Agenda For Action: My Priorities

An Agenda for Action: My Priorities

As part of my RACGP President campaign, 5 key priorities will shape and direct my presidency in the future. The videos below detail insights into each priority, accompanied with a distillation of select key action items to strengthen general practice.

Throughout this campaign period, I’d love to hear from you about these priorities, so please get in touch here.

Priority 1 – Critical and Urgent Funding Reform

Funding reform is both urgent and critical for the future of General Practice. This is a core platform underscoring my future presidency. This means working on immediate priorities to reverse funding cuts and increase MBS rebates, especially for complex, vulnerable patients or long consults; but also paving the way for more foundational long term changes in the cultural attitudes towards General Practice funding and value among policy makers and politicians.

Priority 1 Key Action Items:

Increased MBS funding, targeted for complex care and vulnerable patients, starting with long consults;
Remove MBS restrictions to allow practice team inclusion within consult timing;
Improve PIP funding to support non-face-to-face care, care coordination, clinical governance and practice leadership;
Increase WIP and remove WIP caps, for all practices, but preferencing rural and regional practices; and
Set benchmarks for high quality care primary spending (10% target).

Priority 2 – Workforce Of Today and Tomorrow

The healthcare workforce crisis is a critical challenge for the sustainability of General Practice and our healthcare system. As the RACGP, we need to collaborate with policy makers, politicians and health system stakeholders to systematically step up the support provided doctors in training at every level from medical students, through GP registrars and fellows, especially in the face of declining medical student and early career doctors choosing GP as a career pathway. Additional work then needs to be directed towards effective policies to secure our future GP workforce.

Priority 2 Key Action Items:

Introduce funded clinical placements and nation-wide grants for doctors in training to enter general practice;
Ensure entitlement continuance from hospital to GP training, and beyond;
Restore funding to the Fellowship Support Program (FSP) for international medical graduates (IMGs);
Increase support for all registrars through training, especially supporting IMGs to be ‘practice-ready’; and
Targeted resourcing and RACGP support for GPs in underserved areas, particularly rural and remote Australia.

Priority 3 – A College for All Members

RACGP is a uniquely diverse college. It is critical to ensure that we bring along all members in our advocacy and activities. This means reorienting the college to actively listen to member concerns and adapting to unique needs of such a diverse membership. This also means ensuring that the college’s vision is clearly outlined, increasing transparency and accountability for the Board and senior management. Our strength lies in our diversity, and we must support and elevate the issues facing all GPs across Australia.

Priority 3 Key Action Items:

Advance a GP advocate network to be the voice of general practice within the community;
Supporting RACGP’s Specific Interest Groups (SIGs) to mature as a network of GP advice and expertise;
Prioritise support to RACGP’s newly formed IMG group; and
Engage membership further through improved communication of RACGP policy positions and advocacy efforts.

Priority 4 – From Admin to Clinical Care

Increasing administrative burden and regulatory red tape is interfering with clinician led efficiency and as a result, patient care. At the patient level, it’s a priority of mine to ensure that the College is enabling our GPs to be more focused on clinical care for their patients by removing unnecessary red tape. However alongside the granular day-to-day, I see the RACGP as a key stakeholder in the oncoming wave of digital innovation emerging in healthcare. This means supporting GPs to adopt safe and well-evidenced technologies and ensuring GP voices are heard when it comes to health system transformation.

Priority 4 Key Action Items:

Identify and remove bureaucracy (create a red tape register);
Create a member portal for sharing good and bad system experiences to inform RACGP advocacy;
Support GPs to embrace AI and digital technologies safely to improve efficiency and enable more time with patients; and
Ensure digital initiatives are general practice and patient focused rather than hospital centric.

Pillar 5 – Positioning General Practice to Lead the Healthcare System

We need to reclaim the space as the respected leaders of community health care. We have an urgent need to restore respect for our profession and this will come through positive messaging and a narrative which highlights the value and excellence of the care we provide. We need to strengthen and share the evidence of the impact of general practice through a clear research and advocacy strategy. GPs and general practice also have the opportunity to lead initiatives supporting doctor health and wellbeing, and improving the culture of the health system.

General practice is the greenest part of our health system and I want us to lead health system initiatives to reduce our carbon footprint and improve environmental sustainability. The RACGP can play a leading role in these areas, expanding its influence, reputation and ultimately impact and respect for both General Practice and the broader healthcare system.

Priority 5 Key Action Items:

Through improved messaging, research and advocacy, restore respect for our profession.
Support and share research about the impact of general practice impact and gain acknowledgement of our expertise as clinicians and health system guardians;
GPs to provide leadership in health and wellbeing initiatives; and collaborate with Ahpra & colleges to improve the culture of medicine;
As the greenest part of healthcare, general practice can lead initiatives reducing the impact of the health system on the climate.

General RACGP Presidential Election Q&A

Collated GPDU Question and Answer FINAL