December 2022

In typical end-of-year fashion, it’s been a busy start to the silly season with much celebrate.

Along with colleagues and RACGP members, I attended the GPs@Parliament event last month to raise awareness of and provide solutions for the crisis in general practice. The event was a valuable opportunity to voice your needs to MPs, their advisers and others across this important political landscape, and we did so at more than 90 meetings.

A lot happened while visiting Melbourne for GP22! At the 65th RACGP AGM, members voted in favour of two ordinary resolutions (Board Directors’ remuneration and President’s remuneration) and one special resolution (amendments to the RACGP Constitution).

The 2022 RACGP Award winners were acknowledged at the national academic, awards and Fellowship ceremony on 27 November. A big congratulations to all the award winners, especially to those from NSW and the ACT.

National RACGP Awards

• Rose-Hunt Award: Assoc Prof Ayman Shenouda
• GP of the Year: Dr Anju Aggarwal
• Future Leaders President’s Medal: Dr Michael Tam
• General Practice of the Year: Barton Lane Practice, Tamworth

RACGP Rural Awards

• Rural GP in Training of the Year: Dr Kieran Webb-Sawyer
• Rural Medical Student Bursary Award: Jared Lawrence

RACGP Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Awards

• Growing Strong Award: Rebecca Davison
• Standing Strong Award: Dr Rowena Ivers

 
Further congratulations are in order for the GPs who attended the Sydney Fellowship ceremony on 3 December. Well done on achieving Fellowship of the RACGP! You should be proud of all the hard work and sacrifice that’s gone into your journey.

And finally, I want to tell you about a ‘Statement of intent’ that was signed by RACGP NSW&ACT and RACGP Rural with Rural Doctors Network (NSW). This statement identifies shared priorities for collaboration to improve reginal workforce sustainability, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce health workforce and joint opportunities for advocacy.

Remember that the RACGP’s end-of-year shutdown runs from 23 December 2022 to 3 January 2023. I’d like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season with your family, friends and loved ones. See you in the new year!

Save the date for the RACGP NSW&ACT wellbeing weekend.

Take the opportunity to re-energise and reflect on your own wellbeing over the weekend of 11–12 March 2023 in Port Macquarie.

More details to come.

Get the necessary CPR knowledge and skills to meet your 2023–25 triennium requirements.

Dates: 30 March 2023

Time: 7.00–9.00 pm

Venue: RACGP NSW&ACT, North Sydney

Cost: Members: $89 | Non-members: $99

CPD hours: Two

CPD activity type: Educational activities

Register now

RACGP NSW&ACT held its annual faculty member meeting on 19 October 2022. We’d like to thank everyone who attended in person and online and extend our congratulations again to the recipients of our 10- and 20-year service awards, life members, and faculty award winners.

This year, we were honoured to have Prof Felicity Goodyear-Smith – a past recipient of the Charles Bridges-Webb medal – speak at our meeting. Felicity spoke about her co-design research journey working with Pacific peoples in New Zealand to improve their health outcomes. In a true partnership, the University of Auckland research team has worked hand in hand with the Pacific community to generate the research questions they’ll work to address.

Watch the meeting recording

RACGP NSW&ACT congratulates the following GPs who attained Fellowship of the RACGP last month:
 

Dr Ajit Bhalla	Dr Katherine Leonard
Dr Jack Blomeley	Dr Beverly Manago
Dr Maria Asela Catalla	Dr Ellen Millard
Dr Peter Corbett	Dr Bhavesh Nakarja
Dr David Grech	Dr Cassandra Steel
Dr Mina Habashi	Dr Connie Wang
Dr Iddagodage Iddagoda	Dr Ronald Yuen
Dr Hannah Kelly	Dr Thomas Henderson
Dr Josephine Kingwill	Dr Pooja Singh
Dr Daiya Kishida

 
Congratulations on achieving Fellowship of the RACGP! We recognise all the sacrifice and hard work that has gone into your GP journey.

Transitioning from a being a GP in training to an independent, practising GP is a major career-changing (and life-changing) milestone. The Next Five Program extends support to New Fellows as they navigate their first few years of unsupervised practice.

As your CPD home, the RACGP is here to help you understand the new system and easily meet your requirements once the changes to CPD take effect on 1 January 2023.

We’ve developed a few resources to help you prepare for your CPD next year:

• Get ready for CPD in 2023 – a five-step guide to preparing for the changes
• GP CPD Handbook – a summary of the Medical Board of Australia’s changes to CPD and advice on getting ready with the RACGP
• Webinar recording: CPD information session – a breakdown of the new requirements that showcases real-life examples of how you can easily record your activities and make CPD an integrated part of your day-to-day life

Feel free to contact your local CPD team for more help if you need it.

Following the General Practice Crisis Summit on 5 October, the RACGP has now published a white paper covering the recommendations that came out of the event. This important advocacy tool was presented to Health Minister Mark Butler last month.

The white paper reflects the discussions held at the summit and the collective wisdom of the GP leaders, peak bodies, health organisations, consumer representatives, clinicians and academics who attended. It affirms that decades of significant underfunding and cost-cutting has left Australian general practice on the brink of collapse and that high up-front costs are affecting vulnerable patients’ access to timely care. It also outlines how medical graduates are discouraged from pursuing a career in general practice, leading to a growing shortage of GPs.

The white paper includes a raft of recommendations to government, including:

• an immediate increase of at least 20% to Medicare rebates for general practice
• a three-fold increase the bulk-billing incentive
• regular indexation of Medicare rebates and other payments by an independent body
• reduced red tape, including a streamlined and simplified Medicare system
• reintroduction of a general practice placement program for junior doctors
• an overarching data strategy for general practice.

Read the white paper

The WONCA community has spoken: the end of year is just around the corner and everyone has a lot do get done, so we’ve extended the closing date for WONCA 2023 World Conference presentation submissions. You now have until 11.59 pm (AEDT) on 9 February 2023 to get your submissions in.

We hope the extra time will help you prepare and submit your program submission.

• Prepare by reviewing the presentation styles and submission guidelines. 
• Assemble your submission by following the submission guidelines, using either the clinical/educational guide OR the research guide.
• Apply to present.

Only submissions completed in the WONCA 2023 submission portal by 11.59 pm (AEDT) on 9 February 2023 will be reviewed and considered for inclusion.

We look forward to hearing from you! Contact us at wonca2023@racgp.org.au if you have any queries.

The RACGP has launched a clinical resource for GPs and patients with information on unsuitable tests and treatments. First do no harm: A guide to choosing wisely in general practice helps GPs and patients to make evidence-based, shared decisions on healthcare.

The guide gives GPs QR codes linking to patient-facing information, helping doctors talk through tests and treatments with patients as they access complementary resources. GP recommendations are also highlighted via a traffic-light system.

The initial launch features five topics, and the guide will be a ‘living resource’ that we’ll update periodically with new topics and guidance.

Access the guide

As we get closer to the transition to profession-led training in 2023, stay in the loop by subscribing to our e-newsletters. Email transition@racgp.org.au to receive our supervisor, practice manager or registrar newsletters.
 
We’ve recently announced a number of great appointments to our new training roles, with many more on the way. Check out the latest additions to our general practice training team.
 
We’ve had a lot of queries about new practice and supervisor accreditation, so we’ll provide more information later this month, along with a call for expressions of interest.

School vaccination clinics were interrupted during 2020/21, and despite the offer of catch-up vaccinations, we’ve seen a lower uptake and completion of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination than in previous years for students in years 7–9.

Parents are encouraged to speak to their school, GP or pharmacy if their child needs to complete their HPV vaccination. If you provide consults for patients aged 12–14 years or speak with their parent/guardians, talk about the importance of vaccination for HPV-related cancer prevention.

To help raise awareness, NSW Health has developed a communications toolkit with resources you can use in your newsletters and your social channels, or display in your clinic.

Download the toolkit

Support your patients to prevent diabetes and improve their lifestyle behaviours by making a referral to the Get Healthy Service.

Patients can access free, evidence-based health coaching over the phone from qualified exercise physiologists and dietitians. Health coaches help patients set goals and overcome barriers to eat a healthy diet, be physically active, drink less alcohol and achieve a healthy weight.

All residents of NSW aged over 16 years are eligible.

Refer your patients

The NSW Clinical Excellence Commission recently distributed a safety information alert advising changes to the recommendations for antenatal screening of syphilis.

The clinical recommendation are now:

• Screen all pregnant women for syphilis at least twice during pregnancy (serology at first antenatal visit and again at 26–28 weeks).
• All pregnant women who have received minimal or no antenatal care, or are at risk of missing an appointment, should be opportunistically screened at the service they present at, regardless of gestation.
• Consult a sexual health or infectious disease clinician for all pregnant women with infectious syphilis.
• Indigenous women should be offered culturally appropriate referral pathways.

This alert is directed at clinicians, clinical departments or any healthcare service where pregnant women may access healthcare.

View safety information