The Royal New Zealand College of Urgent Care recently celebrated a monumental milestone, marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of our medical specialty with a spectacular Fellowship ceremony and dinner.
One hundred and fifty attendees gathered for the formal proceedings, creating a vibrant, standing-room-only atmosphere as colleagues, family members, and international delegates came together to honour the achievements of our members. The evening was a true reflection of the dedication within our community, highlighted by the presentation of fifty Fellowship certificates out of a remarkable seventy-three that were eligible to be awarded this year. Adding to the prestige of the occasion, we were privileged to award the College’s first-ever Distinguished Fellowships to David Gollogly, Alistair Sullivan, and John Adie, recognising their profound contributions to urgent care.
We were honoured to welcome Dr. Ken Clark, Chair of the Medical Council of New Zealand, who took the stage to address the attendees and personally present the Distinguished Fellow certificates. Dr. Clark congratulated the College on a quarter-century of the vocational scope and acknowledging the incredible journey we have undertaken. He specifically praised the significant progress the College has made over the years, noting the outstanding results of our recent accreditation with the Medical Council. His words underscored the strength of our clinical standards and the bright future ahead for the specialty.
Beyond our clinical achievements, the evening provided a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the dedication and loyalty of the College’s operational and administrative team, who work tirelessly behind the scenes. We proudly recognised our Training Programme Coordinator, Alex Cristea, for an extraordinary twenty years of service keeping trainees and Fellows on track. We also celebrated two significant ten-year milestones: David Sorrell, our Director of Clinical Training, was honoured for a decade of challenging and supporting our trainees—with a special thank you to his wife, Audrey, for her enduring support—alongside our Chief Executive Officer, Adrian Metcalfe, who has also dedicated ten years of leadership to the College.
The celebration was visually and audibly stunning, designed to create a truly memorable experience for our international guests and new Fellows. The venue was adorned with breathtaking custom floral arrangements styled after the College coat of arms, incorporating our signature green, blue, red, white, and gold, alongside meaningful botanical elements like fern, mānuka, and poppies. These beautiful centrepieces were a focal point of the evening, and guests were delighted to take the table bouquets home at the end of the night. The elegant atmosphere was further elevated by a talented live violinist who played beautifully during the reception and early dinner.
As always, we sought your feedback on the event and have received useful information that will allow us to tweak the event to make it even more enjoyable; we will take this into consideration for our next event, in two years’ time.
We shared the link to photographs of the event to attendees by email – if you don’t have that email please contact our operations manager Cleo (om@rnzcuc.org.nz).