Tail Lights

Abstract

Welcome everyone to the new Academic Year 2025/6.

I hope you have enjoyed the fabulous weather this summer. Big welcome to all the first-year students who are joining the best medical school in the world! (COI : I graduated from UofG). Everyone else – I hope you had a restful summer and are ready for another exciting educational year ahead.

I am very excited to work with Surgo’s new Editor-in-Chief Innes Crawford. Innes is bursting with new ideas for Surgo and is technically savvy to boot! I cannot wait to see all the great things he will deliver this year.

We all know the Glasgow Coma Scale (GSC), which has revolutionised how doctors around the world manage Head Injury. Dr Oliver Blatchford of the Glasgow-Blatchford Score (risk of requiring intervention from an upper GI bleed) gives us an insight to his life as a medical student, as part of MedChir and shares valuable advice for medical students today.

I am sad to report the recent passing of another inspirational figure - Professor Sir Kenneth Calman. Sir Ken fostered and kept close links with MedChir and Glasgow. When he and Lady Anne came to support our 'Uncertainty work' with Medical students last year – he was sharp as a tack, generous with his time/advice and incredibly supportive. Our condolences to his family. You can read more about Sir Ken's life here:

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/aug/07/sir-kenneth-calman-obituary

Medicine is grounded in Politics and Policy (see above interview with Sir Ken). You will all be aware of the upcoming Scottish Elections in 2026, while England has just published their 10 Year Plan for Health Services, built on their proposals from 2023. These culminated in reports this summer of 20,000 doctors missing out on training posts: and a decade-high number of doctors leaving the UK.

https://www.itv.com/news/granada/2025-05-07/bma-we-could-potentially-see-thousands-of-unemployed-doctors

Being good doctors to our patients is fundamentally what we all aspire to – competitive job market or not. To that end – I commend you to find a good book to anchor your studies and learning. Kumar and Clark [continuously published for over 37 years with biennial updates] or the medical student-friendly version Essentials of Kumar and Clark might be ones to check out for Medicine (get them free here: https://go.exlibris.link/94J4zxyB, https://go.exlibris.link/4yJ9ZZpC). The latest edition (July 2025) has a new chapter contributed by yours truly – lots of pictures included of course!

Life at university is not all work. Do look to sports, the arts, Unions and MedChir for outlets to meet friends and enjoy life as a medical student in Glasgow!

Finally, don’t forget to send in your holiday pictures as Surgo Vision or turn your audits into Visual Abstracts! Top 5 submitted get published, win some money AND compete for the £100 top prize at the end of the year.

Until the next Tail Lights, have a fabulous start to the new year and see you at the next MedChir event!

References:

1.Oldtimer Fastback And Rear Lamp (158700099).jpeg - Wikimedia Commons [Internet]. Wikimedia.org. 2022 [cited 2025 Sep 14] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oldtimer_Fastback_And_Rear_Lamp_(158700099).jpeg

1. University of Glasgow - University news - Sir Kenneth Calman [Internet]. Gla.ac.uk. 2025 [cited 2025 Sep 14] https://www.gla.ac.uk/news/headline_1197845_en.html

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