Secretariat

Brief

The Primary Care Society for Gastroenterology was established over thirty years ago as a networking and educational resource for GPs. Our brief was to grow membership and ensure that the society remained relevant.

The challenge

Gastrointestinal and digestive disorders account for one in ten consultations in primary care and the same proportion of referrals to specialists. The costs of investigations and prescribing for gastrointestinal complaints are considerable. Decisions about commissioning and clinical governance in gastroenterology require primary care input and national policy in gastroenterology also needs to be informed by GPs. Our challenge is to maximise the reach the PCSG and ensure that the society remains relevant. How do we engage as many GPs as possible and boost awareness amongst policy decision makers?

Idea

To launch a magazine that showcased the work of the society and brought together experts in the field. We launched The Digest magazine in 2011 and today this 68-page publication is available in print and online with a reach of over 200,000. In 2022, we launched Ingest our podcast series with Dr Charlie Andrews which now has over 10,000 listens via Apple, Spotify and Google.

In 2017, we launched the Guts and Glory award to celebrate ordinary people doing extraordinary things in the gut health world. In three years, we’ve given our award to an eclectic bunch of people including a Premier League footballer, a social entrepreneur from in Australia and sisters who created a ground breaking blog. With their gutsy approach to raising awareness of gut health we’ve been able to highlight a range of diseases and our mission to “improve gut health for everyone.”

Through a steady and consistent effort to maintain the standards of excellence promoted by the society and its members, we have helped the PCSG go from strength to strength.