In a move to increase transparency around its governance, the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has begun publishing open summaries of its Council discussions within a week of each meeting.
As part of a programme of constitutional and governance modernisation, the RCP has now changed the way that Council meetings are run so they include open sections, with improved communications about Council discussions and decision-making. RCP Council meets six times a year to debate, develop and approve policy on professional and clinical matters. Council met most recently on 25 September 2025. A summary of these discussions is published below.
Welcoming new Council members
RCP president Professor Mumtaz Patel welcomed new Council members, including Dr Emma Vaux as global vice president, elected councillors Professor Nick Hopkinson, Dr Dilesh Lakhani, Dr Sarah Logan and Dr Rasha Mukhtar, and censors Dr Alex Crowe, Dr Sarah Gladdish and Dr Elaine Hui.
Professor Patel also congratulated Dr Stephen Joseph on becoming co-chair of the RCP Resident Doctor Committee.
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- View the agenda for this meeting of Council
President’s update
As a standing item, the president provided Council with a verbal update on key activities and issues relevant to the RCP.
Professor Patel reported strong progress on strategy consultation. An internal survey of over 500 Council and committee members drew 122 responses, highlighting three priorities – education and knowledge, advocacy and voice, and community and belonging. A full membership survey will launch in October. The aim is to finalise and launch the new RCP strategy in early 2026.
‘Every engagement with a member or fellow is an opportunity to discuss where we’re at as a college and where we need to be,’ Professor Patel said.
She reported that planning for the Med+ conference in November 2025 was well underway and highlighted the launch of new job planning guidance for consultant physicians and specialist doctors. The next generation campaign continued to progress strongly: a recent national survey of resident doctors had directly informed the RCP’s response to the national medical training review.
Council heard that the RCP had already implemented 75% of the recommendations from The King’s Fund review, with a full report scheduled by the end of the year. The Good Governance Institute had also completed its evidence-gathering process, with findings to be published in due course.
The president reflected positively on membership engagement, noting productive hospital visits, well-attended regional Update in medicine conferences, and strong participation in two recent ‘Meet the president’ online events, with two more planned.
On influencing activity, the RCP had convened over 70 organisations to press for meaningful engagement on workforce planning. The president herself had attended an Academy of Medical Royal Colleges meeting on the 10 Year Workforce Plan for England and held discussions with senior DHSC officials in the Department of Health and Social Care, including the directors of workforce and people. Workforce priorities had also been raised in the House of Lords and discussed with MPs. The RCP had issued a public statement on competition ratios, calling for recognition of NHS experience in recruitment.
Other areas of advocacy included attending a private roundtable on air quality chaired by Stephen Holgate with Chris Whitty presenting; submitting a briefing to peers on the assisted dying bill ahead of a House of Lords debate; urging NHS England to release promised data on corridor care, with the latest RCP survey results due in October; and publishing a new position statement calling for a national end-of-life care strategy. Finally, the president noted the RCP’s response to the Leng review and formal adoption of physician assistant nomenclature.
Driving greater transparency
Council discussed reforms to improve openness and transparency confirming that, from this meeting onwards, agenda items will be divided into open and closed sections, with summaries of open-section discussions to be published online. ‘This is all part of our response to The King’s Fund review published about a year ago – we’re trying to make things more open and transparent,’ RCP president Professor Mumtaz Patel explained.
Full Council meeting minutes will be published in the member-only section of the RCP website once they are approved at the following meeting. This is a staged process with plans for further improvements in 2026, including offering in-person opportunities to observe Council.
Election review 2025
Council considered a review of the 2025 elections led by Dr Ajay Verma FRCP. He told Council: ‘the election was very successful with a high voter turnout. We’ve proposed categorising complaints in the future as minor breaches, which can be quickly resolved, and major breaches, which might require investigation and even removal of a candidate.’
The group also recommended a 6-week election period with candidates signing up to clear rules in advance, results of all roles elected being announced on the same day and pragmatic rules on canvassing. ‘We think social media is a key communication channel and right that it’s included for spreading the word about elections,’ Dr Verma explained. ‘Social media just needs to be used transparently, responsibly, and with personal accounts clearly labelled and separate from RCP business.’ Council members broadly welcomed the review and agreed that the proposals should be refined further and aligned with the college’s ongoing governance improvement work programme.
Meeting governance
Council agreed new standard operating procedures for RCP general meetings of fellows to provide clarity and consistency. These will be made available on the member-only section of the RCP website.
Military medicine
Council heard from Colonel Andrew Williams, defence consultant adviser for medicine and consultant cardiologist in south Wales. He described efforts to create a military-specific medical curriculum for resident doctors.
‘When we deploy overseas, facilities are small and resources are limited, so we’ve written a unique military curriculum especially for physicians in training, and I’m optimistic this will be implemented for resident doctors in the military in the future,’ he explained.
Colonel Williams also discussed the reception arrangements for military personnel (what happens to military patients medically evacuated back to the UK) in the event of a large-scale combat operation in Europe. He talked about recent discussions with NHS England and the devolved nations, with recent war gaming and an exercise in the new year to help with future planning.
He also highlighted the need for the NHS to be better prepared for war, given current global uncertainty. Council members were encouraged to start a conversation in their local trusts and health boards about the impact of both military and civilian patients as a result of war (in addition to the normal NHS cohort of patients) and the impact of having an inevitably lower number of doctors, nurses and allied health professionals who may be helping with the war effort outside their home trust or health board.
Corridor care
Council discussed a refreshed RCP position statement on corridor care. This highlights the need to protect patients in temporary escalation spaces – whether corridors, day rooms or other inappropriate environments – while continuing to call for an end to the practice. Council members strongly emphasised that corridor care must not be normalised, urging NHS England to publish more accurate data, align definitions and learn from trusts and health boards that have eliminated the practice.
- Read about our work to campaign for a zero-tolerance approach to corridor care
- Read RCP guidance on the measurement, management and elimination of temporary care environments
Looking ahead
Council closed with a commitment to transparency, robust governance and advocacy for both physicians and patients. Full Council meeting minutes will be published in the member-only section of the RCP website once they are approved at the following meeting. The closed section of the meeting will be reserved for fellowship and business-sensitive information. For more information, please contact Council@rcp.ac.uk.