Policy and Public Affairs
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh boasts a membership of more than 23,000 surgical, dental and other healthcare professionals. With members in more than 100 countries worldwide, we are the UK’s largest surgical college and the UK’s oldest medical Royal College with a heritage going back to our incorporation in 1505.
As our sole aim as a Royal College is to improve patient care, we work closely with policy makers and politicians in Westminster, Holyrood, Cardiff, Stormont and Brussels to shape and influence healthcare.
We do this by:
- Working with College faculties, departments, groups and individual members and fellows to inform them of the latest healthcare policy developments and produce impactful, evidence based responses
- Proactively engaging with policy makers and policy influencers though meetings, campaigns and joint working
- Collaborating with other organisations and individuals on areas of mutual interest
Our primary areas of focus of are:
- Delivering better patient care through improved team working and leadership
- Ensuring that training and working patterns do not detrimentally affect doctors or patients
- Supporting the development of a 24/7 health service
- Promoting more flexible patterns of training and working
- Eradicating workplace bullying and undermining
Further information on the College’s positions on these areas can be found here.
Standards
To ensure the College remains impartial and fair minded at all times, we have devised a code of conduct that sets out the standards that will be adhered to when dealing with external organisations and individuals. This can be found here.
Contact Details
For further detail on any aspect of the College’s policy and public affairs work, please contact:
Chris Sanderson Public Affairs Manager c.sanderson@rcsed.ac.uk
Andrew Mullinex Policy Officer a.mullinex@rcsed.ac.uk
