Welcome to March NSW&ACT Chair update.

First, and on top of everything COVID, we continue to experience more natural disasters as severe weather events and associated flooding affect eastern Australia/New South Wales, with increased mental health stressors for us all. Please be mindful of your and your team’s mental health and access resources as early as possible. Remember that you can’t care for patients, colleagues or family effectively if you don’t care for yourself. The RACGP NSW&ACT team is your first port of call if you need help, and you can find links to more resources later in this newsletter.

Elsewhere, the pharmacy trial in Queensland is generating much discussion. The RACGP’s position is that the trial will result in poorer health outcomes and reduced safety for patients. Our focus is the provision of quality, patient-centred care delivered under the safety of the medical specialisation of general practice. Permitting others who haven’t been adequately trained to enter the space of both diagnosis and management puts patient health and safety at risk, particularly with the financial conflict of interest and incentive at play. My continued thanks for your support of the vaccine rollout, particularly now with the boosters and vaccination of school-age children. The next stage is the ongoing rollout of antiviral medications prescribed by GPs. You can find out more on newsGP.

We continue to lobby state/territory ministers, including a meeting with the ACT Minister for Health in February where we discussed the GP workforce and integrated care models in general practice. Also in the ACT, real-time prescription monitoring system Canberra Script was launched, with 250 health practitioners already registered. We encourage you to get on board – the system is there to help you make safe prescription decisions.

Our thoughts and sympathies are with those affected by the war in Ukraine. We know this conflict has restricted safe access to healthcare across the country. To help provide medical and humanitarian aid, some of our colleagues in Port Macquarie have established a Go Fund Me campaign. Keep an eye on our Facebook page for details. We encourage you to donate if you can.

Thank you, and see you next month.