RACGP Annual report 2021–22

Helping our members be the heart of their communities

Download the 2021–22 annual report 

Foreword

The past year has been a big one for general practice. Again and again, our GPs have shown that they truly are the heart of their communities, and those communities have never needed their GP more.

For our GPs on the frontline, the COVID-19 vaccination rollout dominated most of the second half of 2021, while 2022 brought fresh waves of the virus on top of dealing with a backlog of unaddressed health concerns. For the RACGP, the focus was on pushing government for immediate support and to redress decades of underfunding, and safeguarding the wellbeing of our GPs.

We also began the transition of general practice training back to the college in earnest, developing a new curriculum and syllabus to ensure our future GPs receive the best training and support possible.

In everything the RACGP did over 2021–22, our goal was to better serve our members – to advocate on behalf of GPs and their patients, to offer the most relevant and accessible CPD program, to build the best GP training program, to ensure a steady pipeline of New Fellows and be there for our members at every step of their journey, from training to retirement.

Listen to a recap of the year that was for our community through the lenses of our President, Board Chair, Censor-in-Chief and CEO.

RACGP leadership

Message from the President
Adj Prof Karen L. Price
MBBS, FRACGP
President

Video transcript 

Over the last 12 months, GPs and general practice teams have done a tremendous job caring for patients across Australia. We all know it.

We’ve also had our share of challenges. Floods have ravaged many communities; these communities are still picking up the pieces from catastrophic bushfires. The pandemic’s not over, and GPs have stepped up again and again to help patients and communities in need.
Adding onto this, we’re delivering COVID-19 vaccines and boosters as well as influenza vaccines, and now diagnosis and management of potential monkeypox.

GPs are continuing to help patients who delayed or avoided care during the lockdowns, and we’re also caring for those with ongoing mental health concerns.

It’s all in a day’s work, and we’ve taken it in our stride. No wonder our non-GP specialists marvel at our diagnostic and management breadth. GPs are amazing, and we’re experts in complexity. So thank you for all of your work.

As your President, I’m so proud to represent all of your amazing work for the people of Australia. I’m also glad to report that the RACGP has had many wins on the board. We’re speaking up and fighting for our hardworking members, and we’re getting results.
There are many issues and fronts to manage, but as true generalists, we’re across them all. Thank you to the members who reach out and collaborate with us in our mission to support your work.

Throughout the federal election campaign, we called for general practice to be front and centre. We were rewarded with the then opposition announcing that it would invest almost $1 billion in primary care, including a Strengthening Medicare Taskforce that the college is a key member of.

I refused to consider anything but a top-down discussion. That means without a budget, talk of any reform is meaningless. The first meeting of that taskforce has already been held and will push hard for sustained, long-term investment in primary care so that no patients are left behind.

This needs to be more than a talkfest. We simply cannot run out of GPs.

On the telehealth front, we’ve made strong progress once again. Telehealth is now a permanent fixture of the nation’s health system, and it's here to stay. But we won’t stop there. The college is fighting to make sure that longer telephone consultations are included so that all patients can take advantage of telehealth, including older people and those living in rural and remote areas. Everybody deserves access, regardless of their postcode. The [Federal] Government must consider the evidence and the equity of technology.
There are many positive developments looming in the months and years ahead, too. GP training is returning to the college next year, and that’s where it belongs. The transition still has a way to go; however, I’m confident that the result will be a huge reward for significant advocacy work over many years, and the GP workforce pipeline will benefit enormously.

I want to stress that our main focus, however, remains supporting the wellbeing of our members. You’ve faced obstacle after obstacle over two-and-a-half gruelling years, and we’re right behind you.

When I commenced this role at the end of 2020, I hit the ground running during a tumultuous time for general practice. It’s been an exhilarating and an incredibly rewarding experience and a real privilege to hold this office.

Our advocacy will not stop, and we’ve refocused on our members and supporting all GPs in the incredibly important work that you all do. I know our members are committed; I know you’re brilliant. But paying attention to standards, professionalism and also self-care in order to deliver quality community healthcare, humbly you step up again and again to serve Australian communities with distinction.

Australian patients will not forget how you deliver humanism together with science, or as the Latin motto suggests, ‘skill with tender loving care’.

Thank you so much.

Message from the Board Chair
Ms Christine Nixon 
AO APM, BA, MPA, Hon LLD, DipLRelLaw, FIPAA, FANZSOG, FAIPM, FAIM
Board Chair, co-opted Board member

Video transcript 

It’s been a significantly busy year for everyone at the RACGP. 

We’ve been at the table to influence state and federal government decisions around many issues. In the past 12 months, we’ve made hundreds of submissions to government and other bodies.

This advocacy resulted in changes across the country. RACGP policy and research has informed so many decisions in government and in the broader community.

We’ve been at the heart of COVID discussions with our President, Board members and RACGP staff, who have worked tirelessly with members on behalf of the community to dramatically improve Australia's response to the pandemic.

It’s been a tough time for all, particularly our GPs, but they’ve still taken time to recognise each other's commitment to the health and wellbeing of our communities. This was reflected in the record number of nominations for RACGP Awards and Convocation submissions.
Convocation, which is the voice of our members to the Board, returned in 2021 using an electronic format. Twenty-nine questions from members were submitted, with six progressing for consideration by the Board. The other 18 submissions were progressed within the college.

In August 2021, we farewelled Dr Matthew Miles as CEO. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank him for his work leading the college through the initial turbulent stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I had the great privilege of being asked by the Board to act as executive chair till the appointment of our current CEO. After a competitive and rigorous process, the Board was delighted to appoint Paul Wappett as CEO in November 2021. Paul’s background in member-based organisations and in leading business transformation has been critical to the smooth planning for college-led training commencing in February next year.

The work done by so many to transition college-led training to the RACGP has been amazing. The Board took the decision to make submissions to the [Federal] Government to have training returned to the college – in February 2023, it will arrive home.
It’s been an absolute pleasure serving on the RACGP Board for six years and particularly as Chair for the last three. I’ll be finishing my term in November. I’m so proud of everything we’ve been able to achieve over the past couple of years under extremely trying circumstances.

Our members are central to everything the RACGP does. Thank you for your support.

Message from the Censor-in-Chief
Dr Tess van Duuren
MBChB, BSc (Hons) (Sports Med), FRACGP, GAICD
Censor-in-Chief

Video transcript 

The last 12 months haven’t been without challenges for education and training as we continue to deal with the ongoing pandemic while preparing for the transition to college-led training.

I’d like to highlight some of the key education, training and assessment activities that span lifelong learning in the college that have been undertaken in the last 12 months.

There’s been extensive activity associated with preparing to deliver college-led training in 2023. As part of this, we’ve updated and published the RACGP educational framework and its guiding instruments, which are:

In addition to this, we’ve developed a supervisor professional development program, a remote supervision model and a progressive assessment framework. This represents a significant body of work, involving extensive consultation with both internal and external stakeholders, including education experts. 

In the exams space, we’ve continued to deliver high-quality exams despite having to manage issues relating to the ongoing pandemic, snap lockdowns occurring days before the events, floods and – would you believe it – even an earthquake.

The written exams have been delivered as paper-based across the country in numerous venues, creating logistical challenges for the delivery teams. The AKT and KFP were delivered with a range of COVID-safe measures in place to 3984 candidates. Candidates for all these exams are to be commended for their patience and resilience in dealing with these challenges.

We’ve heard your feedback and are working hard on returning to computer-based exam delivery – and on that note, the clinical exam continues to be run online and was delivered to 2244 candidates involving thousands of individual assessments provided by hundreds of RACGP examiners, role players and staff. My thanks to everyone involved, but especially to all the examiners, who sacrificed their personal time to be part of this important event.

Moving onto training, the funding for the Practice Experience Program will cease in June 2023, and we saw an increased number of applicants to the PEP for the final intake as a result. Work is now well underway on the development of the Fellowship Support Program, which will replace the PEP for new applicants from 2023.

And now onto the CPD program, which has continued to improve and grow. In March this year, more than 6000 GPs responded to our national CPD survey to help us to understand the impact of COVID-19 on CPD activities, as well as the future needs of RACGP members in 2023 and beyond.

We’re using the survey findings to support the continued improvement of CPD into the future. Thank you to everyone who responded to the survey, especially when GPs are more time-pressured than ever before.

So, in summary, this year has been extremely productive as we laid the groundwork for college-led training, adjusted to changes to CPD requirements, and developed a replacement to the PEP while we also managed to deliver business as usual.

We’ve got another busy year ahead, and I look forward to reporting back to you on our progress next year.

Thank you.

Message from the Chief Executive Officer
Paul Wappett
BComm, LLB, MBA, GAICD
Chief Executive Officer

Video transcript 

I think I'm lucky to have one the best jobs in Australia, and I’d really like to thank the Board of directors to place their faith in me to do such an important and meaningful job at such a critical time in the college's history.

And I'd like to thank the members, who have embraced and welcomed me to the college and who have been so generous in helping me to understand the sector.

And I'd really like to thank our staff, who have embraced my leadership and the form of leadership of our executive team over these last 12 months as we set about trying to make sure that the college is a very member-centric organisation.

One of the things that I really love about this job is the sense of community that we have here.

We know that GPs serving their communities, treating their patients, is the best way for Australia to be well and healthy.

So we take that responsibility really seriously, to be able to support you to be able to do those things.

And I just wanted to take a couple of minutes to tell you a about a couple of the things that we've done in these last 12 months that have helped us to help you to serve the community.

The first of those is the return of GP training to the college.

Now, this is something that has been in the wind for about the last five years or thereabouts, but it really ramped up these last 12 months, and we undertook the planning and the preparation work to be able to welcome GP training back into the college.

In order to be able to do that we’re going to need to stand up a whole heap of new locations, and be ready to welcome about another 750 people into the organisation. And to be able to work with practices and supervisors and the communities with cultural educators and cultural mentors to make sure that we’re providing the best quality GP training program that's available in the country.

The second thing that we've been doing is restructuring and reshaping the organisation to be centred around the things that you've told us matter most to you. So whereas in the past we used to be very functionally based, in terms of the disciplines of work that we've been involved in, actually you've been really clear about what it is that you'd like the college to do for you.

You've told us that you want to make sure that we advocate and fight on your behalf in the regulatory and political and funding arena.

You've told us that you want to make sure that we have the best-quality GP training program available.

You've told us that you want to make sure that the standards required to become and to remain a Fellow, educational standards and the professional standards associated with that are of the highest order.

And you've told us that you want to make sure that you can come together as a community of practice, where you can share experience and knowledge and ideas and resources with each other.

So we've centred the organisation around those four drivers of member value, and we've got a couple of enabling functions that help to support those people who are supporting you. And what I hope that you’re already seeing – and if not that you will be seeing shortly – is a sense of member-centricity that flows through everybody who works for the college, who understand that general practice is important and who want to be there to provide support to you, so that you can support the community.

So those are a couple of things that we've been working on for the last 12 months, and we hope that we’re going to be of service for you into the future again, and we look forward to working with you over these next 12 months.
 

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