New Chair of the BTS Board of Trustees

Dr Paul Walker is a Consultant in Respiratory and General Medicine at Aintree University Hospital, part of Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and a Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool. His research and clinical interests cover COPD, physiology, bronchiectasis and pulmonary rehabilitation.

Dr Walker has supported the work of the Society for many years having first joined the Education and Training Committee as a StR in 2000.

Paul has been a member of several BTS committees, notably the Education and Training Committee which he also chaired between 2014-16.

He served on the BTS Board as the Honorary Treasurer from 2018 to 2020 and has been a member of the BTS Council on a number of occasions. He contributed to guidelines and quality standards development groups over the years and is currently co-chair of the BTS Global Lung Health Group.

Dr Walker said:
“It is hard to put into words how challenging the last couple of years have been for the respiratory community. It is humbling to see BTS members repeatedly giving everything they have, sometimes with little external recognition. There is nothing in my career that has made me prouder to be a respiratory specialist

“Although we all recognise that the next few months will be very challenging there will be many opportunities to learn from the last couple of years and to build to do things better. Next Spring, we will be canvassing your opinions and establishing the BTS strategy for the next few years.

“Ultimately, what we have learned from the era of Covid we can use to improve what we do, how we do it and raise the profile of respiratory medicine and respiratory patients. I look forward to us delivering on those aspirations”