeting many of you in January.
  

Richard Griffiths
Chair of the Events Committee
Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland