FICM Board Election 2024 - RESULTS!

CLARKE, Sarah Jane – Royal Blackburn Hospital
Nominated by Dr Richard Benson and Dr Daniele Bryden

What experience do you have in local, regional and national committees, projects and initiatives?

It has been a privilege to be elected to, and serve on, The Board of FICM the last 4 years. I am a full-time Consultant in Anaesthesia & ICM since 2003 at The Royal Blackburn Hospital, with 28 Critical Care beds. A major career objective has been driving standards in training & education; from ICM Tutor, Regional Advisor and 4-nation Lead RA, I am now Chair of FICM Training, Assessment & Quality Committee (FICMTAQ). I remain actively involved in delivering post-graduate medical education, locally, regionally & nationally.

I am a FFICM Examiner and since 2016 involved in ICM NTN recruitment.

My achievements serving the Board include:

• Chair of the Faculty Training, Assessment and Quality Committee, leading on all things related to training the Consultant medical leaders of our Specialty, working with partner Colleges, our StR subcommittee, to enhance and optimise working lives
• FICM Membership-wide survey to hear and respond to the views of those we serve
• Implementing and optimising the 2021 curriculum
• Advocacy for all our members, across the UK, and inclusive of all training backgrounds
• FICM Reverse Mentoring Project: enhancing equity, publication in progress
• As CESR Lead I authored FICM Specialty Specific Guidance for GMC evaluation. Portfolio Pathway Assessor
• Representing FICM (and Members’ views) at NHSE, GMC & AoMRC meetings
• Currently developing a ‘Sustainable Curriculum’, fit for a College.

I continue to work locally & in the North-West as Educational Supervisor, mentor and role model.

What would you aim to do if elected to the Board?

If re-elected I will continue to use my enthusiasm, experience and determination to ensure our colleagues of today & tomorrow work in a collaborative, sustainable, resourced and safe environment. Our patients and families come first and require an ICM Consultant-led, standards-driven framework of multi-disciplinary care. Supporting our Specialty, improving our services as we journey along the road to College.

GARDINER, Dale – Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust
Nominated by Dr Steve Mathieu and Dr Nazir Lone

What experience do you have in local, regional and national committees, projects and initiatives?  

I am hoping to gain your support for re-election.

I may hail from Australia but have made the UK my home since 2002. I have been an ICU consultant in Nottingham since 2005 and a national leader in organ donation for more than a decade.

I love intensive care medicine. I love the teamwork, its multidisciplinary nature, the quality of care we provide and the intellectual stimulation. My job plan has 6.5 PAs of ICM direct clinical care.

I hope I am known for consensus building, genuine care for people and innovation. I founded the national donation simulation course – with its emphasis on mentorship, communication and ethical decision-making. I chaired my hospital’s clinical ethics committee over COVID. I lead the posthumous Order of St John Award for Organ Donation, given now to over 10,000 UK donors and their families. I’m currently co-chair in updating the Code for Diagnosing Death and am the main author for the neurological testing forms.

On the Board I stand for positivity and pragmatism. I have deepened the relationship between FICM and Australia/NZ CICM, through shared webinars and other activities. Since December 2022 I have had the honour to chair FICM’s Professional Affairs and Safety (PAS) Committee and been very pleased by the greater profile this committee is having in safety, GPICS 3, and as an expert group external organisations consult with.

What would you aim to do if elected to the Board?

If re-elected my top priorities are:

1. Delivering GPICS 3. The draft chapters are coming but publication and implementation lie ahead. My goal is pragmatic standards and deliverable recommendations to drive the service forward, for the benefit of all units across the UK.
2. Standing up for intensive care medicine. There may be difficult years ahead for us, but I have only seen intensive care improve – I don’t intend to let that change now.

SUNTHARALINGAM, Ganesh  – Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow
Nominated by Dr David O'Callaghan and Dr Munita Grover

What experience do you have in local, regional and national committees, projects and initiatives?  

Based in a busy outer London DGH, I have been fortunately able to contribute more widely to UK ICM thanks to supportive local colleagues.

I served the Intensive Care Society on Council (2014–22) and was proud to be its first ethnic minority President (2018-20). I appointed a new CEO (2018) and streamlined the governance to make ICS more agile, responsive and accountable to members.  I strengthened its support for UK research & the FUSIC programme, and enabled multiple new programmes and guidelines. 

During COVID I was active with ICS/FICM colleagues in supporting the profession with guidance, shared learning, public communication, and liaison with national agencies.  I am currently an independent ICU expert witness for the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.

I ran ICS State of the Art for 4 years (2015-17 &’22), developing a dynamic & equitable conference (reaching a 50:50 speaker gender balance in 2022 – an ICM world first – plus the privilege of hosting FICM’s inaugural Women in ICM session in 2016); with emphasis on new faces, rising talent and medical advances e.g. POCUS.

As Clinical Lead of NW London Critical Care Network (2002 – 2014; now Chair since 2020), I brought together colleagues of all grades and unit types; together we developed a collaborative group of ICUs with close inter-unit links, a supportive peer review system, and a record of shared innovation.

Locally I oversaw development of a thriving dept with a flat hierarchy, excellent trainee & SAS feedback, a strong MDT and a united, dynamic consultant body.

What would you aim to do if elected to the Board?

I have a track record of action, and commit to do more, including:

Supporting career progression for specialist & speciality doctors, ACCPs and pharmacists. 

Ensuring that medical advances such as point of care ultrasound & echo are fully recognised in the curriculum.    

Supporting the goal of a UK College of ICM.

BERRIDGE, John – York Hospital
Nominated by Dr Jonathan Redman and Dr Thomas Kelly

What experience do you have in local, regional and national committees, projects and initiatives?  

National: NCEPOD, ATLS, Equivalence, AAC, Education

Regional: Networks, Training, Education

Local: Resuscitation, New Hospital Build, Merit Awards, Simulation

Research: Over 50 publications in Nature, Anesthesiology, NEJM, Lancet, BMJ, JAMA, BJA.

FRCPEdin, MRCPathME, FRCA, DipSEM as well as FFICM

32 years as a Consultant in ICUs including Neuro, cardiac, Paediatric, Liver Transplant, DGH and Prehospital

What would you aim to do if elected to the Board?

I would prioritise training. We are losing trainees, in part due to the complexities of dual training. This seems to be impacting our less than full time trainees more. We need to be even more supportive and flexible. There are also tensions regarding ACCP training with the trainee body feeling that they are not as valued as they should be. These need resolving.

Referring doctors increasingly ask for support with elderly frail patients. We need to educate referring teams what Critical Care can and should offer. We also need to engage the public and discuss with them what ICU care is appropriate in our ageing population. I would look at developing dialogue with referring teams and the public.

Issues with delayed discharges is now endemic. We need a national drive and strategy to reduce the harm from delayed admissions and postponed rehabilitation. Robust dialogue with Trusts and the DoH should be ongoing.

We need to recognise that dual anaesthetic trainees perform fewer airway interventions than previously; non-anaesthesia trainees are even more disadvantaged. We need to ensure this key skill is attained and maintained and I would be well placed in developing training and education in this area.

As a Fellow of three colleges, on a standing committee of a fourth, and FFICM, I am uniquely placed to remind Fellows of our multidisciplinary nature as we discuss forming a separate College which comes with threats as well as opportunities.

Overall principle

• Board members who cannot keep to the roles and responsibilities below will be asked to stand down.

Board functions: Meetings, emails, papers, due process

• Board members must attend all meetings of the Board.  Absence should be for exceptional circumstances and discussed with the Dean and Board Secretary.
• Board members must read papers to be able to engage in discussion at Board meetings.
• Board members must engage with Board email discussion, including replying to consultation requests and urgent policy decisions.  
• Board members must be prepared to submit written reports from meetings they attend on the Board’s behalf if they are not able to give an oral report at a Board meeting.
• Board members must adhere to Board level decisions once taken.
• Board members tasked with writing papers for the Board should try to provide these at least two weeks before the date of the meeting where it is due to be discussed to ensure other members have the opportunity to read them.

Capacity and conflicts of interest

• Board members must be prepared to take on additional duties beyond Board meetings, which may include Committee / Working Party membership, representing the FICM on an external group or leading on a piece of work or consultation.  Support will be actively given by the Faculty when trying to negotiate time away with Health Boards and Trusts.
• Board members must list all actual or potential conflicts of interest and be prepared to relinquish any hats where there is direct conflict or to not take part in discussions where there may be a conflict.
• Board members should try to limit their non-hospital / non-job plan responsibilities outside the FICM so they have the capacity to take forward FICM work.
• Board members should try to consult with the Dean before committing to work with external agencies in a personal capacity on matters that may be relevant to the Faculty.

Board members as ambassadors 

• Board members must act as ambassadors to promote the good standing of the Faculty and the specialty of ICM.
• Board members must take decisions with the following priority drivers: for the patient, for the profession, for their organisations, and only then for themselves.
• Board members must be prepared to accept roles offered if they are able to fulfil the role requirements, regardless of their personal interest.  A Board position is not to enable personal self-interest but for the greater good of the specialty and our patients.