A & 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 its primary role of treating trauma and acute illness but also because the number of patients seen gives scope for opportunistic screening and health promotion. This was the theme at a conference at the Royal College of Physicians on 14 and 15 December 1993; it was also the occasion of the first general meeting of the newly created intercollegiate Faculty of Accident and Emergency Medicine.