UPDATES FROM THE VASCULAR SOCIETIES
British Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in limb Absence Rehabilitation. (BACPAR)
www.bacpar.org | @BACPAR_official
The British Society of Endovascular Therapy (BSET)
www.bset.co.uk | @BSETnews
British Society of Interventional Radiology (BSIR)
www.bsir.org | @BSIR_News
Rouleaux Club
www.Rouleauxclub.com | @RouleauxClub
We are delighted to continue our partnership with the RCSEd to continue to run a one day practical course “So you think you want to be a vascular surgeon?” this year held in October at the College’s Regional Centre in Birmingham with a date in the diary for the Scottish iteration in the Spring (25th April 2026). Once again, it was well attended and is an excellent resource for medical students and resident doctors in the early years of training. Please encourage members of your team to attend if the haven’t already.
Turning our attention to the run up to VS ASM, we have been busily preparing behind the scenes. We had a good number of high quality, fascinating video abstracts for the MDT session and had the difficult but enjoyable task of shortlisting them. The top three have been contacted and will make an educational session for colleagues with all levels of experience.
Submissions for the second year of the Averil Mansfield Prize surpassed the strong numbers we received last year; 48 submissions were received, nominating 36 candidates. The top four nominees were interviewed by a panel consisting of three Rouleaux Executive Committee and two VS Council members and they were all an inspiration. It was a close competition but the second Trainer of the Year to receive the Averil Mansfield Prize, will be announced at VS ASM’s Gala Dinner.
There are still some spaces for our “Introduction to Vascular Surgery Course”, an annual highlight, held on the Wednesday morning of the conference.
We have selected our essay competition winners for both the medical student and resident doctor (pre SPR level) entries. The winner from each category will have their essay published in JVSGBI so please look out for those and entrants receive free entry to the above course. Winners will be announced at Rouleaux’s AGM held on the Wednesday evening of the ASM.
Finally our association will continue with CX/BIBA Medical regarding the now annual infographic/infomercial competition and the title has been confirmed for next year’s competition, focussing on diabetic foot disease, “The Footsteps Challenge.” Winners of each category win £500/£1000 respectively and entries close on the 5th January 2026.
At the upcoming ASM I hand over the responsibility of President to Mohamed Elkwafi. Mo has been Education Rep on the committee for the last two years, spearheading the Averil Mansfield Prize, so I know the society is in good hands.
Lauren Shelmerdine
President
Society of Vascular Nurses (SVN)
www.svn.org.uk | @vascularnurses
The SVN has focused on education this year both for clinicians and patients. We have offered numerous webinars hosted by legs matter, covering venous and arterial disease. The appetite for vascular education is apparent with healthy numbers signed up for all webinars. Our first SVN road show took place in Lancaster in September. It was open to all clinicians working with vascular patients, both in primary and secondary care, and was a sell-out. We plan to offer these days at various locations around the country. We continue to work closely with our associated societies and the circulation foundation. We presented at the venous forum annual meeting in June and look forward to the joint symposiums at the vascular conference in November.
We are committed to raising awareness of vascular disease and reducing the inequalities in services for patients. We continue to liaise with the VVAPPG and were represented at the Parliamentary Drop-In, Leading Vascular Care: Fit for the Future in May this year. Through fostering meaningful dialogue between parliamentarians and sector leaders, the event created valuable opportunities to strengthen collaboration and support the future of vascular and venous services.
The committee is keen to understand better the vascular nurse workforce within the UK. We have distributed a survey to all vascular centres and plan to present the outcome of that in Hull this year. The SVN continues to encourage members to share their research and best practice in appropriate publications, present at the national conference in the James Purdie prize symposium and offers financial support in the form of bursaries to enable members to achieve these outcomes.
Jane Todhunter
President
The College and Society for clinical Vascular Science (CSVS)
www.svtgbi.org.uk | @svtgbi
Vascular Anaesthesia Society of Great Britain & Ireland (VASGBI)
www.vasgbi.com | @vasgbi
In September 2025 the Vascular Anaesthesia Society held their annual scientific meeting at the Royal Society of Medicine in London. The event was attended by over 250 delegates who enjoyed workshops, lectures and MDT discussions. Highlights included an entertaining debate on the pros and cons of a separate vascular anaesthetic on call rota for vascular surgical emergencies. Dr Maria Safar (Liverpool) argued persuasively in favour of the motion, but the audience voted in favour of her opponent’s view. In line with the outcome of the debate, a separate vascular anaesthetic on call rota is unlikely to become a reality. Another highlight was the resident oral presentation session, the abstracts of which are published in this issue of the JVSGBI.
The VASGBI committee are sad that Dr Dan Taylor (GSTT) has completed his term of office as chair; he has handed over the reins to Dr Vanessa Fludder (Brighton). We said farewell to Dr Gary Matthews (Truro), Dr Ronelle Mouton (Bristol) and Dr Manik Chandra (Leeds) who all demitted from the VASGBI committee this year; we are most grateful to them all for their many years of service and contribution to the work of VASGBI. We welcome 3 new committee members: Dr Rhys Ridian (Bristol), Dr Louisa Shovel (Royal Free) and Grant Harris (Chester) and well as resident reps Dr Leonie Murphy (KSS) and Michael McCann (Belfast).
We are very much looking forward to the joint meeting of the Vascular Societies in Liverpool in 2026. This will be the first conference where Vascular Anaesthetists and Vascular Surgeons have collaborated for a joint ASM. We hope this will prove beneficial to all and that we will have more shared conferences in future years.
This year VASGBI committee members have been involved in the NCEPOD ALI study and have worked with the Royal College of anaesthetists to develop quality improvement and audit tools for vascular anaesthetists. We continue to work with the NIAA to support research in the field of vascular surgery and anaesthesia. We are looking forward to working with colleagues to develop the NAAASP exit strategy and supporting primary care with non-referral of patients unlikely to benefit from surgical intervention.
We regularly undertake surveys on behalf of our members; our current survey is investigating current practice with regard to analgesia for open aortic surgery. You can take part via a link on our homepage Open Aortic Surgery Analgesia Survey - VASGBI.
Registration has just gone live for the biennial virtual VASGBI CPD meeting which will take place on Friday 13th March 2026 and will be hosted by Dr Carolynn Wai and team from Preston. The programme will include an overview of the NCEPOD ALI study results and recommendations, assessment and management of right heart dysfunction, anaesthesia for complex aortic surgery and much more. For details of the full programme visit the VASGBI.com website (vasgbi-cpd-meeting-programme-2026.pdf ).
Vanessa Fludder
Committee Chair
The Vascular and Endovascular Research Network (VERN)
www.vascular-research.net | @VascResearchNet
The Vascular Society for Great Britain and Ireland
www.vascularsociety.org.uk | @VSGBI
Annual Scientific Meeting 2025
Autumn is a busy for the Vascular Society Council and Committee members as we prepare for the Annual Scientific Meeting. The meeting this year is being held from the 26th to 28th November in Hull. The theme for this ASM is “Evidence based, patient centred, service provision”. We can look forward to an interesting and varied programme of talks. Following a morning of parallel abstract sessions the meeting opens with the joint vascular societies’ symposium on Claudication – the Multi-professional team. This is followed by Professor Chetter’s presidential symposium on leadership. Keith Jone’s Vice-President’s session the following day is wide ranging from education; to the specialist doctor role; to delivering change through outcome data.
There are several clinical trial sessions across the meeting, including presentations from the PCAAS, MIDFUT, DOMINO-DFU, REVIVAL, RAF, RAVE, KID, EARNEST, ESTABLISH, MOSAIC2, Stepforward, ROSSINI, DRESSINg and HAMLET trials. Simon McPherson will present the results and recommendations of the NCEPOD Acute Limb Ischaemia study. The Circulation Foundation session will be another highlight, with talks from Marc Bailey on better medical treatment and Henry Davies on End-of-Life care. VERN will again host the Dragons, Prof Rob Hinchliffe and Rachael Forsythe, with four projects competing this year for funding.
Five courses are being run on the Tuesday prior to the ASM: ASPIRE Venous, ASPIRE Trauma, ASPIRE Leadership, Conflict Resolution and the new
VS Mentorship programme.
A change for this year is the SAS and LED doctors’ session moving to Thursday afternoon, and in another break from tradition, Ms Hannah Travers an early years Consultant will give the Kinmonth Lecture. Ms Ellie Atkins will give her Huntarian lecture on the Friday.
The other invited lectures are the BJS lecture – Jon Boyle – and Edinburgh College Lecture – Prof David Clutterbuck.
We look forward to seeing many members at the ASM this year alongside their professional colleagues attending the SVN, CSVS and BACPAR programmes.
NHS 10-year plan
The other recent focus for the Council has been lobbying NHS England and the Department of Health for the inclusion of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in the cardio-vascular modern service framework (CVD-MSF) of the new NHS 10-year plan. This internal NHS England plan will set the agenda for healthcare in England. To date, ‘cardio-vascular’ disease has focused on cardiac disease, and to some extent renal disease, with little or no input from vascular surgeons.
We feel it's important this changes due to the impact of vascular disease, specifically PAD, on quality of life, major lower limb amputations, and life years is lost. There are striking inequalities between the north and south of England in PAD outcomes.
The inclusion of PAD in the CVD-MSF aligns with the NHS plans aims to transition from hospital care to community care, from analogue ways of working to digital, and from treatment to prevention. It also has a focus on addressing inequality.
We would first like a public awareness campaign backed by evidence based and joined up care pathways for people with Intermittent Claudication across primary and secondary care.
Endovenous intervention by Non-Medical Professionals
The Vascular Society has published its statement on a treatment of varicose veins by non-medical professionals We felt it important that the society has a clear position statement on this area of practice given how emotive it has been. We recognise that a people with superficial venus disease often wait too long for their surgery and welcome improvements in service provision. This cannot, however, be at the cost of the standard as a care, patient safety, or the training of our future vascular specialists. There must audit of outcomes of procedures and multi-professional team working.
The document has been written with input from our Allied vascular societies, including the Society of Vascular Nurses (SVN), the College and Society of Vascular Scientists (CSVS) and the Rouleaux Club. Huge credit is due to Patrick Coughlin for leading this work.
Mentorship programme
The Vascular Society has launched a mentorship programme for early years consultants (1 to 5 year of practice) with the first mentors receiving training next week. This initiative to support members is accompanied by the “The Rising Tide Project”, a well-being programme, supported by Lizzie Paish a professional transformational coach, which all members can access via the Society’s website members area.
New appointments
The ASM also marks the time when we announce the election results for the President (2027-8), Vascular Society RCS Eng. Council representative, and two new council members.
This year has an additional significance as Keith Jones will be the first Vascular Society President elected by full member. This feels important milestone for the Society and is very much in keeping with the current focus on listening to members and greater trasparency.
Professor Ian Chetter will continue as Editor-in-Chief for the JVSGBI. I am confident we will see the Journal continue to grow in impact and reach.
Other appointments which come into effect are Marco Baroni as Honorary Secretary, James McCaslin as Honorary Treasurer, Rao Vallabhaneni as Research Committee Chair and Kaji Sritharan as Education and Training Committee Chair.
Webinar programme
The Society has successfully launched a series of webinars though which members can connect and contribute to the Society. Each month a member of the Executive or a Committee Chair will host, and members are invited to ask questions.
Recognition
The Research Committee and PAD SIG have received the Global PAD Research Team of the Year Award, recognising the international impact of UK-led vascular research.
Professor Athanasios Saratzis, University of Leicester, has been awarded a NIHR Research Professorship with provides funding up to £2 million. His work will focus on improving healthcare for people with PAD to improvement treatment, prevent amputations and save lives.
Marcus Brooks
Honorary Secretary, Vascular Society
[email protected]
Article DOI:
Journal Reference:
J.Vasc.Soc.G.B.Irel. 2025;5(1):55-57
Publication date:
November 24, 2025
