This is who we are

Our members are a worldwide community of inspiring health professionals working together to advance our profession and improve patient care. Many of us give our time freely to develop curricula, set exam questions, and contribute to the development of good health policy. Each year, several thousand hours of our members’ time is given voluntarily, working in partnership with our College staff, in pursuit of our purpose to provide relevant, meaningful and inspirational support to one another as we progress through our careers.

In 2018/19, our membership grew by 4% and we welcomed 1,142 new members to our College community. Our total membership of 14,590 is spread across 92 countries.

Our trustees and governance

Under the leadership of our College President, the College Council of elected representatives give their time generously to support the ongoing advancement of our College. Members of College Council and Faculty Executive Boards as at December 2018 can be viewed by clicking on the links below.

College Council

Faculty of Dental Surgery Executive Board

Faculty of Travel Medicine Executive Board

Faculty of Podiatric Medicine Executive Board

David Galloway

Professor David Galloway ended his three year term as President at the College AGM in December 2018.

Jackie Taylor

Professor Jackie Taylor assumed the role of President at the same meeting, becoming the first female President in the College’s history.

Our Communities

Our members are a community of inspirational leaders working across diverse areas of healthcare. From engagement to influencing policy and supporting the development and delivery of educational opportunities and examinations, our members get involved in a wide range of activities and networks. Click the links below to find out what our communities have been involved with in 2018-19.

International and Regional Advisors and College Tutors

Academy of Clinical Educators

Policy Network

Mentorship Programme

Buddy scheme

Examiner panels

Trainees Committee

Senior Fellows’ Club

Our Influence

We are the only Royal College in the UK and Ireland that represents healthcare professionals working across medicine, surgery, dentistry, travel medicine, and podiatric medicine, and our College plays a critical role in setting standards in all of these disciplines.

We are inclusive in our outlook and believe there is great strength in working with others to deliver the best outcomes, whether that is in influencing policy changes, delivering education and examinations, or supporting colleagues around the world.

The graphic on the left illustrates the wide range of Colleges and organisations we work with to ensure the highest standards are maintained.

Our Heritage

Our Science and Art: Visualising the Human Body

During 2018/19 the exhibition ‘Our Science and Art: Visualising the Human Body’ contributed to the enhancement of the College’s facilities by further developing the exhibition space in the heart of our St Vincent Street building. The exhibition used the College’s amazing heritage collections to show how visualising the human body has benefited medicine and surgery, from 16th century anatomy illustrations to digital imaging. Linking to the College’s founding principles and drawing on Glasgow’s rich contribution to imaging (for example x-ray and ultrasound), the exhibition was a visual feast and stimulating talking point for all visitors. 11,567 people accessed the exhibition space during 2018/19.
Our digital work

Our innovative digital heritage work provided enhanced access, via screen-based display in the College and at our heritage website. 442 new digital collection images were added to the website. In total, we provided access to 1,220 collections items across physical and digital displays. Our heritage Twitter following grew to 14,848, with 31,982 social media engagements.
Our Visualising Medical Heritage project

Our Visualising Medical Heritage project was featured on Museums Galleries Scotland’s video blog, viewed and shared across museums, heritage and cultural organisations nationally.
Read more
Our engagement

We welcomed 1,585 people to the College at heritage events, while our public engagement and outreach activity reached 3,296 people at external events.
Our collaborations and partnerships

Collaborations and partnerships are central to our aims of increasing the College’s profile and improving access to our heritage. During 2018-19 we had 14 active collaborations across academic, public, cultural and health sectors. This contributed to our events programme and outreach activity. Partners included:
- Glasgow Women’s Library
- Glasgow Science Centre
- Institute of Health and Wellbeing & Centre for the History of Medicine, University of Glasgow
- Anatomy Facility, University of Glasgow
- School of Geographical and Earth Sciences/Medical Humanities Research Centre, University of Glasgow
- School of Simulation and Visualisation, Glasgow School of Art
- Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities and poet Marianne Macrae
- Department of English Literature, University of Glasgow
- Global Economic and Social History, University of Glasgow
- Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare, Glasgow Caledonian University / Strathclyde University
- School of Education, University of Glasgow
- Archaeology Department, School of Humanities, University of Glasgow
- The Strathclyde University Genealogy Club
- School of Medicine and the Centre for the History of Medicine, University of Glasgow

HOPE is the latest iteration of the College’s charitable mission and gives our membership the opportunity to express their ambitions for tackling the barrier to healthcare locally and internationally.

- Mike McKirdy

HOPE Foundation

The HOPE Foundation is the philanthropic fund of the College, fundraising and making grants to charitable projects that improve access to healthcare for those in disadvantaged circumstances. In 2018-19 16 formal applications were considered, and the Board was delighted to award a total of £33,737 to seven projects.

Glasgow City Mission towards the Winter Night Shelter - £10,000

Glasgow City Mission’s Winter Night Shelter supported 691 people during the four month period (16% raise from 2017/18). They stayed for 2452 bed nights (32% reduction from 2017/18). This is the result of more effective partnership working across agencies, helping more people to move on to positive destinations.

Medics against violence - Hope Foundation

Medics Against Violence for MAV’s Mindfulness project - £2,048

Glasgow based Medics Against Violence was founded by healthcare workers dealing with the consequences of violence every day. As part of the Schools Programme, MAV will run a mindfulness workshop for teachers working with young people in areas where violence and its health consequences are apparent. This enables teachers to introduce meditation as a calming classroom activity.

Eiger Music for the Fit-as-a-Fiddle project - Hope Foundation

Eiger Music for the Fit-as-a-Fiddle project - £560

Eiger Music is a Glasgow community based charity working to increase wellbeing, community cohesion and reduce isolation and loneliness through music workshops and ‘learning by ear’ opportunities for those living in difficult circumstances.

ReSurge Africa for Noma Flap and Microsurgery Training in Accra, Ghana - £9,949

ReSurge Africa is a Scottish charity led by surgeons who bring training and skills to the medical community primarily in West Africa. This project will train up to 30 surgeons from across the region in micro surgery techniques, particularly to benefit patients living with the severe disfigurements caused by Noma.

Diabetic Foot Management Training in Malawi - Hope Foundation

Diabetic Foot Management Training in Malawi - £3,130

As part of the College’s ongoing partnership work in Malawi a new course for health workers will help them identify and address the problems of the diabetic foot, improving outcomes and reducing the need for surgery in areas where access to facilities is highly limited.

Vine Trust for a Volunteer Physician to Support outreach healthcare in Amazonian Peru - Hope Foundation

Vine Trust for a Volunteer Physician to Support outreach healthcare in Amazonian Peru - £1,000

The Vine Trust is an international charity based in Leith, Scotland. It delivers medical projects, including a clinic ship visiting Amazonian Peru. This grant supports the costs of one volunteer physician to participate in a 2019 expedition. The 2018 expeditions supported around 180,000 patients.

King’s Kongo Central Partnership Safer Surgery Training - Hope Foundation

King’s Kongo Central Partnership Safer Surgery Training - £7,050

This grant supports UK volunteers to train 27 health workers from across disciplines in safer surgery and to further train 12 of these health workers to be trainers themselves so that they can continue to promote safer surgery across this area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This project is in partnership with King’s College London.

Scottish Clinical Leadership Fellows

We have been fortunate to have a longstanding relationship with the Scottish Clinical Leadership Fellows network, and have mutually benefited from supporting SCLFs in the College over the past number of years.

In March, we hosted the Scottish Clinical Leadership Fellows group for a conference on Leadership in Action. The conference focused around the important role of good leadership in delivering a healthy medical workforce.

During 2018-19, Jack Fairweather was based in the College during his SCLF year and he worked in the following areas: