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18^th April 2020

Dear Colleagues,

     Kidderminster PGMC Trustees Reports for 2018/19 and 2019/20

Accounts for the year ending 4^th April 2019 confirmed a balance of £141,291 in the Society’s reserves, down from £147,724 in 2017/18. At the same time the Trust’s income from our COIF Fixed Interest Investment had remained stable at £4,502 and the capital sum invested had depreciated by just £679. As a result of this rather modest investment income, and the expenditure of £10,065 on four more bursary awards, the excess of expenditure over income was up to £6,433. This compares with a slightly lower negative balance of £5,808 in the previous financial year.

Moving on to the accounts for the year ending 4^th April 2020. These confirm a residual balance of £140,420 with the Trust’s income down marginally to £4,422. During this period it has been necessary to cash in £10,000 of our COIF Fund holding to cover further bursary awards, and the residual investment has appreciated in value by £1,996. Three more bursary awards have been made since April 2019 which have totaled £7,085 and have resulted in an excess expenditure of £871.

We have continued to use the Society’s funds to offer two £3,000 bursaries each year and, for 2018/19, the one allocated to Birmingham University Medical School was awarded to Alastair Watson, and his end of year report has been posted on the website.

As usual, the second £3,000 bursary for 2018/19 was advertised on the Society’s website and by poster in the Education Centre. In addition, I was again in contact with all of the other 30 medical schools in the UK which offer four or five year graduate-entry medicine courses and last year these various approaches attracted five applicants, but only two of these had local connections. One of the successful applicants was Jeremy Rison, whose father had worked at Sealine in Kidderminster for 9 years and whose end of year report is again on the website. The other was awarded to a young lady with a nursing degree who had been working in the Accident Department at Worcester. Unfortunately, she was taken ill after her first term at medical school and had to withdraw from her course. Under the circumstances, the trustees agreed that she could retain £1,000 of her award and the other £2,000 was repaid to help fund the bursary awards in the following year. Exceptionally, another £980 was awarded to Alice Campion, a junior doctor with strong local connections, to fund a global surgery course in Oxford which the Trustees agreed would provide her with a deeper level of knowledge of the huge inequalities in surgical service provision throughout the world.

For the 2019/20 academic year, Birmingham Medical School put forward as the choice for their bursary allocation, Jamie Richardson, a young man from Alvechurch, and our trustees met towards the end of last year to consider applications for the second bursary. Contact had again been made with all 30 medical schools in the UK and, of the applications received, two candidates had strong links to Wyre Forest. Thus, one of these has lived all her life in Kidderminster and the other hails from Tenbury Wells. Both had impressive CV’s and excellent references and we decided that each was deserving of the KMS bursary.

For all of the above account details we are again extremely grateful for the service generously provided by Gordon Cox, and the trustees also wish to express our sincere thanks to Wendy Kingston, who has now stepped down from the committee after more than 15 years of loyal service.  We would certainly like to wish her well in her retirement. Happily, Tim Campion has kindly agreed to replace Wendy as a trustee of the Society and his Deed of Appointment is currently being drafted by local solicitors. Please let me know if these, or any other matters in this report, need further clarification.

                                        Best wishes,

Further information can be obtained from:

Dr M L Lewis
Chairman of Trustees
Kidderminster Medical Society
117 St John’s Avenue Kidderminster
Worcestershire DY11 6AX

Email: martinlewis283@gmail.com

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