BGS welcomes new President and President Elect

The British Geriatrics Society is delighted to announce that Professor Jugdeep Dhesi is its new President, following a successful term as President Elect.  

Professor Adam Gordon, who was BGS President from November 2022 to 2024, transferred the presidential chain of office to Professor Dhesi at the BGS Autumn Meeting at the Excel Centre in London on Friday 22 November.  

Professor Dhesi’s term of office as President will be two years. She will be supported in the role by President Elect, Dr Amit Arora, who will take over from her as President in November 2026.  

About our new President, Professor Dhesi: 

Professor Dhesi is a consultant geriatrician at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and Professor of Geriatric Medicine at Kings College London.  She is clinical lead for the award-winning Perioperative medicine for Older People undergoing Surgery (POPS) service and President of Age Anaesthesia Association.  

Professor Dhesi has led the development of novel education and training programmes for medical and allied health professionals and established a research programme in perioperative medicine. This work focuses on improving quality of care for the high-risk surgical population, through fostering a collaborative and proactive approach.  

She is also Deputy Director for the Centre for Perioperative Care, contributes to a variety of steering, advisory and guideline groups (NELA, RCoA, BGS and NICE) and is committed to influencing policy to improve health and social care for older people. 

About our new President Elect, Dr Arora: 

Dr Arora is a Consultant Geriatrician at the University Hospitals of North Midlands and Associate Medical Director at Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust. He is the creator of the highly successful deconditioning awareness and prevention campaign 'Sit Up, Get Dressed and Keep Moving!’. Last year he led a follow-up campaign, ‘Recondition the nation’. Both campaigns have been adopted by hospitals across the UK and abroad. He is credited with rejuvenating the term ‘deconditioning’ to describe the functional decline experienced by older people when they are not physically active, due to illness or disability. 

Speaking of her position of President, Professor Jugdeep Dhesi, said: 

I am delighted to be taking up the position of President at the BGS. I hope to progress the important work of influencing quality of care for older people, which has been led so impressively by Professor Adam Gordon over the last two years.    

“I look forward to working with Dr Arora, the wider BGS leadership team and all our dedicated and hard-working multidisciplinary members to deliver sustainable improvement to the health care of older people living with frailty, multimorbidity and complexity.” 

Speaking of his position of President Elect, Dr Amit Arora, said: 

I am absolutely humbled, honoured and delighted to have been elected to serve as the next President Elect of the British Geriatrics Society, and then to be its President from November 2026. I look forward to working further with the Society and our membership to build on its outstanding work to improve and transform healthcare for older people.” 

Sarah Mistry, Chief Executive of the BGS, said: 

We are delighted to welcome Professor Jugdeep Dhesi as the new President of the BGS. Professor Dhesi will draw on her extensive experience in the care of older people as she takes on this key leadership role. We look forward to supporting her in the challenging and important task of transforming older people’s experience of healthcare.”