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December 2020
Dear IDF Member,
I hope you all remain as well as ever.
Who could possibly have imagined what we have been through this year? Covid-19 affected every aspect of our lives from our health and that of our families, to our work and businesses, compounded by unprecedented restrictions on our freedoms. I hope that you have managed to get back to something resembling normality and the vaccination programme delivers what is promised. I am sorry that all our best efforts still prevent our access to the vaccine, but these are early days and hopefully some progress will be made in the New Year. Our thoughts also go out to the families of those members who died from Covid-19 or any other cause this year.
The IDF has remained as busy as ever. I never imagined I could possibly host a virtual musical evening with one performer in Turkey and others in Wales, and other social events that have been remarkably enjoyable with excellent feedback (especially my quizzes of course). The webinars are high quality and well attended and can be accessed anytime via our new website, and appraisal and revalidation continue as ever. I’d love to thank every one of our team and committees individually, but a collective ‘thank you’ will have to do as there are too many. What tireless work they have done in the face of extraordinary challenges to keep the show going for our members, although my grasp of Zoom and screen-sharing will never really be adequate!
We are nothing without our membership however and I am grateful for your ongoing support throughout 2020. I hope that next year will bring more normality of service and we will be able to meet again; our first face-to-face event is a medical meeting planned for July in Cambridge, so fingers crossed. I hope that IDF has provided a common thread of support since March, provided advice where we could and challenged those in charge on your behalf.
It hasn’t quite been the presidency I imagined which is a shame, but there’s enough time to make up for that, and I hope to see you all in person very soon.
With best wishes for the holidays and a much better 2021.
Dr Neil Haughton
IDF President