Imperial College London Primary Care

It was a great privilege to have Dr Stephen Weiss as our seminar speaker on Wednesday 28 October 2015. Dr Weiss is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. Dr Weiss spoke about his experiences during World War 2 when he served as a first scout in an American infantry rifle squad in Italy, France, and Germany. He landed on D-Day in Southern France. Listed as ‘Missing In Action' in France, he served with the French Resistance and an OSS Operational Group behind enemy lines. For these exploits, he was awarded the French Resistance Medal, two Croix de Guerre, and the American Bronze Star. President Jacques Chirac presented him with the Legion d’ Honneur in 1999. On 22nd June 2007 he was made an Officier de la Leigon d’ Honneur and in July 2013 he was promoted to Commandeur in the Order de la Leigon d’ Honneur. The Order is the highest decoration in France.

Our seminar speaker this week was Martin Lupton, Head of the Undergraduate School of Medicine at Imperial College London. Mr Lupton spoke on the topic of What should be the nature of a future doctor? With groups such as physician associates, specialist nurses and physiotherapists taking on many traditional medical roles, medical schools will need to rethink how they train medical students. Mr Lupton gave an interesting, thought-provoking talk on this topic. In the question and answer session, there was further discussion about post-graduate training of doctors, the role of continuous professional development in ensuring doctors remain competent, and the extent to which changes in skill-mix were being driven by the financial challenges the NHS faces.