A-AND-E MEDICINE AND THE HEALTH OF THE NATION

Every year 11 million people, or one in five of the population, attend A & E departments for a wide variety of problems. The specialty of A & E has therefore enormous scope for influencing health not only, in i ts primary role of treating trauma and acute illness but also because the number of patients seen gives scope for opportunistic screening an d health promotion. This was the theme at a conference at the Royal Co llege of Physicians on 14 and 15 December 1993; it was also the occasi on of the first general meeting of the newly created intercollegiate F aculty of Accident and Emergency Medicine.