Update in medicine – Exeter 2026

With thanks to those who joined us at this one-day Update in medicine conference.

Topics included:

• Non-invasive respiratory support
• ICU for the general physician
• Movement disorders in acute care
• Ischaemic heart disease
• Acute kidney injury.

Please note, this was a face-to-face event. We do not provide online access for this series of events.

Download the programme

How can the RCP support you?

RCP president Professor Mumtaz Patel and RCP registrar Dr Omar Mustafa FRCP shared key updates during this conference.

We want to ensure your voice is heard. With thanks to those who submitted a particular topic or question for Mumtaz and Omar to address.

'Excellent programme with engaging speakers. Well organised with great venue. Food and refreshments excellent also.'

Update in medicine – Exeter 2024 delegate

RCP Update in medicine conferences are held across the UK and are delivered by the RCP regional team. These events are designed to provide high-quality education and allow attendees to stay abreast of clinical advancements in medicine, develop professional skills and network with colleagues.

Please note, this is a face-to-face event. We do not provide online access for this series of events.

Physicians and allied health professionals at all levels and across all medical specialties are welcome and encouraged to attend.

You do not have to be an RCP subscribing member to attend this event, but you may wish to consider becoming a member and benefiting from discounted registration fees. Become a member today and join our community of over 40,000 physicians around the world.

Discounts are available for those working less than full time or on maternity/paternity/adoption leave. Please contact the regional services team for more information and to apply: regionalservicesteam@rcp.ac.uk

Doctors in non-resident doctor posts (equivalent to FY, IMT or STR) who are RCP subscribing members can benefit from the resident doctor rate for this event, however this discount may not automatically apply during your booking. Please contact us for support.

The venue is conveniently located just off Junction 30 of the M5 with an onsite car park with over 500 spaces (please note this is a paid carpark). Please visit the following for a location map and directions to the venue: Getting to Sandy Park. A prayer room will be available on site.

Resident doctors - join our networking session

Southwest representatives from the RCP’s Resident Doctor Committee hosted a special resident doctor networking session for registered attendees from 8 - 9am on the day of this conference. We hope attendees enjoyed this informal meeting to hear about the work of the committee and to share their thoughts about training, or any regional issues.

Dr Katrina Curtis FRCP

Dr Katrina Curtis is a respiratory physician working at Bristol Royal Infirmary where she is the lead for the Respiratory High Care Unit. She graduated from Cambridge University and undertook specialty training in the South West, taking time out for a PhD at the Royal Brompton Hospital London. Katrina was clinical lead for the division of medicine for the COVID response, including establishing and leading a high care unit for COVID pneumonitis. Her interests include respiratory failure, ARDS and respiratory complications of neuromuscular disease.

FRCP

Dr Benjamin Garfield

Dr Benjamin Garfield is a consultant in critical care and respiratory medicine at Royal Brompton Hospital, part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, and an honorary senior clinical lecturer at Imperial College London. His clinical practice focuses on severe cardiorespiratory failure, with particular expertise in severe acute respiratory failure (SARF) and advanced therapies including extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Ben has extensive experience in cardiothoracic intensive care, managing complex patients including those requiring mechanical circulatory and respiratory support, transplantation and care for pulmonary hypertension. His research spans translational and clinical studies in respiratory and critical care medicine including ECMO outcomes, pulmonary vascular disease and long-term recovery after critical illness. Ben has published widely and presents nationally and internationally, with a particular interest in improving outcomes. He also leads the UK National ECMO Follow-up Group.

Dr Lewis Jones

Dr Lewis Jones trained in emergency medicine in south-west England and has been an Emergency Department consultant in Exeter since 2006. He was clinical lead for the Emergency Department between 2016–19 and later the clinical director for emergency care in the Royal Devon University Hospitals Trust, Exeter from 2020–22. Alongside this, Lewis has worked with elite rugby teams since 2005. He was a team doctor for the Exeter Chiefs for 17 seasons. He has since worked for the England men’s under 18s rugby team and latterly joined the Red Roses England women’s rugby team. This summer, he supported them when they won the world cup in front of 81,000 fans at Allianz Stadium Twickenham.

Dr Sarah Wheeldon

Dr Sarah Wheeldon is a consultant in haematology and transfusion medicine, working in a joint post between Royal Devon University NHS Foundation Trust and NHS Blood and Transplant. She completed her haematology SpR training in the Peninsula deanery in 2025 and in 2023/2024 held a 1-year post with NHS Blood and Transplant as a transfusion education fellow, responsible for populating the RCPath pathology portal. Prior to specialty training, Sarah did her core medical training in Exeter and worked for 1 year, in 2018/2019, as a clinical fellow in the Intensive Care Unit. Her particular interests are in transfusion medicine, general and liaison haematology, and medical education.

Dr Lynsey Webb FRCP

Dr Lynsey Webb qualified as a doctor in 2002 from King’s College London and spent her house officer years between Guy’s and St Thomas’, Bromley and Lewisham hospitals. On a bit of a whim, Lynsey applied for a job at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital in 2006 and, from the moment she walked in, she knew she had found her forever home. Lynsey gained a place on the south-west nephrology and general medicine specialist training rotation and spent 2007–14 between Exeter and Bristol, including several years undertaking research at the UK renal registry. In 2014, she became a consultant at RDUH working across the nephrology and acute medicine teams. The next few years saw several leadership positions – medical staffing lead, acute medicine clinical lead, clinical director for urgent care and finally deputy medical director for the Community Care Group since September 2023. Lynsey loves general medicine and looking at the ‘whole patient’ – the excitement of meeting patients and solving a problem remains the best part of her work.

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Professor Ashwin Dhanda FRCP

Professor Ashwin Dhanda is a clinical academic hepatologist with an interest in alcohol-related liver disease. He trained in gastroenterology and hepatology in south-west England, including completing a PhD at the University of Bristol investigating immune biomarkers to predict survival of people with alcohol-related hepatitis. Ashwin has been a consultant hepatologist at the South West Liver Unit in Plymouth since 2019. He is lead for alcohol is his trust and has established a research group at the University of Plymouth working on alcohol-related liver disease. His projects range from qualitative research understanding patient experience and developing methods to tackle stigma to clinical trials of treatments for liver disease and alcohol use disorder.

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Dr Ray Sheridan

Dr Ray Sheridan graduated from Bristol University then trained across south-west England and New Zealand before taking up a consultant physician post in Exeter 20 years ago. He runs a general medical ward with seven infection control side rooms where they typically isolate returning travellers and other infectious disease patients. The COVID Medicines Delivery Unit is managed out of this ward. Ray supported the regulation and quality improvement Northern Ireland C. difficile review in 2009. As principal investigator he supported infection research in C. difficile vaccines and treatments and ran the faecal microbiota transplant service. Ray was a co-author of a recently published review of management of severe C. difficile in the Journal of Medical Microbiology. He is the principal investigator for a range of vaccines and treatment studies in respiratory syncytial virus, flu, norovirus and COVID. Ray’s other role is director of medical education for Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

Eloise Radcliffe

MBChB (Hons) University of Birmingham
IMT1
Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital

Kate Williams

Kate has achieved an undergraduate degree in medical physiology at the University of Nottingham, followed by a master’s in physician associates studies at the University of West of England. She is currently a rotational physician associate at the Royal Devon University Hospital. She studied medical physiology and therapeutics at the University of Nottingham before completing the 2-year master’s in physician associate studies at the University of the West of England. Kate is now working as a physician associate at the Royal Devon University Hospital in a rotational role, currently based on the acute medicine unit.

Dr Sonali Dharia

Dr Sonali Dharia is a consultant neurologist at the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust with a specialist interest in Parkinson’s disease and movement disorders. She completed her primary medical qualification in India and undertook neurology specialty training in south-west England before being appointed as a consultant in 2016. Following training, she was awarded a clinical research fellowship in Bristol, where she worked on the landmark GDNF (glial cell-line derived neurotrophic factor) clinical trial investigating disease-modifying treatments for Parkinson’s disease. Sonali is currently training programme director for neurology within the south-west Peninsula deanery and oversees Parkinson’s services at North Devon District Hospital, as well as being involved in various research trials for patients with Parkinson’s disease.

Sonali Whatsapp Image 2026 03 10 At 16.20.08

Dr Mrinal Saha FRCP

Dr Mrinal Saha is a consultant cardiologist at Gloucestershire Royal Hospitals, appointed in 2010. He is an interventional cardiologist and participates in the 24/7 primary percutaneous coronary intervention service (‘heart attack rota’) in Gloucestershire. He started his medical training in Cambridge University and most of his cardiology training occurred in London Hospitals (Barts, London Chest and St Thomas’s). Mrinal’s PhD was funded by the British Heart Foundation and examined the relationship between endothelial progenitor cells and the warm-up angina phenomenon.

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