Top sports medics discuss priority of athlete welfare

A new professional code and clarity of contracts for sports science and medicine staff to prioritise athlete welfare over the perceived needs of a team were among the topics discussed by many of the country’s leading sports medicine and legal professionals at a meeting in London last week.

Hosted by MedEduCare at the Royal Society of Medicine, the meeting aimed to open up discussion on how best to maintain the welfare of athletes’ in the current high performance system.

Senior English Institute of Sport (EIS) Sport Physician Dr Anita Biswas, Deputy Director of Medical Services Dr Paul Jackson and Director of Athlete Health Dr Craig Ranson spoke about performance medicine, the sports physician’s role and aligning professional codes respectively whilst other key speakers included Professor Richard McLaren, who investigated RUSADA on behalf of WADA, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, who recently led a DCMS Duty of Care paper and former UK Sport Director of Performance Peter Keen.

With contributions from legal expert Mary O’Rourke (Old Square Chambers) and representatives from the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine, The Football Association, The Premier League and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), the meeting discussed the challenges involved in providing a duty of care in a competitive high performance sport environment, reaching an acknowledgement that professional sport management must recognise the health and safety aspects of their athletes’ training and competition lives.

EIS Director of Medical Services Dr Rod Jaques, who attended the meeting, said: “The EIS plays an important role in delivering a duty of care to elite athletes but everyone involved in the high performance system has a responsibility which is why discussing the challenges and aligning our approaches through meetings such as this are so vital.

“We look forward to working with our partners in the high performance system to continually look to improve practice.”