August 2022... the Transition takes centre stage.
This month I started to see the benefit of secretly studying the plethora GP-specific acronyms into the wee hours of the morning, having now made sense of these in a range of high level discussions I'd otherwise have been glassy eyed throughout! On 9th August, Nicole introduced me to the RTO network (RTON) ahead of the DOHAC-led Forum on the Transition to College-Led GP Training held at the Museum of Australian Democracy, Canberra. It was all a bit surreal being there in Old Parliament House, with Minister of Health Mark Butler dropping in from the new House on the hill to hear from the outgoing RTO CEOs and the incoming Colleges.
I admit I am a little confused about how the numbers of doctors choosing GP training is expected to increase between now and February 2023 because of this change to profession-led training, but this certainly seems to be the Minister's expectation. Not being across a lot of the background about why this Transition was necessary made me feel like I was watching a film on SBS withut subtitles until I had a chance to pummel Nicole with my ditzy questions several hours later. No offence to Nicole, I'm still far from clear on any of it!
A week later, I had the opportunity to join Nicole in the meeting of the National Council of Primary Care Doctors, where she raised the issue of payroll tax that's bubbling away and making many GPs very nervous. The RACGP policy response was surprising in its dismissiveness, forcing us to reiterate the fact training practices already incur payroll tax for some of their GPs - namely their employed registrars - which potentially puts our members in the spotlight (why calculate payroll tax for only some GPs and not all?) should the rumoured SRO ruling take effect. This is not an issue we can be the silent cousin in the corner about.
Aside from this, we've started planning the AGM for October (hybrid/ at RMA22), we've hosted the first bi-College webinar about the Transition, and we've been busy with more research interviews, more NTCER review discussions, more meetings with RACGP and ACRRM to work out how GPSA can help streamline comms and processes for our members as we move into this new era of training. Lots of fun to come!!