BAPS President Munther Haddad’s Inaugural Letter

Date: August 2020

Dear Members and Colleagues,

It is my great honour and privilege to be elected as president of such a prestigious organisation. My inauguration was unusual in the history of BAPS as it was handed over through a virtual meeting, epitomizing the extraordinary circumstances we find ourselves in, with Covid-19 and its global impact.

Our annual conference has been postponed until next year but will remain at the same venue in Bruges from 7th – 10th July 2021. I thank the BAPS office, the executive board and trustees for their tireless efforts.

It was a great shame to have to cancel this year because it is important to be able to meet each other, network and discuss spontaneously matters related to paediatric surgery over coffee, lunch or a glass of beer in the evening. I hope we will be able to do this once again next year.

I strongly believe that our organisation should strive to uphold high quality standards of service provision, maintain rigorous post graduate training and select the best trainees in order to secure the future of academic surgery and research. We must maintain close collaborations with the NHS and all the royal colleges and support the work of our adult surgical colleagues thus ensure the high-quality transition of children and adolescent care into adulthood. In addition, I will continue to safeguard BAPS and its members’ interests nationally and internationally and establish a clear vision of our speciality’s future, and how it relates favourably to European and international associations.

I am passionate about minimally invasive surgery, innovation, simulation and training the paediatric surgeons and securing their jobs and skills as they are the future of paediatric surgery. As such, I aim to initiate a committee which will deal with taskforce planning of paediatric surgery and to open a discussion regarding our sub-speciality (in collaboration with NHS England).

To achieve the best for our patients, their families and the wider community, we must all work together and support the collaboration with children related charities.

I wish you all the best in passing through this Covid-19 period and hope we will be returning to a near normal practice very soon. I look forward to meeting you all in person at our next conference in 2021.

Munther Haddad

BAPS President