December 2022... Not the wind-down month we all expected!

As the countdown to 2023 closes in, I reflect back on the month everyone told me would be a chance to catch my breath before the new year. Ha!

At the very start of December I took a leap into new territory for GPSA, presenting to the Victorian Rural Generalist Program (VRGP) about how we could recalibrate our AGPT focus to provide support for supervisors of prevocational doctors in general practice, and develop resources and tools to assist hospital-based supervisors in non-GP specialties meet the requirements of the new AMC supervision framework. This is a bit of a passion project for our Member Services / Special Projects Co-Ordinator, Lachlan, and me, based largely on the gaps identified in our discussions at the two major GP conferences and at the National Prevocational Forum Lachlan attended on our behalf.

The NTCER negotiations process has commenced and, while it's great the discussions remain courteous and productive, the lack of any sense of urgency from some participants is really making me nervous as the new training semester inches ever nearer!

The first face-to-face meeting of the new (2023) GPTA Ltd Board was a doozie to organise between conferences and finalising the AGPT grant application, but what a hoot! We have a great team governing GPSA into the Transition and beyond, with Kevin Arlett unanimously voted into the official role of Chair after 2 madcap months living out of a suitcase as our Interim Chair / Nicole Higgins' replacement. Sadly NSW-based Kate Manderson was unable to join us at the last minute, but a quick-thinking photographer made sure she was still included in the weekend in all the ways that matter!

The month was hectic in terms of Transition meetings with various RACGP and ACRRM teams / on various key topics such as Workplace Based Assessments and Supervisor PD. Changes to CPD in 2023 make this an exciting time for GPSA to be accredited as a CPD provider, which we now are, so we can help streamline our members' recording of CPD hours (no longer 'points').

This month we said a sad goodbye to the lovely folk at Monash Rural Health in Bendigo, our landlord for the last few years, as we pick up sticks and move to a more uniformly remote-working team. It's a strange world we live in where the need for a bricks-and-mortar office is no longer central to our ability to operate a business like this (but I really like this new way of working after 20 years of driving 2 hours a day on average!). Having a serviced office in a more central location for the entire team is hopefully going to encourage more time together to bounce ideas off one another. 

Besides our usual stakeholder meetings, GPSA Director of Research & Policy, Dr Samia Toukhsati, and I met with the academically-intimidating but very very nice team from the University of Melbourne's Department of General Practice (Lena Sanci, Meredith Temple-Smith, and Liz Molloy to name a few). This was an introductory meeting to explore how GPSA might be able to support a fellowed GP through a PhD. This aligns with GPSA's position that GPs and GP supervisors in particular deserve greater academic recognition from the university sector for their educational contribution.

A weekend NTCER negotiation meeting was balanced with a night in Sydney to attend the final GP Synergy Nepean, Western and Northern Sydney seasonal celebration, then it was all systems fired up on the Transition - with GPSA webinars on ACRRM's Flexible Funding Framework and Navigating Services Australia for Supervisor and Practice Payments using PRODA/HPOS. This last webinar of the year, held just 2 days before most practices closed for Christmas, has been collectively (ie live and the YouTube recording) more than 1500 times so far. Over 960 people registered for this webinar, which goes to show that January might also prove to be a busier month than expected as our members start to turn their attention to the changes coming in February with the Transition...

Whatever the new year may bring though, we are so proud to be here to support this amazing community of practice. Happy New Year!