The Scottish Society of Physicians was founded in 1959 and is an educational charity which promotes postgraduate education and collegiality amongst physicians in Scotland. The Society is a registered charity in Scotland (registration number SC029462).

The Society is represented by an elected committee and headed by the President who serves a one year term. A list of past Presidents is available here. The Society is governed by a Constitution that was last amended in 2019.

The Society was inaugurated by a group of physicians led by Dr Fitzgerald Peel, a Senior Physician based at the Victoria Infirmary, Glasgow and one of the country’s first Cardiologists. Dr Peel envisaged an inclusive national Society for Consultant Physicians from both teaching hospitals and regional centres which would provide a unique forum for education and peer contact. The Society’s annual meetings were designed to be hosted by senior physicians on a rotational basis and were held alternately between Teaching Hospitals and District General Hospitals. The Society’s meetings provided an opportunity for the presentation of research by trainees and review lectures by national experts in an environment which promoted “friendship between physicians”. A history of this Society is published in the Scottish Medical Journal in 2008 Part 1 (May) and Part 2 (November).

The founding principles of the Society have been retained and we celebrated our 50th anniversary in Glasgow at our 2008 Annual General Meeting, held jointly with the Scottish Cardiac Society.

The Society now incorporates trainees in General Medicine and all its sub-specialities, as well as associate specialists and specialist doctors. Since 2019, the SSP is proud to also welcome Nurses & other Allied Health Professionals as Associate members.

The Society continues to hold its two day annual meeting each autumn, which includes research presentations and keynote lectures from national experts and provides an unrivalled opportunity for continuing professional development for all physicians. The keynote Fitzgerald Peel Lecture has been given by some of the most prestigious names in British medicine over the last fifty years and topics have covered the breadth of medicine and its advances during this period.

The Society has co-ordinated previous national research projects and offers the Fitzgerald Peel Prize to the Trainee making the best oral presentation at the AGM.  All Trainees who present at the AGM are eligible for generous travel grants and sabbatical grants are on offer to established Physicians to allow them to travel and develop new interests and techniques.  Further information on SSP grants and Fellowships is available. 

Annual Accounts