SAS Chairman's Message

Well, the new and long awaited SAS contract has come in after all the deliberations and conjecture. It was a big vote of ‘yes’, but voted only by a few. Reality is that it is in. I believe that it is a decent contract for the new and young SAS doctors. I am not too sure how long this contract will last. There is already talk about a subconsultant grade. Sir John Tooke’s enquiry hints at a specialist grade and it is anybody’s guess what form it takes. Time only will tell.

I am pleased to inform you that some of the plans I mentioned in my last message have come through. The new edition of the SAS Glossy on the contract is ready to be released very soon and includes details of the new SAS contract. I do sincerely hope that this provides useful guidance to all SAS doctors working in anaesthetics. This will be distributed to all clinical directors and administrators. My thanks go to all the members of the working party for their hard work.

The SAS Audit & Research Prize has been awarded this year to Dr Smita Oswal. It appears that this has not caught the attention of all the SAS members. I do hope that many more SAS doctors will submit their entries next year.

The SAS seminar was held at the Association in March. It was very well attended and was a success. I would like to thank all those who attended the seminar and for the feedback from the seminar. I welcome any suggestions from the members for future seminars.

The joint meeting of SAS Committees of AAGBI and RCoA is due to be held in June. It is hoped that some decisions will be taken that will raise the profile and improve working conditions of all the SAS doctors working in anaesthetics.

The SAS Committee is organising a seminar on management on 18th June at the Association. This seminar includes lectures on very useful management topics given by expert speakers. I do hope that you will be able to attend. Do please make a note in your diary.

The membership of SAS doctors in the Association has considerably improved. Yet, there are several SAS doctors especially junior staff grade doctors that are still not members of the Association. May I request that all the existing members encourage them to join the Association. If you need any help in this matter please do not hesitate to contact me or the membership officer at the Association.

In the next few months I am planning to develop a ‘database’ of all SAS doctors working in anaesthetics and repeat the SAS survey which we carried out three years ago. Several jobs that do not conform to any nationally recognised terms and conditions are created on an ad-hoc basis. It is important to identify these posts to assess the severity of the problem. The survey is carried out to find out the views of the members on all the new changes that have taken place. This will obviously help us to deal with them.

Please do remember the Joint SAS Review Day on 9th May which will be held at the College, and the lunchtime SAS session at the Annual Congress on 19th September in Torquay. We have a fantastic programme and it will be good to see colleagues from other parts of the country. 

Finally I would like to thank you for all your support and your suggestions. If you have any suggestions about anything at all that you feel that the Association should do, please feel free to pass them on. They are always welcome.

None of the things we accomplished would have been possible without the help and guidance from the President, Dr David Whitaker, and all the members of the Council of the AAGBI and the staff at the Association.

I do wish you all the very best of luck and health.

We will see you all at the Annual Congress in Torquay in September.

Ramana Alladi
Chairman SAS Committee
(September 2007)