The members of BAPEN will be aware of the very sad reason that the organisation has a new Chairman so soon. Chris Pennington was a friend and colleague of the first order and it will be impossible to fill the space he has left behind. Nonetheless he left us with many ideas and ambitions, and I hope I will be able to emulate some of his drive, and the direction that is essential to the future success of BAPEN.
The Chairman bears a considerable responsibility to members of all the founder organisations as well as to BAPEN itself, and the stature of past Chairmen attests clearly to the importance that Association attaches to this position. Having been very closely involved with most aspects of clinical nutrition over the past 10 years, I hope that I am sufficiently well placed to be an appropriate advocate for the Association, with the necessary connections to support and sustain its various causes.
I am a founder member of BAPEN and am proud to have maintained individual membership of the Association, feeling always that my affiliation is much more pertinent to and reflected by the interests of BAPEN than to any individual founder organisation. I hope to promote this feeling and encourage more people to feel that they also belong to BAPEN in its own right, as well as to the other professional groups that are most relevant to them.
My own background will be known to some, but for those who do not, it may be worth pointing out that I have been consultant physician at St Mark's since 1992 when I took over from John Lennard-Jones. I have an honorary readership with Imperial College and have a particular interest in medical education in its widest sense. St Mark's is one of the two funded national centres for intestinal failure, and at least a third of my time has been spent directly on nutritional issues. In the first few weeks since I became Chairman this has already increased, and I can see that this will be a continuing trend which I hope will be to BAPEN's advantage.
There is still a great deal to do in promotion of high standards of clinical nutrition, and I am convinced that this can be helped by high quality research and audit. The continued activity of the British Artificial Nutrition Survey is a crucial part of this, and I am sorry that I shall have to stand down from the BANS working group to create enough time for my other BAPEN responsibilities. I will however continue to support the efforts of this group with all enthusiasm. Multi-centre trials in nutrition are needed to achieve adequate power, and I hope now to be in a stronger position to foster research collaborations across the country, remembering especially the relatively neglected research potential of the non-medical members of BAPEN.
I have had a close working relationship with the officers of BAPEN over the past 5 years or so, and I have been very happy to help to facilitate closer association between BAPEN and its older cousin, the British Society of Gastroenterology (of which I was Secretary from 1996 to 2001). Despite its considerable achievements, academically and in promotion of clinical nutrition through its actions and publications, BAPEN is currently not very secure financially. I have already taken part in a number of deliberations with the Treasurers of BAPEN in order to share my BSG experiences, and I hope that the Officers and I will very soon be able to report positively with a revisited financial structure that should secure the organisation's financial future.
I hope that I can help to integrate the considerable efforts of others and to provide leadership when required. I feel greatly honoured to have been selected and will do my best to lead BAPEN forwards. I would like to think that Chris's spirit will live on in what we do together, and am sure I can count on your collective support in this ambition.