IBMS Chief Executive David Wells on supporting our profession and patient outcomes at new levels.
Last month, whilst the House of Commons was in recess, we were busy pushing the Biomedical Scientist Long Term Workforce Plan at both the Labour and Conservative UK party conferences.
We had the unique opportunity to host a panel session focused on the impact of diagnostics and our biomedical science workforce called “Unleashing the diagnostics revolution – how biomedical science holds the key to life-saving early diagnoses”.
The session examined how technological advancements and workforce capacity have the potential to dramatically increase the UK health sector’s ability to deliver earlier diagnoses, through ensuring that patients are put on the right pathways quickly and efficiently – improving outcomes.
By hosting this session, we highlighted the great potential of the biomedical scientist workforce and got a copy of our plan into the hands of a Health Minister and a Science Minister. We also had the opportunity to speak directly to Lord Markham CBE, current Health Minister with the portfolio for diagnostics, about the need for funding for training placements for students on IBMS Accredited degrees.
After some busy and packed days of knowledge sharing and networking, I reflected on the fact that in all my years of work and service for the IBMS I had never felt like we had been achieving anything at this level before. I am daring to hope that our Long Term Biomedical Scientist Workforce Plan – due to its bold vision, solution-driven content and good sense – will receive the recognition that it truly deserves, not just supporting our profession, but also improving the health outcomes of our patients.
Looking forward, coming up this month, we will see the return of the Biomedical Scientist Live event – which will feature a packed line-up of seminars, presentations, discussions and demonstrations. It’s great CPD and a wonderful free resource for our members, so do sign up if you haven’t already.
The new IBMS Awards are also open for nominations – giving our members the chance to celebrate excellence in biomedical science across the UK. The ceremony for these new prestigious accolades will be taking place in June 2024. Further information on the categories and how to nominate somebody can be found on page 44.
It feels to me like a great time to be in biomedical science and these awards will showcase just how exceptional the work we do can be.
David Wells Chief Executive