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This year’s Charter meeting will address some of the most pressing issues shaping surgical practice today and will bring together national and international leaders in surgery, healthcare, education and policy.

The following day, Wednesday, 11 February, the National Clinical Programmes will take centre-stage with a combination of operational updates, insights into perioperative, intraoperative and postoperative innovations as well as regional perspectives on the impact of NPPPEP. The schedule will include the popular ‘Lightning Talks’ session, that features inputs from across the National Clinical Programmes. At this time of significant change in our health service, including an active infrastructure development programme of surgical hubs, the day is sure to be hugely relevant to all.

The theme of Thursday and Friday’s Charter Meeting is Progress and Precision, and the programme of lectures, presentations and parallels will be of interest to the wider surgical community regardless of career stage or specialty.

A Healthier Future is the subject of Symposium I on Thursday. Presentations and a panel discussion will be preceded by a keynote lecture from endocrinologist and obesity expert Prof. Francis Finucane of the University of Galway. Panelists include Andrew Dunne, Physiotherapist and Founder of Personal Health who will join Senior Nutritionist, Aisling Aherne as well as Dr Emer Aherne, National Clinical Advisor and Group Lead Older Persons. These expert insights into the rapidly changing evidence about exercise, nutrition and the care of older people in modern surgical care.

Symposium II focuses on Next Generation Cancer Care. Reimagined cancer care, the challenges and opportunities of early cancer diagnosis, and the role of surgery in cancer prevention are the topics of discussion at this session. Dr Jana McHugh, Clinical Research Fellow at the Institute of Cancer Research and recent first author of a NEJM paper in prostate cancer , will be joined by Prof. John Burke FRCSI, Consultant Colorectal Surgeon in Beaumont and Prof. Mark Corrigan FRCSI, Consultant Breast Surgeon at Cork University Hospital, to highlight the new opportunities and risks in cancer care including a panel discussion with Q&A from the floor.

Just before lunch, Prof. Camilla Carroll FRCSI, RCSI Council Member will update attendees on the pilot of the Green Theatre Accreditation Project. Directly, after lunch, Prof. Antonino Spinelli, Professor of Surgery at Humanitas University, Milan, will deliver this year’s Johnson and Johnson Lecture on the challenges and opportunities of training in the high-tech era.

The Johnson and Johnson lecture will be followed by Symposium III. Focusing on Preparing the Surgical Workforce for AI, this thought-provoking session will include a diverse panel of speakers from academia, research and industry and include a variety of different perspectives – including a primer for surgeons on the basics of AI. Building on this theme, the day will close with the 101st Abraham Colles Lecture, welcoming Prof. Ewen Harrison, Professor of Surgery and Data Science at the University of Edinburgh, for a state-of-the-art lecture entitled Harnessing AI to Improve Surgical Care from a true expert in the field.

On Friday, 13 February, the day gets underway with a large number of specialty-specific parallel sessions, before we all join together again to hear from the Expert Group on Best Practice in Surgical Clinical Governance at Symposium IV, which will include talks from Dr Fergal Monsell, President of the British Orthopaedic Association and Dr Sharon Sheehan, Clinical Director for Quality & Patient Safety, HSE Dublin and Midlands Region. The symposium will conclude with the launch of the RCSI Framework for Best Practice in Surgical Clinical Governance.

A highlight of Friday is the 33rd Carmichael Lecture to be delivered by Mary Harney, Former Tánaiste and Minister for Health. In a rare public address, her reflections on her work in public office at a time of immense reform is not to be missed.

The final symposium of Charter Meeting 2026 will be hosted by the ECSN on The Challenge of Change. Mr Peter Lonergan FRCSI, Consultant Urologist at St. James’s Hospital, Dublin, will speak to the topic of the science of change before Dr Mary Collins, Chartered Psychologist, will share her insights on the psychology of change. Mr Michael Boland FRCSI, Consultant Breast Surgeon at St. Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, will present on changing systems before all three speakers will participate in a panel discussion. Additionally, at the outset of the session, Prof. Christina Fleming FRCSI, Chair of the ECSN will update on the work of the network over the past year.

The closing lecture of the 2026 Charter Meeting is not to be missed as we introduce the President’s Lecture on Quality and Safety in Surgery, which will be delivered by world-renowned expert Dr Donald Berwick, President Emeritus and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Based on his lifetime experience of healthcare improvement, it is expected that his talk, entitled How Big is “Quality” will be standing room only!

To register, please visit: www.rcsi.com/charter