The specialty of Emergency Medicine has come a long way in 36 years. As our specialty has changed so have others. In the early years of the NHS, most hospital consultants were broadly “general”. The general physician, surgeon, and pathologist were the backbone of senior doctors in district general hospitals. Sub and full specialisation gradually developed. A perusal of the contemporary list of specialties recognised by the General Medical Council and the Medicolegal Societies tells its own story.

As Emergency Medicine has prospered so its skill set and clinical territory has grown in tandem, although the growing pains have sometimes been painful. Skills traditionally owned by a specific …