19 December 2017

The Dukes’ Club has had an exciting year and we have a packed programme lined up for 2018.

One of our main focuses this year has been to establish the Dukes’ Club Research Collaborative. We are delighted to have successfully secured a research grant to facilitate the running of our inaugural study; CLOSE-IT (ClOSEure of Ileostomy Timing). The study incorporates a prospective snapshot audit and a retrospective analysis of ileostomy closure following anterior resection for rectal cancer, and explores reasons for delay to closure. It was selected for the research MOT session at the National Research Collaborative Meeting and will open to recruitment in April 2018. Please see our website for study documents and if you would like to participate in CLOSE-IT we would welcome your Expression of Interest Further developing our research initiative, we analysed data collected at one of the Dukes’ Trainee Round Table Debate sessions. Look out for our paper, “Addressing Current Controversies in Colorectal Surgical Training”, which has been accepted for publication in the Bulletin of the Royal College of Surgeons. In order to improve our member’s experience and online interface, we have totally redeveloped the The Dukes’ Club website and after much hard work it is now live! This will now be regularly updated with opportunities to support colorectal trainees’ development, including ideas for education and research. We have also increased access to a wide variety of courses and negotiated subsidised or free places for our members. This includes a free place to Dukes’ members on the ACPGBI Advanced Coloproctology Course and three fantastic free courses which will run at the Annual Educational Weekend in April 2018. We are extremely grateful to Ethicon, Cook and THD for supporting the event, which will be held at a new venue The Park Royal Hotel in Stretton, Cheshire.  This ­is easily accessible from the M6, railway stations and Manchester airport and we hope will improve access for the whole of the UK and indeed facilitate attendance from faculty from mainland Europe. The weekend registration, courses, meals and accommodation is entirely free but is only available to members of The Dukes’ Club who are Associate Members of ACPGBI. We look forward to you joining us in 2018. Merry Christmas to all, Ms Kat Baker, on behalf of The Dukes’ Club.

View other News