In 1989 the Irish Accident and Emergency Association (IAEA) was formed with the then seven Consultants in the specialty as its members. With the change in the name of the specialty from Accident & Emergency Medicine to Emergency Medicine in October 2000, the Association became the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine in 2001. Over the three decades the Association has grown significantly to become a charity which advocates on behalf of patients attending the 29 Emergency Departments (EDs) and the 11 Injury Units which are part of the Emergency Care System in Ireland. Thirty years on, the Association includes as its members Medical Students, Doctors in training and Consultants in the specialty of Emergency Medicine. It has a long track record in advocating for better and safer services and to ensure that the crucial role of Emergency Medicine and EDs in the provision of acute healthcare is recognised and supported.
As part of the celebration of its 30th anniversary the Association is today holding a one day meeting to both look back at its history and achievements; listen to external speakers describing the position of Emergency Medicine from a national perspective and spend the afternoon developing a strategy to bring the Association through the next decade.
In addition, the Association will take the opportunity to launch Traumadoc, prizewinning major trauma documentation, which the Association has endorsed and sponsored, and which will be made available to all EDs that receive patients with major trauma in Ireland. The Association was at the forefront of the drive to improve the care of patients sustaining major trauma. Its December 2014 document An Integrated Trauma System for Ireland triggered the process which resulted in a Ministerial Expert Working Group publishing A Trauma System for Ireland in 2018 which is now national policy.
