BGS Lifetime Achievement Award 2015

Margaret Roberts is the 2015 recipient of the British Geriatrics Society’s Marjory Warren Lifetime Achievement Award.

In this blog Ed Gillett, Communications Manager at the BGS, meets Margaret to discuss her career, the Society and her views on geriatric medicine.

Margaret Roberts’ career spans over 40 years as a doctor in the NHS: from 1980 until her retirement in 2014, she worked as as a Consultant Physician in Geriatric Medicine, latterly with a special interest in Stroke Medicine, based at the Victoria Infirmary in Glasgow. She’s also been an active contributor to the British Geriatrics Society at local and national levels throughout her career.

In the citation for her award nomination, submitted by BGS Scotland, Margaret’s energy, skills and enthusiasm are described as “essential to the medical advisory structure, NHS medical management, clinical effectiveness and governance, to medical education and to many professional bodies”.

How we built a Geriatric Service in the ‘largest hospital in Europe’

Caroline Whitton is a Geriatrician working in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde currently based in the Victoria Infirmary, Glasgow which is soon to be subsumed into the South Glasgow University Hospital. She has several educational roles which include Foundation Programme Director, Consortium Lead for NHS Education Scotland and Associate Director of Medical Education for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

For me, the adventure began when I was asked to deputise for my Clinical Director at a meeting to discuss junior doctor staffing of a new admissions unit. The meeting was hosted by the medical directorate, and I was the lone geriatric voice amongst a cast of many. From that meeting began a process that has, for the time being, taken over my professional life! Do I regret my initial impulse to go along? No – because it initiated a journey which has enabled me to be involved with the design of a completely new service. It has made it possible for me to influence the way in which I provide care to my patients and deliver training to my junior colleagues.