President’s Welcome

Thank you for the support you have given the OTS. As people who have been members, some of you right from the start, you will know the value of this as a networking forum for those interested in advancing care in orthopaedic trauma.

I start my year as president at a time when COVID has challenged many of the ways we work and think. As such, I was keen that the Society use these opportunities to increase its reach and become even more representative. To that end, membership has now been made available to all of those working as consultants or equivalent in the NHS by simply signing up on the website with no payment required. By doing so I hope to increase the membership base so that the Society becomes truly representative of orthopaedic trauma across the UK and to use this to generate and disseminate consensus on care and advance discussions on issues that affect us all. As members, I would ask that you now go into your departments and networks to advocate for the Society and encourage colleagues engaged in trauma to sign up.

We will also continue to offer associate membership based on registration for the annual conference and attendance there, either physically or remotely.

We are still running the annual meeting, but it has been postponed from from the 14-15th January until 10-11th June 2021 as a result of the increased level of COVID countermeasures. Jayne Ward has put together an excellent programme. The faculty involved will provide the same level of interaction and challenge to presented views as has previously been the core of the event. This will be available remotely with levels of interaction so that questions can be posed and answered as they would be at the live event. Details of this are already on the site and I would encourage you to sign up. It remains likely that numbers will be limited by COVID restrictions but if this changes then we will certainly be inviting registration for the live event in Bristol. We will also post details of levels of interactions as these become finalised.

I hope that you see these as positive directions and continue to be supportive of the Orthopaedic Trauma Society.

Mike Kelly