The Society is composed of Italian speaking medics who live or have lived and worked in Great Britain, and want to maintain an Italian cultural identity.
The main objectives of the Society are: To guide and support Italian colleagues who want to come and work in the UK. To promote knowledge and cultural development To promote academic links among its members To maintain the highest standards of professional competence.
The Italian Medical Society of Great Britain is Italian, but not only: a number of colleagues of British or other nationalities are with us, provided they have family, cultural or linguistic links with Italy.
The Society is Medical, but not only: other life-science graduates, or colleagues working in associated professions, are part of it.
The Society is based in London, but other chapters are being now set up in other parts of Great Britain, in Ireland, in Australia, Canada, and of course in Italy, for those of us who have decided to move on to other countries or to return to Italy
Our priority is to facilitate the professional relocation of Italian doctors into the UK; to support and strengthen their professional status once in the UK; and to facilitate their return to Italy, when appropriate, in order to create an exciting example of cross-fertilising osmosis. We achieve this through links with the Department of Health, the General Medical Council, the British Medical Association, the National Health System, but also with private agencies and websites of professional relocation, both in Italy and the UK. An extremely important link is also with the Facebook page “Gruppo Medici Italiani a Londra” published by one of our members. For all these, see the dedicated pages in the site.
Our cultural activity has often been conducted, especially in the past, in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute. Guests have included medics and scientists of international standing, but also journalists, writers and film directors (see dedicated page in the site).
The Italian Medical Society of Great Britain was founded in 1997 by a small group of Italian physicians and surgeons who lived and worked in London: Professor S Aloj, Dr G Abbondati, Professor G Bottazzo, Dr M Impallomeni, Mr U Pastorino and Mr G Querci della Rovere. Of the founding group, Professor Aloj, at the time Scientific Attaché of the Italian Embassy in London, was the first President of the Society (1997-99); Mr Querci della Rovere, recently and sadly passed away, was its second President (2000-2001), and Dr Mario Impallomeni its third president (2002-2003). In 1997, we estimated that there were approximately 300 Italian physicians in the UK; now, in 2014, this number has reached the figure of 3,000 (NHS data).
The support of the Italian Embassy in London, especially through its Scientific Attaché, has been key to the success of the Society. Apart from Professor Aloj, mentioned above, we want to thank his successor, Professor Salvator Roberto Amendolia, for his generous support during many years, and the present Scientific Attaché, Professor Roberto Di Lauro, who has recently begun the coordination of all the Italian professional associations, creating a synergy that will without doubt generate an impulse to the growth of all the single organisations.
