A Surgeon’s performance is under increasing pressure with both published outcome measures and national targets. There is no doubt that these measures lead to better results, but surgeons and their units should be supported to help deliver on these targets. National guidance and service specifications are one method of providing units with support for their practice. This needs regular updating to reflect the constant changes in surgical treatments. The development of sub-committees will enable the association to offer more advice to all its members and to ensure guidance is regularly updated. The AUGIS OG cancer sub-committee will provide up to date guidance and the educational tools to enable centres to deliver the highest quality care. There will be opportunity to contribute and any suggestions for areas of improvement are most welcome.

It has been a busy year. The meeting in Oxford was a huge success and I would like to thank all delegates who attended and contributed. Since then, we have been going from strength to strength.

There has been the first joint meeting with Children’s Upper Gastrointestinal Surgical (ChUGS) network to discuss trachea-oesophageal fistula and oesophageal atresia patients transitioning to adult services. Proposal are being drafted to improve the pathway, especially the minority requiring repeat complex surgery.

There has been further quality improvement work. A prehabilitation POQI conference was conducted due to significant variation of services. Consensus statements on the interventions and outcomes of prehabilitation services have been developed to inform the implementation of programs. A nutrition POQI is planned for the summer. The second national nutrition survey is currently live to understand the landscape of how units assess patients, nutrition variations as part of prehabilitation, perioperative care and post operative management.

I have collaborated with NHS England and set up the OG service specification working group which has met twice. The latest OG service specification will be published later this year. One of the recommendations from the State of the Nation report published in January 2024, was to reduce and improve the 62-day targets. This was also deemed important by NHS England and we have just conducted our first national workshop with the aim of reducing variation in the pathway. Alliances will be able to access funding to address the barriers to their pathways. A survey will be sent to all alliances to identify local challenges and potential solutions.

Other work planned for the year includes MDT reform to improve level 2 and 3 meetings, with attempts to standardise pathways. There will be another POQI conference to look at symptom management after major UGI cancer surgery (oesophagectomy/ gastrectomy). I am delighted that the annual meeting this year is in Manchester and we have a great program covering complications and metastatic disease.

June 2024