This week, I was delighted to receive a text message with a photo from the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? In the shot, the contestant was being asked, ‘The RACGP is a professional body representing which of these?’ Of course, ‘doctors’ was one of the four options.
This excites me for several reasons. The first is that the RACGP has raised its profile to such an extent in the last few years that our organisation has now entered popular culture and the awareness of the community. The second is that the RACGP represents doctors – GPs, in fact. And the wider community now knows that. Finally, if the community knows who the RACGP represents, then so do the funders and decision-makers. And that’s were my excitement came from.
We’re entering an incredibly important time for our profession. This year will see a federal election, a Victorian state election, the transition of GP training and a myriad health system reforms accelerated by the persistent pandemic. It’s a time of great opportunity for general practice.
What does it mean for the RACGP to be on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? at a time of enormous political importance? It means every single RACGP member can participate in promoting the need to invest in and collaborate with our profession in the name of a better, more sustainable and more cost-efficient health system. College leaders and policy teams will be working incredibly hard, as always, to prosecute these reforms, but individual GPs and practices can lobby right alongside them.
RACGP Victoria has developed a range of materials to help you express the concerns of our profession and our call for investment in our future. I encourage you all to request a pack of these materials by emailing vic.faculty@racgp.org.au and take that message to your local MP this year.
Dr Anita Muñoz
Chair, Victoria Faculty