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Peter Murchie, Society of Academic Primary Care
 Despite the prevailing gloom engendered by the global financial crises, which is beginning to have real impact on academic primary care, the Society of Academic Primary Care (SAPC) continues to shine out hopefully as a fixed point to guide us through. We have just held our premier UK academic primary care conference, the SAPC Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM). This year that event was hosted by the University of East Anglia, amidst the historic city of Norwich and the atmospheric Fenlands of Eastern England. This year’s programme offered a smorgasbord of all that is good in academic primary care with, excitingly, another annual increase in the number of international participants.
At this year’s ASM the baton of leadership was passed on with Professor Amanda Howe stepping down after three highly productive years to the equally dynamic Professor Helen Lester of Manchester University. Professor Howe’s leadership has been particularly notable for her efforts to make SAPC truly relevant to each and every member of the primary academic primary care community and the way in which she has secured and consolidated SAPC’s place at the political table. Reassuringly, at the current time, SAPC can be heard adding its six’ pennorth to the hurly burly of debate. It is a given that this great and important work will be continued by Professor Lester.
Elsewhere, SAPC continues to be the great bringer together of the academic primary care community. Firstly, its annual regional meetings, for example those in Scotland, London, Northern England and the Southwest, are very much looked forward to. These events provide invaluable opportunities to socialise and network, to share and develop research ideas, and highlight the work that continues amongst the growing number of SAPC Special Interest Groups (SIGs). Secondly, in its newsletter, the SAPC also keeps the membership abreast of news from within individual departments and centres of academic primary care. To end on a Shakespearean note, SAPC is where we must “nail our courage to the sticking place” to get through the next few years.
For more information see <www.sapc.ac.uk/>
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