SATURDAY 23RD JUNE 2007

Report by DR Maqbool Ahmad

British Pakistani Psychiatrists Association (BPPA) North West Branch Organised an academic meeting on Saturday 23rd June 2007 at St James RC Church In Rawtenstall, Lancashire.

The meeting was not only well attended by members of the BPPA NW Region but also attracted other psychiatrists and mental health practioners including social workers, community psychiatric nurses and junior doctors in training.

In the first session Dr Faria Khan, consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist gave wellcome address and invited Dr Syed H. Jawed consultant psychiatrist and chairman of the BPPA to chair this session.

Dr Jawed gave brief introduction of BPPA and asked current members of the BPPA to approach other psychiatrists and mental health professionals to join the association as associate members. He told audiences about BPPA establishing two Young Researcher Awards, one for Uk and Pakistan each and to hold an Annual Audit Competition. The closing date for submitting audits for the current year is 15 September 2007. Dr Jawed also asked participants to keep their diaries free for the 6th Annual Conference of BPPA to be held on 3-4 November 2007 in Coventry.

Dr Shahid M. Ahmad consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist gave a comprehensive presentation on Bipolar Disorders and their management in children and adolescents followed by question answer session.

The afternoon session was chaired by Dr S. S. Khan, consultant psychiatrist at 5 Boroughs Partenership NHS Trust In this session Dr Shahid Quraishii, consultant psychiatrist with Lancashire Care NHS trust and Dr Javed Khan consultant psychiatrist from Manchester Royal Infirmary shared their experience as successful applicants through Article 14(4) leading to specialist registeration. After this Dr Hashim Reza consultant psychiatrist at Bromley Mental Health Services in his talk "Assessers Perspective" highlighted bullet points of the evidence required by PMETB.

Both of these presentations generated healthy discussion facillitated by Dr Maqbool Ahmad, conultant psychiatrist working with Lancashire Care NHS Trust. The over all message for those intending to apply through article 14(4) was to read "Good Medical Practice" Guidlines from the GMC and to consult Speciality Specific Guidlines available on PMETB website.

At the end Dr M. Ahmad gave closing remarks thanking all the delegates for their participation and appreciated the special interest and efforts of Dr S. Quraishi and Dr S. Ahmad for organising this successful meeting.