Wounds UK Annual Conference — Made Easy
Introduction
For more than 15 years, the Wounds UK Annual Conference in Harrogate has continued to be the UK’s highest-attended and most influential conference for the UK wounds community with over 1,800 attendees per annum. We are busy planning this year’s content and looking forward to building you yet another interesting and lively learning environment to help meet your clinical and professional learning requirements with over 17 hours of education available.
Clinicians attend the event via a number of different channels, either by self-funding, support from their Trust/healthcare organisation, or sponsorship from industry. This Made Easy document has been developed to help clinicians understand the compliance standards held by Wounds UK and update you on changes affecting some of our industry partners in providing an ethical and credible learning environment.
How can I attend the event this year?
Self-funding or Trust/employer support
As mentioned above, some delegates to the annual Wounds UK Conference self-fund their place, either through their own means or via support from their Trust/healthcare organisation. This will continue as normal and if this applies to you, please visit the Wounds UK website (https://www.wounds-uk.com/events) for further information on how to register.
Sponsorship from industry unaffected by the changes
There are a significant number of companies who are not members of a trade body and whilst they also uphold the highest ethical standards, they are able to continue providing direct support to clinical staff and will apply their own compliance rules in this regard. There will be no change therefore for these companies and they can support your delegate place as they have in the past and you can apply directly to the company/manufacturer.
Sponsorship from companies who are members of MedTech and associated trade bodies
Other delegates receive direct support for their place from the wound care industry/companies and in some cases, how this support will be provided in 2018 and beyond will change due to new compliance standards being introduced by MedTech Europe (some companies are not required to implement this change until December 2018), which is a European trade body representing the interests of its member organisations. You can find a list of MedTech Europe registered manufacturers and associated trade bodies on their website at http://www.medtecheurope.org/corporate-members, or please speak your local representatives.
These companies continue to be highly-supportive of nurse education and are still able to support delegate attendance, it is the mechanism of that support that is changing to further promote their ethical standards. If you would like to seek support from members of these organisations, they will be provided in future through two means:
- Industry bursary award through Wounds UK
How will this work?
The Wounds UK bursary scheme will provide support to successful applicants for the following aspects of the event:
- A 3-day delegate pass which will provide you with access to all educational sessions, conference materials, lunch and refreshments (please note: successful applicants will need to register separately for the conference gala dinner, Wounds UK are delighted to confirm they will cover this cost for you).
- 2 nights’ bed and breakfast accommodation.
- Up to £100 maximum towards travel expenses (please note: successful applicants will be provided with an expense claim form for completion).
These bursaries will be funded through support from industry and Wounds UK. To ensure full transparency, the supporting/participating industry members will be advised of the delegate pool once all bursaries have been awarded. However, to meet the compliance standard it will not be made clear to the industry representatives, nor you as the delegate, who was directly responsible for funding your place.
Who is eligible?
Applications will be accepted for healthcare professionals and other relevant decision makers, all applications will be reviewed by the Wounds UK bursary committee.
What is the process?
You will need to complete your application online by the 30th July. To apply and view the full event details please visit: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/WUKBursary18
Successful applicants will be notified in September, the full list of successful bursary applicants will be available to view on the Wounds UK website.
- Industry bursary through your Trust/healthcare organisation
Some MedTech Europe and ABHI members may prefer to provide an educational grant to your Trust or healthcare organisation. In this case, the organisation (not you individually) will need to make a request in writing on your, or your teams behalf. If the industry member is happy to provide a grant, this will be done through your Trust/healthcare organisation and they (your employer) will be responsible for nominating the individual recipient/s of the award.
Additional information
The MedTech code also requires companies to only support events that comply with their rules on programme content, conference venue and location. The Wounds UK Annual Conference adequately meets these requirements and complies with the regulations.
Moving forward
We hope that this special version of our popular Made Easy series has helped you understand some of the compliance changes implemented by a number of our industry colleagues. Wounds UK has always upheld the highest standards in relation to our clinical and professional content, whether that be in printed or live event formats. We will continue to provide you with the best-possible information and education available and we very much look forward to seeing you in Harrogate in November.
