Introducing BGS's new Digital Media Editor, Dr Katy Bettany!

Dr Katy Bettany is the incoming Digital Media Editor for the BGS. She is also a practising Geriatric Registrar in the Southeast of England. She tweets at @katybettany.

I remember the exact moment I knew Geriatric Medicine was the specialty for me. I was a Foundation doctor at the time, and attending my first Geriatrics for Juniors conference in Newcastle back in 2017. As I looked around the room at the other delegates and speakers, I realised that these were my people. A hugely varied and invariably lovely group from different parts of the MDT, coming together to share their passion for improving the health and lives of older people. I was hooked, and so began my journey into a career dedicated to healthcare for older people.

The power of human connection also led me to my current position working within a friendly and dynamic team serving the older adult population in the Southeast of England. When considering my career progression, a valued consultant colleague gave me excellent advice - that much can be withstood, and also achieved, with the right people around you. In part because of this advice, I decided to forego traditional higher specialty training and instead work towards CESR with the support of my department.

I think it is an exciting time to be joining the BGS in this DME role alongside my clinical work, but also a challenging one. I need only draw on my experiences last week as the on-call medical registrar to see the challenges we face as a specialty darkly highlighted. I see firsthand how older patients are disproportionately harmed by services not set up for their needs — how a long night on stark uncomfortable trolleys worsens delirium and mobility; and the long waits for the social care that is needed to keep people well and at home will leave them stranded in hospital and ever more deconditioned. 

But I also see how teams working together from across disciplines to provide healthcare for older adults can offer hope. The joy of watching my colleagues from our acute frailty service swoop in and pull older patients out of the Emergency Department, provide rapid high-quality assessment in dedicated Frailty beds, and then offer quicker discharge with community services wrapped around them, is unmatched. We know these interventions work, and that we are the right people to deliver them.  This is what keeps me going when things seem particularly bleak.

It is also why I think my colleague’s advice can be translated to our community as a whole, and my ambition is to grow the BGS’s digital offering in order to strengthen that connection with the right people. I am forever in awe of the scope of work and varied experience within our membership and beyond; and am excited to draw on the skills that I developed as a past Student BMJ editor to tell those stories, inspire newcomers into our fold, drive forward the BGS’s strategy aims, and crucially to amplify its voice.

I would like to end with a call to you — the members and future members — to get in touch, write blogs, and engage with our community if you are not doing so already! I am always happy to listen to and discuss your ideas, and am really keen that the blogs represent the broad scope of what’s happening within healthcare for older people in the UK and beyond. I’m also hoping to branch out into other social media platforms in order to engage more people — in particular if any of our members are already active on TikTok, I’d be keen to hear from you! To get in touch email me via communications [at] bgs [dot] org [dot] uk