March 2023

This is a unique time in general practice. I’ve been a GP for 35 years and I’ve never seen support for general practice from the broader community and our patients that I regularly see now. There’s widespread support in the community for the idea that GPs are under-recognised and underpaid by Medicare.

I’ve had the fairly regular experience of older patients giving me what-for for saying I’d bulk bill them. ‘You can’t keep doing that. You need to earn a living,’ they say (You dumb b*stard’ was implied).       

Successive governments have made it abundantly clear that they’re not about to significantly increase Medicare rebates. Our current government is feeling the pressure of falling bulk-billing rates and is committing to a significant investment into Medicare. But at the end of the day, they’ve only promised $250 million per year in increased funding to primary care. That’s enough to buy every Australian two cups of coffee per year, and we’re not even sure how much will go to general practice and how much will go to other areas of primary care. It’s clearly not enough to make a meaningful change.

The public awareness campaign the RACGP has conducted on the worth of general practice is working. Patients and the public get it. We’ve been forced to stop looking to government to properly support general practice – it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime soon.

We must charge fees appropriate to our level of expertise, and increasingly that’s happening. On that topic, I’d like to congratulate the former RACGP President Assoc Prof Karen Price and current President Dr Nicole Higgins and the RACGP team for the change in the national discourse and for giving the public the information needed to create an environment that allows GPs to charge what we need to charge to remain viable.

The challenge now is to make sure no one’s left behind. Highly subsidised medical treatment needs to remain available for those who struggle to get the treatment they need without government help. We should all expect more from our government to support those most in need.

Cheers,
Dr Bruce Willett
Chair RACGP Queensland and RACGP Vice President
 

Event Date/time CPD hours Introduction to point-of-care ultrasound – Toowoomba 18 March 2023, 8.30–4.30 pm 10 hours (five EA hours and five RP hours) RACGP Queensland Faculty Education Committee presents: A guide to clinical audits 20 March 2023, 7.00–8.00 pm One EA hour RACGP Queensland Faculty New Fellows Committee presents: Creative Careers in General Practice 28 March 2023, 7.00–8.00 pm One EA hour Queensland GPs café gathering – Sunshine Coast 2 April 2023, 10.00 am - CPR workshop – Brisbane 18 April 2023, 6.30–8.30 pm Two EA hours 63rd Clinical Update weekend 6–7 May 2023 12.5 hours RACGP Queensland Faculty New Fellows Committee presents: Creative careers in general practice 24 May 2023, 7.00–8.00 pm (AEST) One EA hour CPR workshop – Bunya 20 June 2023, 6.30–8.30 pm Two EA hours

Date:    20 March 2023
Time:    7.00–8.00 pm (AEST) 
Venue:    Online
Cost:    Free
CPD:    One EA hour
Register now

Alongside the Clinical Update weekend and other educational events happening this year, RACGP Queensland and its Education Committee looks forward to bringing you a series of webinars to meet your educational needs and CPD requirements.

The first session will focus on clinical audits in a practice setting and how to earn hours in the Measuring Outcomes CPD category. Find out how regular clinical audits can improve patient care and outcomes, and learn the importance of reviewing patient outcomes to ensure best practice across the board. We’ll also cover more details of how clinical audits review performance against predetermined criteria, along with implementing changes when results show standards aren’t being met.

This series will showcase the pursuits of some RACGP Fellows and inspire you to think about how you can diversify your own general practice career and maximise your job satisfaction and professional fulfilment. The Q&A format will allow you to ask questions you might not be able to find answers to in other forums.

Session 1:

1. Aviation medicine: What is Aviation Medicine and how do you incorporate it into a GP career – Dr Michael Clements
2. Practice ownership: Have you aspired to one day own a practice or be a partner with other GPs in a practice – Dr Jessica Madsen

Date:    28 March 2023
Time:    7.00–8.00 pm (AEST)
Venue:    Online
Cost:    Free 
CPD:    One EA hour
Register now

Session 2

1. LGBTQ and HIV medicine: How do you incorporate LGBTQ and HIV medicine into your day-to-day role? – Dr Fiona Bisshop.
2. Education role in RACGP: What is the Education role in RACGP? How can you attain this? – Dr Rhys Young

Date:    24 May 2023
Time:    7.00–8.00 pm (AEST)
Venue:    Online
Cost:    Free
CPD:    One EA hour
Register now
 

A café gathering is simply a chance to socialise, network and have a good time with your GP colleagues, just like your regular weekend activity of going out for a cup of coffee.

Join Dr Tatsuo Nagashima and Dr Prathmesh Contractor, members of the RACGP Queensland New Fellows Committee, to ask your questions about the New Fellow Committee, discuss future education support for GPs in training, suggest fun social events, and so on. Come along and enjoy your weekend coffee with your GP peers.

Date:    2 April 2023
Time:    10.00 am
Venue:    Emjays Birtinya, Sunshine Coast 
Cost:    Pay your way
Register now

 

Date:    6–7 May 2023
Time:    Full day
Venue:  Brisbane Convention and Entertainment Centre
Cost:    See website
CPD:    12.5 EA hours (plus the option of four RP hours if two clinical skills workshops are chosen in advance)
Register now

The RACGP Queensland 63rd Clinical Update celebrates the journey GPs have been on, acknowledging your flexibility and adaptability over the last two years!

The conference will include practical clinical skills workshops, roundtable discussions and presentations from notable speakers from different industries covering a wide range of topics relevant to current general practice.

This is your last chance to book in for clinical skills workshops. Most are already full, so get your tickets now!

The weekend also is an opportunity for you to connect with peers with canapés and drinks at our networking function, where we’ll run a sweepstakes competition. You could win two great getaway prizes just by being there!

Have some great general practice research to share with your peers? A speaking opportunity is available at the Research in General Practice session at our Clinical Update. The research plenary session will be on 6 May 2023.
Submit an abstract of your general practice research on the Clinical Update website now.

 

RACGP Queensland is pleased to be offering heavily discounted places for Queensland GPs in MMM2–7 to complete: 

• emergency medicine for rural GPs online workshops 
• introduction to point-of-care ultrasound for rural GPs face-to-face workshops
• focussed psychological strategies CPD case-based discussions online.  

Each Bruce Roberts Bequest scholarship will reduce your course registration fee to $50 to complete the course with RACGP Rural. You will be required to register and pay the full amount. Once the course or workshop has been completed and you receive your certificate of attainment, you will be refunded the amount of your course or workshop minus $50.

This program is funded by the generosity of the Dr Graeme ‘Bruce’ Roberts Bequest, donated to RACGP Queensland to develop and support ongoing education initiatives for GPs living and working in regional, rural and remote Queensland communities.   

Places are limited, so please express your interest today on the RACGP website for the course or workshop you want to attend. For further assistance, please email the Queensland Faculty Staff at qld.bequest@racgp.org.au

The RACGP Queensland faculty council congratulates the following New Fellows who attained Fellowship of the RACGP last month:
 

Alexander Roy Retchford	Edward James Denby	Menaka Sivakumar
Alexander Benjamin Pace	Eliza Mary Colley	Mitchell Scott Davis
Alex Oo	Ti Ma	Moet Moet Khine
Alice Man	Fariborz Mokhtarpour	Morgan Elise Etienne
Angela Mamic	Gabrielle Louise Jarrett	Muneezah Jamal
Andrew Ryan Taylor	Matthew Kurt Hainbach	Nathan James Brandon Day
Aung Ko Ko	Kevin Wu	Nur Hanina Binti Roslan
Benjamin John McIlwaine	Kay Myat Hlaing	En Yin Pang
Brooke Emily Michael	Jonatar Alfonso Boton Reyes	Rachel Amy Boland
Charisma Kaur Dhaliwal	Juliza Jahimin	Rennie Wangchuk
Christian Alexander Fuschini	Kasun Sudaraka Wakwella	Richard John Browning
Corey Benjamin Alton	Katherine Perena Leonard	Sarah Anne McHugh
Dane Friis Andersen	Kristy-Lee Palmer	Soe Naing Lynn
Diki Lachungpa	Laura Beth Duckworth	Sylvia Shrestha
Karuna Verma	Edward Lee	Stephen Murray Haig
Boon Chuan Toh	Lisa Song	Tracey Leeanne Milton
Kyaw Khine Linn	Logan Shemer	Varinder Kaur
Nida Omair Qureshi	Manas Ranjan Gupta	Wai Yan Zaw
Nitinkumar Govindbhai Chaudhary	Maria Farrukh	Lucy Helen Randall
Zach John Patrick Edwards	Matthew Christopher Durden	Menaka Sivakumar
Ebony Bray	Conor John McCarrick	Mitchell Scott Davis

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 RACGP Next Five Program extends support to New Fellows as they navigate their first few years of unsupervised practice.

The RACGP is getting excited about hosting WONCA 2023 in Sydney.

We’re thrilled to announce that our speaker line-up will include WONCA President Dr Anna Stavdal and Deputy Chief Medical Officer Prof Michael Kidd AM. 

Join us over 26–29 October to hear from a range of internationally renowned speakers and experts in primary care. 

Check out all the speakers we’ve lined up so far on the WONCA website.

The RACGP Foundation’s annual grants and awards program is now open. Thanks to the support of the foundation’s partners, more than $700,000 in funding is available for general practice research. 

The grants and awards program enables GPs and GPs in training to do important research in their communities and build an evidence base to inform and improve practice and patient outcomes. This year, a small number of grants and awards are also available to medical students, medical graduates doing GP training, practice nurses, and practice owners or managers.

Join the impressive list of grant and award recipients who have helped shape Australian healthcare - Apply now

We’re updating the RACGP’s definition of a general practice to make sure all general practices providing comprehensive, patient-centred, whole-person and continuous care are eligible for accreditation against the Standards for general practices (5th edition) – and we want to hear from you.

Our consultation paper explains the change and our new draft definition. You can provide your feedback by 26 March 2023.

Complete the consultation survey

Whenever and wherever it suits you, the brand new RACGP myCPD app helps you meet your CPD requirements by putting everything you need at your fingertips.
Through the app, you can:
•    log your hours
•    browse hundreds of quality, relevant CPD activities
•    track your progress.

Download the app to your smartphone or tablet today by searching ‘mycpd’ in the App Store or Google Play.

Download for iPhone
Download for Android