As we welcome in 2023, it seems an opportune moment to introduce myself and share some of the exciting developments within our association. 

This year I received the great honour of being elected president of your Pre-op Association. I have spent the last 9 years of my consultant post working in Gloucestershire within Preop assessment on service development, training and research. As a member of the POA throughout, I understand fully the value of being a member and see this as a fantastic opportunity to give something back to the association.

Whilst a great honour, I admit some trepidation as I have some very big shoes to fill. Dr Rob Hill, in his second stint as president, has overseen and driven some seismic changes for the benefit of the association. For this, we have much to be grateful and I’d personally like to offer a huge thank you to Rob for all his hard work. 

It is with great pleasure that I can now an also announce, that following years of hard work by Rob and the council, the Preop Association has been granted charitable status. This will allow us more freedom to shape the future of our Preop association.

As such, we will be advertising for new members to join the newly formed board of trustees. We have a fantastic opportunity to further develop our nurse training courses, support research within perioperative medicine, expand the resources for our members and strengthen links with allied societies. 

For the first time, our annual conference will now be held in Spring, this year on 6th March 2023 at the RCP. Calls for additional abstracts remain open.

We have expanded the number of venues for the Foundation Courses for Nurses 2023 to include Cheltenham, Liverpool and Chichester with more details and dates to follow. 

Our website remains a valuable information resource (which we hope to expand with a repository of guidelines), links to the latest Nursing Skills for Preoperative Assessment (published 2022) and evidenced-based guidelines for Preoperative Assessment Units across the country.

I very much look forward to welcoming you all to the conference in March and urge you to consider joining us on the board to help shape the future of our fantastic charity. 

Dr Henry Murdoch | President of the Preoperative Association