Record numbers of GP supervisors and practice managers endorse the Board representing their needs and priorities
GPTA Ltd, more commonly known as General Practice Supervision Australia or GPSA, held its twentieth AGM on Thursday 28th November. The all-online voting processes launched this year enabled a record level of participation in the election of Directors and the ratification of proposed amendments to the GPTA Constitution.
CEO and Company Secretary Ms Carla Taylor says the uptake of the asynchronous voting opportunity reflects the core priority for the organisation’s clinician members.
“Supervisors are juggling patient care, teaching responsibilities, compliance, professional development and other accreditation burdens – and that’s on top of their own health and wellbeing, let alone the dozen additional hats GPs and RGs tend to take on in their professional lives. It is simply unrealistic to expect they can drop everything to attend meetings or events in real-time, whether in-person or virtual.
“We are committed to increasing efficiencies to make high quality supervision sustainable and rewarding in equal measure - as demonstrated through educational tools designed to streamline our members’ role in perpetuating the general practice specialty through supervision of learners across the educational spectrum. This year we were able to extend these efficiencies to our AGM processes.”
As a result of the higher level of engagement in the organisation’s governance processes, the outcome of the election can be seen to endorse the efforts of the Board throughout this year.
This is especially the case as three of the four vacancies were created by sitting Directors retiring on rotation. All three were re-elected to continue their work on behalf of GPSA’s 10,200 members.
“I actually received a large number of responses to the call for nominations, but only two of these progressed to candidacy. The rest indicated their interest in joining the GPTA Board, but in the same breath said they didn’t want to ‘mess with a good thing’ as the current Board has ‘kicked so many goals’ in 2024,” says Ms Taylor.
A clear but close outcome of the member voting process, and subsequent Board election of office bearers, sees the following as GPSA’s representatives effective Friday 29th November 2024:
- Dr Srishti Dutta (Chair of GPSA)
- Dr Candice Baker (Deputy Chair of GPSA)
- Dr Kate Manderson (Chair – Governance & Risk Management Committee)
- Mrs Leonie Chamberlain (Chair – Finance & Audit Committee)
- Dr Sara Fergusson (Director)
- Dr Frank Maldari (Director)
- Dr Nick Tellis (Director)
“It is an honour to be chosen to continue in this role,” says Dr Srishti Dutta as she heads into a newly-ratified two-year term as Chair of GPSA.
“We have achieved a lot in this last twelve months, but a large portion of our efforts is still yet to be consolidated. What lies ahead is very exciting.
“I would like to thank all of our members who have taken the time to lend their voice to our community of practice, for participating in our annual survey, attending our networking events, and entrusting my Board colleagues and me to represent them on the many tables at which GPSA now has a seat.”
The revised Constitution can be seen here, and more information about the GPTA Board here.
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