Out and about - March
I'm going to start by admitting that we are not great at self-promotion at GPSA. Listening to other stakeholders sing their own praises tends to make us uncomfortable, but I am going to try to conquer this discomfort and throw a spotlight on our Chair, Dr Srishti Dutta, who with remarkable passion and professionalism flies the GPSA flag and advocates on behalf of our membership of GP / RG supervisors and training practice members at every opportunity.
No meeting with Commonwealth or sector stakeholders passes without GPSA projecting the voice of the membership we represent. A forum such as the DOHAC Workforce Branch's GP Training Advisory Committee (GPTAC) meeting at the end of March puts us on a table alongside RACGP's President Dr Nicole Higgins and new CEO Georgina van de Water; ACRRM President Dan Halliday and CEO Marita Cowie; AIDA President Dr Simone Raye; AMA Vice President Dr Danielle McMullen; GPRA President Dr Karyn Matterson and CEO Jo-Anne Chapman; a newly appointed Consumer Representative; RDAA CEO Peta Rutherford; Chairs of AMA Doctors-in-Training, AMSA and GPSN; along with numerous senior DOHAC representatives and the National Rural Health Commissioner. Srishti, with grace and dignity, ensures every one of these people leaves the meeting knowing that the lens through which we as GPSA see the operational and strategic issues raised particularly in this quarterly forum is uniquely free of any conflict of interest and undeniably central to the future of general practice.
Ahead of the Canberra trip for GPTAC, I was honoured to take part in Rural Health West's WA Rural GP Summit on Friday 15th March at Perth's truly impressive Optus Stadium - where the solutions-focused discussions around strengthening general practice across rural WA were equally impressive. This summit dovetailed into a busy weekend at the WA Rural Health Conference, where - on top of some of the most vauable discussions I have had to date with GPs, RGs, AMS managers, regional College and RVTS representatives, heads of universities / rural clinical schools, and state government - national sector representatives seemed to be drawn together by some invisible force to engage in the calibre of conversations we just can't have on Zoom or Teams. It was in these breaks I had a chance to catch up with the likes of GPRA CEO Jo-Anne Chapman, National Rural Health Commissioner Adjunct Professor Ruth Stewart, the RACGP's Vice President & Rural Chair Associate Professor Michael Clements, ACRRM's President and CEO, and RDAA President Dr Raymond 'RT' Lewandowski III. Of note, each and every conversation was focused on solutions for the current and future GP and RG workforce.
I rounded out this trip talking with the WA Rural Generalist Program team about their plans to pilot a Single Employer Model in 2025, and stopping by to see the man who has now presented a highly rated 2-part webinar series with GPSA addressing the complex issue of helping registrars manage difficult patients: co-Chair of the national SLO Advisory Council Dr Tim Chappell. Look up "enthusiasm" in the dictionary and you'll find Tim smiling back at you!
PS - apologies for the photobombing in this month's collage... Our Comms Manager Pauline insisted I took some "proof of life" photos while on the other side of the continent, and this is about as good as it gets when I'm in front of a camera! Please zoom in though on the very clever "graphic recordings" summarising some of the key sessions from the conference. Lessons here for all of us!