The British Geriatrics Society (BGS) is pleased to announce that Dr Iain Wilkinson has been appointed as its next Vice President Education and Training. He will officially take up the role on 7 October 2024.
Dr Iain Wilkinson has been working as a consultant geriatrician in Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust since 2014. His clinical interests include orthogeriatrics, acute geriatrics and Parkinson’s disease. Currently Iain runs an acute ward, an intermediate care ward and a virtual ward, seeing patients across the whole spectrum of older people’s care in the Trust. He also runs a weekly movement disorder clinic.
As a clinical leader, Iain has held a number of leadership roles since becoming a consultant. Initially he was joint Clinical Lead for the Kent, Surrey and Sussex (KSS) Academic Healthcare Science Network’s hip fracture programme, working with teams across 13 acute trusts to develop neck of femur fracture care. He was then joint clinical lead for the Parkinsons UK South East Coast excellence network. He has been clinical lead for the Department of Medicine for the Elderly in East Surrey Hospital for four years and is also Clinical Director for Frailty. Iain is the clinical lead for the East Surrey Ageing Well group for Surrey Heartlands ICS.
Iain is a passionate clinical educator and has run simulation learning courses in hospitals and care homes. He developed e-learning courses for NHS (accessible through their e-learning for Health website) and established the very successful MDTea podcast, which has had over 500,000 downloads of educational content for multiprofessional teams caring for older people.
Iain was a Training Programme Director (TPD) for geriatric medicine within KSS for a number of years and is now TPD for trainees who require additional support. He has been a member of the BGS Educational and Training committee for a number of years.
President of the BGS, Professor Adam Gordon MBE, commented:
Education and professional development are vital to ensure older people’s healthcare is delivered by a skilled workforce. We are delighted to have appointed Dr Iain Wilkinson to lead the BGS’s extensive education programme, accessible to multidisciplinary professionals caring for older people and delivered through our conferences, online courses and other learning opportunities. I have long been an admirer of the passionate way in which Iain advocates for improved education supporting the care of older people. I can think of no person better equipped to carry forward the work of the BGS in this field.”
Dr Iain Wilkinson commented:
I am really looking forward to taking up this role and continuing to develop the Society’s multidisciplinary professional education and training. I am excited to work with the inspirational people in the BGS committed to the goal of ensuring healthcare professionals have the knowledge and skills they need to provide high-quality care for older people.”
