A state of emergency: interview with RCEM president Dr Taj Hassan

ByDr Taj Hassan

Published30 November 2018

Emergency departments are like a canary in the mine for the NHS, says the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine. Dr Taj Hassan discusses his College's manifesto for emergency care and warns that without concerted action to relieve pressures on the frontline, it will become harder to provide high quality care across the health and social care service.

Emergency care is absolutely integral to the fabric of the NHS

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Dr Taj Hassan

Dr Taj Hassan is a consultant in emergency medicine at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and also president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (2016-2019). He has previously held posts at NHS Improvement as associate medical director for urgent & emergency care, national RCEM lead for ambulatory emergency care and co-author of the national Directory of Ambulatory Emergency Care, vice president of the RCEM and was director of e-learning at the College (2005-2012), leading on the development of the e-learning platform that is now RCEMLearning. He has led on the development of the new strategy RCEM Vision 2020 which focuses on the key themes of staffing, systems support. His major interests include EM system design, creating workforce resilience & sustainability and developing leadership skills for emergency physicians.