The President's Message – 7 June 2024
Hello and kia ora everyone. I would like to acknowledge the Awabakal and Worimi peoples as the traditional owners and custodians of the lands I’m writing to you from. I extend my respect to all Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and Māori people. Together we restate our shared commitment to advancing Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Māori health and education as core business of the RACP.
I’ve just been privileged to be part of the joyous scenes at convocation where we welcomed 230 new Fellows to our College community, and at which I began my term as President. It followed a wonderful Congress in Sydney and I’ve attached my 2024 Congress Presidents Dinner speech for those of you who are interested.
But up front, I want to repeat some comments I made at Congress. It is a great honour to be President of our College, but I’ve never harboured the ambition to be so; I am a clinician and an academic – and I love what I do.
I’ve taken on the Presidency because I saw a need and wanted to help sort out our systems, sort out our governance, and better serve our members. That last point is important.
According to a recent survey of College members, their policy and advocacy priorities are workplace issues – loud and clear. They like lots of other things we do too, as long as it’s not at the expense of our core business – education and training. Let me assure you that you have been heard – and the College will prioritise your workplace issues. That doesn’t mean we can intervene on individual matters – our constitution does not allow us to act like a union – but we will advocate for changes that make physician workplaces safer, fairer and more sustainable.
Make no mistake, the College is my number one priority and I’ve cut back on my clinical work – as well as my work at the University of Newcastle – to focus on the presidency.
We have some important tasks ahead of us, notably our AMC accreditation. The re-accreditation team appointed by the AMC and MCNZ, visited in the first week of May having considered a range of materials and internal/external stakeholder contributions.
While the assessment outcome won’t be formalised until late 2024, the reaccreditation team have indicated that they believe the College has demonstrated comprehensive plans and sufficient resources to maintain the current momentum, with full support from the RACP Board. The accrediting team will attend some Divisional Clinical Examinations in June and will then decide if additional meetings with the College or stakeholders are needed. From now on, I intend to do these President’s Messages a little differently.
I want to showcase the incredible diversity and depth of knowledge across our 30,000 strong membership. I’ve been shooting my own short video clips when I’m out visiting members.
Recently, I was in Ōtautahi Christchurch and caught up with Professor Lisa Stamp to discuss the importance of research in training.
I spoke with the former Chair of our Written Exams Committee, Associate Professor Matt Doogue, about the future of assessment at the RACP.
I also met Advanced Trainee, Dr Hamish Anderson, who had some good points about our workforce strategy.
My intention is to get out and meet as many of you as possible in the coming months, and I look forward to seeing you.
Kind regards,
Professor Jennifer Martin
RACP President
In the aftermath of extensive pre-Budget advocacy and the 14 May Australian Treasury Budget, the College has released a media release. The release stresses that the government's Budget missed the opportunity to ease the growing strain on Australia’s hospital system. This could have been done by ensuring specialist physician care was made available through Urgent Care Clinics (UCCs). RACP President, Professor Jennifer Martin, says that while UCCs are not the complete answer to Australia’s hospital crisis, there is an opportunity to use them to better meet our healthcare needs and keep a broader range of patients out of hospitals.
The RACP also expressed disappointment at the Budget’s lack of initiatives to address significant health workforce pressures and burnout. It also failed to expand telehealth services for people living in regional and remote Australia, and to adequately fund the Australian Centre for Disease Control.
The College recently made a submission to the Therapeutic Goods Administration, which highlighted our concerns about shortages of key medicines for our most vulnerable patients. It also called for urgent action from the Australian Government to address this important issue that can put lives at risk and leave patients without effective substitutes. A media release supporting the submission has gained extensive media coverage. The release stressed that physicians and patients are often left to navigate the drug shortage maze without a compass and asked the government for a better strategy to redirect existing critical medicines supplies within the country to priority groups and patients. For a full list of RACP recommendations, please read the submission.
Dr Hamish McCay, Dr Matt Wheeler, and the Policy & Advocacy team met with Hon Dr Shane Reti, Minister of Health, on 2 May 2024. The Minister had read RACP’s post-election briefing and stated that the health workforce is the most important issue for him. Retention of staff through better conditions, wages and immigration settings for international medical graduates are seen as short-term solutions to workforce shortages. His long-term goal is a homegrown, culturally safe health workforce. The Minister would like The RACP to consider ways of attracting workforce ‘back home’ and further discuss potential solutions with him. We look forward to ongoing engagement with the Minister on these important issues.
The RACP is committed to leading change for better health and wellbeing across our profession, populations and healthcare systems. As part of this commitment, the RACP Northern Territory Committee recently had a productive meeting with the Northern Territory Minister for Health, the Hon Selena Uibo. This provided an opportunity to connect and reflect on past advocacy successes, explore current workforce and physician wellbeing issues, and discuss future initiatives to improve support for physicians and health outcomes in the Northern Territory. The RACP looks forward to continuing this collaboration.
The online meeting of Northern Territory Committee representatives, Dr Rosalie Schultz and Dr David Carroll with the Northern Territory Minister for Health, the Hon Selena Uibo. The meeting was held on Tuesday, 14 May 2024.
Pictured (left to right): Dr Rosalie Schultz (Northern Territory Committee member), Samuel Dettmann (Senior Policy Officer, RACP), Timothy Bowen (General Manager, Policy & Advocacy, RACP), Dr David Carroll (Northern Territory Committee trainee representative - Adult Medicine), Minister Selena Uibo (Northern Territory Minister for Health), Katherine Economides (Senior Executive Officer, South Australia/Northern Territory Office, RACP).
Applications are open for the RACP Foundation Research Awards, which provide research funding for 2025. Up to 50 awards are available, which are worth a total value of up to $2.5 million. Opportunities are open to RACP Fellows and Advanced Trainees from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand in the following categories:
Full details of all awards offered and previous recipients are available on the website.
The Neil Hamilton Fairley Medal
The Neil Hamilton Fairley Medal is one of the RACP’s most prestigious awards acknowledging an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the field of medicine. The Award honours the internationally renowned work of esteemed Australian physician, Brigadier Sir Neil Hamilton Fairley KBE CStJ FRACP FRCP FRCPE FRS. Sir Neil Hamilton Fairley is remembered as a visionary whose knowledge and persistence led to numerous vital contributions in medicine. Nominations close Wednesday, 31 July 2024.
The Eric Susman Prize
The Eric Susman Prize is a prestigious award for the best contribution to the knowledge of any branch of internal medicine. The Eric Susman Medal is presented at the RACP Ceremony. Nominations are now being accepted for 2024. Nominations close Wednesday, 31 August 2024.
For more information on any of the above, please email foundation@racp.edu.au
Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, the Hon Ged Kearney, said the Albanese Labor Government has taken the next step in fighting deadly occupational respiratory diseases like silicosis. It has achieved this by launching the first National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry. The Registry aims to improve occupational health and safety in Australian workplaces. Nearly one in four engineered stone workers employed in the industry prior to 2018 have been diagnosed with silicosis or other silica dust related diseases. This number is predicted to rise but the total number of workers who have silicosis and other dust diseases in Australia is currently unknown. Silicosis is an incurable occupational respiratory disease that affects the airways, lungs and blood vessels.
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The National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry, established by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care, was officially launched on 22 May 2024. Notifications are now mandatory for silicosis by Occupational and Environmental Medicine Physicians and Respiratory and Sleep Medicine Physicians. The Registry will store data on occupational respiratory diseases in Australia. The Registry is supported by the National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry Act 2023 and was a key recommendation from the National Dust Disease Taskforce, of which RACP members were key. Further information for physicians and about the Registry is available on the Department of Health and Aged Care website.
Recording of physician webinar
The Department of Health and Aged Care recently held a webinar for physicians on the Registry. Should you require any assistance related to notifying or operating the National Registry physician portal, please contact the National Registry help desk via telephone on 1300 293 202 or email on helpdesk@NORDR.au.
Watch webinar recording
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Pomegranate [Case Report] is a Q&A style podcast developed by trainees, for trainees. In our debut episode, we hear about a man who presented to the emergency department reporting sudden onset vision loss in his right eye lasting several hours. He was 68 years old with a history of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Three differential diagnoses being considered were optic neuropathy, vitreoretinal disease or corneal oedema following from potential uveitis. In this podcast consultant ophthalmologist, Dr Sumu Simon, walks through an approach to this presentation and an exploratory therapy.
Guests
- Dr Sumu Simon FRANZCO, Queen Elizabeth Hospital; Royal Adelaide Hospital
- Dr Brandon Stretton, Royal Adelaide Hospital
- Dr Stephen Bacchi (Lyell McEwin Hospital)
Please visit the Pomegranate Health webpage for a transcript and supporting references. Log in to MyCPD to record listening and reading as a prefilled learning activity. Subscribe to new episode email alerts or search for ‘Pomegranate Health’ in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox or any podcasting app.
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Type 1 diabetes has a very high treatment burden in terms of direct costs, inconvenience and lost productivity for patients and their carers. Additionally, all the glucose checking, hormone replacement and consults don’t abolish the vascular complications associated with poor glycaemic control. Only in the last few years has it been possible to pharmacologically alter the course of type 1 diabetes and other auto-immune diseases without generating intolerable side effects.
Teplizumab is an antibody to CD3 which was presented to the world in 2019 as delaying the onset of type 1 diabetes in high-risk individuals thanks to its protective effect on pancreatic β-cells. It has not yet been registered by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, but another immunomodulatory drug called baricitinib has. Baricitinib is an inhibitor of Janus Kinases indicated for the for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, alopecia areata, atopic dermatitis and even COVID-19.
In December of last year, the results of a phase two trial in patients with new-onset type 1 diabetes were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. After almost a year of taking the oral therapy, patients were found to have better glycaemic control and evoked C-peptide levels than those taking placebo, indicating a preserved ability to secrete insulin. In today’s episode, Pomegranate’s in-house endocrinologist interviews two of the study authors.
Key reference
Guests
- Professor Jenny Couper FRACP FAHMS, Women's and Children's Hospital, University of Adelaide
- Dr Michelle So FRACP, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Northern Hospital
- Dr Rahul Barmanray FRACP, Royal Melbourne Hospital – guest host
Please visit the Pomegranate Health webpage for a transcript and supporting references. Log in to MyCPD to record listening and reading as a prefilled learning activity. Subscribe to new episode email alerts or search for ‘Pomegranate Health’ in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox or any podcasting app.
Looking for tools, courses, or readings to support you through training? We invite you to check out the revamped Training Support Curated Collection. Developed in consultation with the RACP Training Support Team and subject matter experts, this collection provides resources for trainees who have an identified difficulty, as well as supervisors who would like to support their trainees and improve their own supervision. The resources have been categorised in the 13 key areas of performance as outlined in the supervisor report form, as well as wellbeing and supervision.
Fellows can claim CPD for time spent on online learning resources.
Introducing the new Reflective Practice Curated Collection, your go-to resource for elevating your professional practice through quality reflection. This carefully curated collection highlights the importance of reflection in medicine, explaining why it's a critical skill for enhancing self-awareness and delivering better patient care. You'll discover practical guidance and tools for achieving quality reflection, from theoretical frameworks to examples.
Find out more about weaving reflection seamlessly into your busy clinical routine. Record your reflections in MyCPD by adding the time spent reflecting to the total time for the relevant CPD activity in Categories 1, 2 or 3.
Elevate your practice today with the Reflective Practice Curated Collection, which is available on RACP Online Learning.
The Clinical Ethics for Fellows and Supervisors Online Learning Resource has been designed to build a baseline ethics capacity in physicians. It also aims to improve our ability to teach and assess clinical ethics capabilities in trainees. The resource supports physicians in recognising, reflecting upon, and managing ethical issues that arise in our practice and in the healthcare settings in which you work.
The resource includes a dedicated section on the importance of peer review in clinical ethics, with guidance and templates to support Fellows with meeting the MyCPD Category 2 Reviewing Performance requirements.
Throughout this resource, you will engage with compelling video case studies, learn from peers through discussion forums, and receive strategies, frameworks, and templates to support the implementation of your new knowledge, all while being prompted to reflect on your learning.
At this year's RACP Congress, we shared information on the Top-5 Evolve recommendations to reduce low-value care. This was done in collaboration with the Australian and New Zealand Society of Blood Transfusion, the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nephrology, the Australasian Chapter of Addiction Medicine and the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand.
It was a great opportunity to engage with members on the importance of implementing Evolve in clinical practice and to increase the Evolve Policy & Advocacy Interest Group membership. To learn more and join the interest group, visit the Evolve website or contact evolve@racp.edu.au.
We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all Fellows for their dedication to professional growth. Your commitment to working on your professional development plans and completing your CPD records for 2023 is commendable. We also recognise and express gratitude to those who participated in the recent audit.
We give a special thanks to the CPD team for their continuous support and guidance. However, it's important to acknowledge that the true driving force behind these efforts is our Fellows. By maintaining a strong focus on CPD, you are directly contributing to improved healthcare outcomes and better patient care. Thank you all for your hard work and dedication.
More you may be interested in
As healthcare workers who dedicate our lives to helping others, it’s important to take the time to care for ourselves. We would like to remind everyone that it's okay to not be okay. If you need someone to talk to, you can reach out to the RACP Support Program. It's a free, 24/7 and completely confidential support service that is delivered externally through Converge International.
Whether you have something worrying on your mind, are finding getting out of bed to be a struggle, or just feel like talking to someone for helpful, judgement-free advice, this free support service may be just what you need.
Find out more
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