We had our annual conference in London recently for which I must record my thanks to Surjait Singh as conference chair and Tom Kane as his deputy and chair of conference next year. We were regaled with a number of considerations from a variety of speakers in respect of the value of retired members.

Our hard working secretariat, Laura, Jonny and Winifred, made sure that we were fully prepared and supported and with the additional help of the conference team and IT we had I believe a successful hybrid conference.

This included providing laptops and support to a number of members not comfortable with our move to electronic voting on a single system both for those present at BMA House, and those attending virtually. I believe we improved on our hybrid conference of last year but we should not rest on our laurels but aim even higher next year. 

The afternoon session was devoted to the consideration of submitted motions to be taken forward for consideration of inclusion in the ARM in June. For clarity, all successful motions are taken forward for possible inclusion in the ARM, and the retired members committee will pursue all possible avenues for these to be included in the final ARM agenda.

Gary Wannan has been elected as our deputy conference chair for next year. Thanks also to Andrew Green who attended conference with a stand to discuss issues that members had with respect to the physician-assisted dying issue, which we recently had a webinar on – the recording is available now.

Further learning

After our successful webinar on physician-assisted dying, we are open to ideas from all on topics that would fit for future events. Do get in touch with any ideas you may have. 

Pensions

This has still not concluded and many will still be awaiting communication from the various pension schemes in particular in respect of their options under the McCloud remedy.  Any returning to NHS work should note they are eligible to join the current NHS pension scheme, and at present this is the only sure way to gain future benefit from the employer contributions in the absence of any agreement on contribution recycling.

Emeritus consultant scheme 2.0

NHS England has passed this whole process to an external employment agency without any consultation with us. We have no details and, in spite of request, have no information to offer members in respect of this scheme. Should you be inclined to consider getting involved we must advise discussion with the BMA and we as retired members committee would be very pleased to hear from you as to progress etc. NHS England is of course going to cease to exist in due course and where this scheme then goes would appear to be uncertain.

BMA local restructuring

The considerations in respect of this are ongoing and it seems unlikely that there will be any resolution of proposals ready for the ARM this summer and will likely to roll on into next year as a result. All thoughts are welcome, and it is a subject considered and discussed regularly by your committee striving to ensure the best interests of retired members are provided for.

Retired member committee membership

We are committed to ensure a gender balance on the RMC in line with that of our membership so, to this end, we have had to reopen the elections for the committee to attempt to achieve compliance with our standing orders. Those who attended conference are eligible to vote and you will receive an email in the near future, if not already, an invitation to self-nominate and details of the election to follow.

As always we would be pleased to hear from you about anything you feel we should be attending to.

Peter Curry – RMC chair                                                           

Laura Clark – RMC secretariat