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Report on the 5th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Primary Care Surgical Association The PCSA held it’s fifth scientific meeting and AGM at Kilkenny on September 23rd and 24th. At peak registration, some 145 doctors, mostly GPs but including a number of community based consultants, gathered at the plenary sessions. There were six overseas delegates , members of the Association of Surgeons in Primary Care in the UK. The ambition this year, as previously was to reinforce education and skills for doctors retraining or engaging with skin surgery for the first time, as well as to those with a well established surgical practice. This year, the scientific meeting proper was preceded by a dermoscopy masterclass which ran from 09:30 to 15:30on the first day of the event. This intensely informative programme was also designed around the needs of beginners and advanced or improving dermoscopists. The material was taught by Dr Stephen Hayes a GP and Specialty Doctor in Dermatology from Southampton and Dr Jonathan Bowling a Dermatologist from Oxford, using a mix of formal lectures and case discussions in plenary and smaller groups. Participants were provided with a complete download of the teaching materials and additional clinical learning resources. Following the masterclass, the scientific meeting proper was launched with a lecture on facial surgery by Mr John Curran a plastic surgeon in Kerry and the first public report of the HSE/ICGP Accreditation Research Project by Dr Ailis Ni Riain of the ICGP. The concluding section of the first day consisted of a selection of workshops on ellipse excision, simple grafts, vasectomy and absorbable sutures. These one hour long sessions allowed the participants to practice simulated surgery and to engage interactively with the tutors in developing or refining their skills. Each delegate attended a choice of two of the four workshops. The guest of honour at the conference dinner was Dr Ronan Fawsitt , Kilkenny GP and national leader in hospital liaison, who welcomed the meeting to his city and went on to provide fulsome encouragement to the PCSA membership in their efforts to innovate and build links with each other and with the hospital service. The second day of the conference commenced with a parallel series of talks for foundation and advanced practitioners before the coffee break. The foundation group had talks on haemostasis, planning surgical care and lesion recognition, taught by Dr Sylvia McKenna a GP, Dr Tony O Sullivan GP and Dr Geraldine Morrow a Dermatologist in Dublin and Kilkenny. Meanwhile, the advanced group heard Dr Catherine Gleeson a Cork based Moh’s surgeon on micrographic surgery, Dr Mairin McMenamin a Dermatopathologist on collaboration with the pathology service and Mr Michael Collins of Travelmedia.ie on marketing a surgical service. The Keynote address was delivered by Dr Brendan O Shea , Director of the Postgraduate Resource Centre at the ICGP. Brendan revised the history of community surgery in Irish general practice and focused on the potential of inter-referrals to allow GPs deliver a wider range of services in ambulatory care. Brendan’s positive vision chimed with the optimism of Dr Ronan Fawsitt the day before. The themes of collaboration , cooperation, confident innovation and quality assurance resonated with an enthusiastic audience. The third Dr Ross Ardill Prize awards followed . Nine papers were presented on a range of topics, typically describing a practice enhancement or quality assurance undertaking. Several trainee projects featured this year reporting on the issue of training in procedural skills and the patient perspective on GPs providing surgical services. Prof Vijay Kumar, President of the ASPC adjudicated with Dr Catherine Gleeson. The winning entry was a paper describing an adaptation of the Morbidity and Mortality conference approach to skin surgery and vasectomy by Dr Kevin McCarthy from Cork. The prize, including an educational bursary from A. Menarini Pharmaceuticals, was awarded by Ms Mairead Ardill who kindly attended the meeting again this year. Following lunch, the association’s AGM allowed for an interactive discussion of the various projects in which the PCSA is engaged. New officers were elected and Dr David Buckley, and Dr Christy O Rourke received special thanks for taking the lead in providing another excellent conference. Dr Sylvia McKenna introduced the freshly relaunched Association website www.PCSA.ie. Dr Gavin Maguire, Dr Declan Larkin, Dr Noreen Lineen Curtis and Dr Colum Gavin stepped down from the committee. Dr Cormac O Dubhghaill form Cork, Dr Shastri Persad from Galway and Dr Paul McElhineey, GP Trainee were elected to the committee, which was otherwise returned to office unchanged. The AGM also heard Dr Kelvin Mponda and Dr Mark Wheeler gave a brief statement relating to the training programme for clinical assistants in dermatology in Malawi , which the PCSA is helping to support. The final academic element of the conference was a further round of hands-on workshops, The delegates again chose two of the four options: Optimising excisions and simple flaps; Punch, shave, curettage and cautery; Running stitch and mattress suturing; Cryosurgery of warts and actinic keratosis. Throughout the conference, the redesigned PCSA website was on display, which promises to become a virtual meeting place for the membership in search of information, second opinion or educational materials. As ever, a comprehensive commercial exhibition complemented the academic programme allowing the delegates to discover developments from the pharmaceutical and medical device industries that can support procedural practice and community based dermatology. In sum, it can surely be said that the PCSA’s Kilkenny ‘parliament’ was a great success and the Association looks forward to the next year with renewed energy. Niall Maguire Chairman PCSA