The September 2025 issue of Surgeons’ News includes our final President’s Welcome from Professor Rowan Parks (pages 12–13) as his three-year term of office draws to a close. Together with his fantastic team of Office Bearers and RCSEd staff, Professor Parks has achieved a huge amount during his Presidency and leaves some remarkably impressive shoes to fill.

RCSEd Council has elected its new President (page 10). Dr Clare McNaught will take up the role in November at the College’s AGM. Dr McNaught has established a strong vision for the College and has our unwavering support and enthusiasm as she steps up from her Vice President role. On pages 52–53, our Dental Dean, Professor Grant McIntyre, explores the strategic and collaborative importance of partnerships and stakeholder engagement.

The focus of this issue is pre-hospital and humanitarian healthcare, sharing insight to the Faculty of Remote, Rural and Humanitarian Healthcare (FRRRH) and the Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care (FPHC). These groups carry out remarkable work on a global scale. 

When we think of pre-hospital and humanitarian healthcare (incorporating disaster medicine, crisis healthcare, acute care in the field, relief work and global emergency care), it’s natural that we might consider the clinician perspective. But a purely clinician-centric lens can shift attention to personal trauma or heroism rather than the reality of patients or of the wider picture. A fine example of the ‘wider picture’ was delivered by Major General Professor Tim Hodgetts at the recent RCSEd Triennial conference. He spoke eloquently about innovation and leadership in austere environments in his role as Head of the Army Medical Services and Surgeon General of the United Kingdom Armed Forces.

In this issue, we look at the work of the Faculties in driving forward excellence in the ‘wider picture’ domain. On pages 6–7, Professor Angus Watson writes about the
work of the David Nott Foundation. On pages 14–15, Colonel Al Mountain describes the importance of trauma education and some of the College’s work producing globally relevant educational resources, which constantly evolve to meet the needs of surgeons working in challenging and extreme environments.

On pages 22–25, Dr Pam Hardy and Dr David Bruce of the FPHC, along with Christian Cooper, describe the commitment of the Faculty to drive forward the recommendations of the Manchester Arena Enquiry, as well as some of the wider work of the FPHC. 

I was in Manchester on 22 May 2017 as the registrar on-call for head and neck across several hospitals. My experience of tending to multiple casualties (in hospital) pales into insignificance when compared with the experiences of those patients, most of whom had no idea what happened as they left the Ariana Grande concert, only learning the full horror of the story they were part of as it unravelled through news outlets. On pages 16–19, Ann Burke bravely and eloquently shares her experience as a survivor of the Manchester Arena attack. Her article is one of the most honest and profoundly moving pieces I’ve ever read, and we’re incredibly grateful to her for sharing this. Let it be a reminder that our patients’ experience should be at the heart of everything we do.

I will finish on a happier note! At the opening of the RCSEd Birmingham hub earlier this year, President Parks enjoyed reading Surgeons’ News with the Lord-Lieutenant of the West Midlands, Derrick Anderson CBE, and three RCSEd Past Presidents – David Tolley, Mike Lavelle-Jones, and Ian Ritchie. You can read more about the Birmingham hub on page 50 and we hope to meet many of you there in person at future College events.