Our consultant in Acute Medicine, Nick Scriven, has been appointed to the prestigious position of president-elect on the Society of Acute Medicine.

Two years from now he will become the President of the organisation set up about 15 years ago and now representing 900 consultants, trainee doctors, nurses and allied health professionals nationwide working in the speciality.

Nick, 47, who has been at our Trust for 14 years, says his new role will be “Busy, Scary and Responsible.”

Acute Medicine is the specialty covering the immediate care of patients and in some cases up until 72 hrs after admission, with non-surgical conditions such as pneumonia, COPD, dementia/delerium, cardiac problems and GI bleeds.

Dr Scriven, born in Norwich and trained in the Midlands, praised all his colleagues – nurses, occupational therapists and doctors - in the successful multi-disciplinary approach at CHFT.

He added: “It is a big team here and we couldn’t do it without them. We all work together.

“For me it doesn’t get better than seeing a sick person get better, become stable and then be able going out of hospital to recover. That is as good as it gets.”

He said the acute medicine speciality has a huge role in the operations of every hospital.

“This area of medicine is a growing force and has a key role in the whole running of the hospital from the front end through to discharge. What happens in our area affects all others in the hospital – it is a very important area of medicine.”

Getting patients discharged safely and timely to enable trusts to care for more patients is the main issue facing the society and its members. Frustrations with the discharge system remain a key issue.

He said: “The whole system needs an overhaul if we are to successfully tackle to issue. All hospitals have their own measures in place to improve the discharge system but it really does need a whole system approach and that could take years.

“We have to find a better way of getting patients out of hospital who don’t need to be here. Some patients spend too long yet we all know their recovery is a better one once they are home.

“We have started to tackle the problems, which is more than many places have done, but there is still a long way to go.”

Despite the pressures, there is a growing trend for other healthcare systems in Europe and beyond to look at the UK model of acute medical care.

He said there was growing interest in acute medicine but more needs to be done to attract junior doctors.

He added: “They tend to see it as a hard slog whereas we who are in it see the rewards. It is an amazing area to be in and it all revolves on teamwork which is excellent here.”

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Family background

How to do you relax? – time with family, the odd glass of red wine, supporting Norwich City FC

Fave TV medic and why? – Dr House - probably the closest thing on TV to Acute Medicine, Hawkeye from MASH

My heroes. Mr Gerald Tressider (medical school anatomy teacher – totally inspirational), whoever scores a winning goal for NCFC this coming season(!!)