Junior Doctor: Volume 1, issue 1 [October 2009]

Welcome

New Chief Executive, new approach, new team, new ideas – it neatly summarises the genesis of this publication. Our – relatively – new Chief Executive brought with him a new approach, encouraging more emphasis on our important international membership. Exciting times for South Africa, with a membership base of 25,000, making it our largest international territory. The new team had ideas, an important one of which was a publication concentrating on those either recently having entered, or about to enter, the profession. Welcome to the first edition of Junior Doctor, a bespoke publication for that group.

We have chosen subjects that we feel will be of interest to you, but we are very interested to hear what subjects you wish us to address, so please contact us with ideas. In this edition, we have concentrated on tips on how to keep yourself out of trouble professionally and also emphasised the important role that the HPCSA, or for that matter any registering body, will play in your future. Indeed, registering bodies are likely to play a greater and greater role. If you feel the threat is merely theoretical, do yourself a favour and go to the HPCSA website, and access the information on doctors recently called in to face them.

Importantly, we are eager to encourage young local authors to contribute. One of the innovations in this publication is the contribution of a young local author. Kyle Wilson has written about his winning of the first University of Witwatersrand MPS Bioethics Prize; the essay has subsequently been published in the South African Journal of Bioethics and Law and is well worth reading. So, if you have a good idea, why not put pen to paper and send in a contribution of your own?

In summary, welcome to your new publication – we look forward to hearing your ideas and hopefully receiving your contributions.

Dr Graham Howarth,
Editor-in-Chief
MPS Head of Medical Services (Africa)

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Contributions

We welcome contributions to Junior Doctor; please contact the editor, Gareth Gillespie via email: gareth.gillespie@mps.org.uk.