GPSA Chair Report – April 2024

Celebrating & Reflecting

March was certainly a month for celebrations and reflection – Harmony Day, International Women’s Day, Holi, St Patricks Day, Ramadan, World Compliment Day, International Day of Happiness, Lent and Easter….

Following the first meeting of the General Practice Training Advisory Committee (GPTAC) in Canberra at the tail end of the month, I can now share yet another reason for GPSA members to reflect and celebrate: the release of the AGPT Program National Report on the 2023 National Registrar Survey | Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care.
For me, the key messages in this report reiterate the vital role the people at the coalface of GP training played in the successful transition to college-led training – and continue to play as the lifeblood of high quality primary care for the Australian community.

The satisfaction of registrars with our members has remained consistently high from 2017 to 2023. Indeed, the analysis by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) of over 1000 open-ended responses in the 2023 survey shows that more than 92% of registrars attributed the best aspects of their training experience to:

  • their current workplace or practice;
  • supervisor and mentor support; and
  • the diversity of patient presentations.

This feedback reinforces the value of GPSA’s commitment to facilitating a supportive and well-structured clinical learning environment for tomorrow’s GP workforce – through our ever-expanding repository of educational resources, our virtual community of practice, the GPCLE quality improvement tool we are currently refining, our upcoming biennial review of the National Terms & Conditions for the Employment of Registrars (NTCER), and even the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) recently signed between GPSA and our sister peak GPRA.

In all the many tables at which GPSA has a seat now, it is a true pleasure to highlight the role supervisors, practice managers and other members of training practices play in the success that we as a profession can claim today and into the future. My job as GPSA Chair is largely focused on advocating for you in your supervision of medical learners and trainees across the educational spectrum. I continually speak to both GP specialty colleges regarding topics our members flag as priorities, such as dual recognition of supervisor professional development and similar efficiencies to ensure minimisation of red tape and maximisation of well-being. To get this right though, we are reliant on your engagement and input.

To this end, you will soon receive an invitation to participate in the GPSA national survey – newly and aptly branded “ENGAGE”. I cannot stress strongly enough the importance of the information you provide through this data collection opportunity: the more you contribute to GPSA research such as this survey, the greater an investment we can make in your future growth and sustainability.

We will soon be launching into the NTCER review – which again is completely reliant on your input to ensure we represent your needs faithfully in this process. The NTCER remains a tool that provides protections for both training practices and registrars, and this year we are looking to enhance it and expand its application to non-traditional contexts such as vocational training pathways outside the AGPT. No doubt you have ideas about improvements at both a big picture and granular level, and we sincerely want to hear about these! Please submit your expression of interest here if you would like to be involved in workshopping the NTCER for 2025-26 with us.

Looking forward to working with you on the key activities lined up for April. Until then, as Yoda would say, “Pass on what you have learned”!

Dr Srishti Dutta
Chair

Date reviewed: 28 March 2024

Please note that while reasonable care is taken to provide accurate information at the time of creation, we frequently update content and links as needed. If you identify any inconsistencies or broken links, please let us know by email.

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Why get involved with GPSA? “Having lots of skin in the game,” says this high-flying GP

Dr Kate Manderson is a name associated broadly with Australian general practice and GP supervision yes, but also with aerospace medicine, corporate and clinical governance, advocacy and – above all else – family and community.

On the eve of the transition of GP training to the GP specialty Colleges, this experienced GP and practice principal decided it was time to contribute her vast skills and experience to ensuring quality and passion remained at the heart of clinical supervision for future GPs in-training.

So it was that this ADF-trained health professional, businesswoman, Principal Medical Officer of CASA, Senior Aviation Medical Officer of the  Royal Australian Navy, Graduate of the AICD, Medical Educator and past President and Chair of the Australasian Society of Aerospace Medicine (ASAM) came to be elected onto the Board of GPSA in October 2022.

Kate recently talked with our Communications Manager, Pauline Ingham, about her burning desire to get a better deal for Australian GP supervisors.

What do you think has brought you here to this role on the GPSA Board?

“After 25 years as a GP I have been inside the GP system for a long time and gained a lot of valuable experience.

“Like a lot of GPs, I have a lot of ‘skin in the game’, having worked as a GP, a Medical Educator and a Supervisor.

“I understand how it works, how it could be improved, and have seen some challenging times.”

Why GPSA?

“At a time when I couldn’t contribute to GP training at the coalface, I still wanted to contribute meaningfully.

“I saw the opportunity to use my experience and skills in clinical leadership and governance through the role on the GPSA Board… as a way to help our system, our supervisors and our trainees on a broader scale.”

She notes that she was encouraged and supported by colleagues who said, “Kate you can do this!” – and she decided the time was right.

“My experience in governance, company directorships and leadership came into play. Having an understanding of the importance of operating a viable and strong business, combined with my supervision experiences, enabled me to put myself forward and make a contribution to GPSA."

How have your various roles prepared you for your work with GPSA?

“My first role as a GP registrar prepared me by going through the system. I was privileged to train in Tasmania and on the whole had fabulous education, mentoring and training, working with pioneers and leaders who are still involved today. I learned from people who showed me how great it could be.

“My placement experience varied after that – some practices gave little support; however, it was still the early days of training, and often I was on my own. Some practices straddled the line between good and bad: offering great mentoring and supervision, but less structured education.

“So I had the opportunity to experience lots of different perspectives as a trainee as to what supervision looked like, could look like, and what it  actually should look like.”

How did that view of supervision you had as a trainee change when you started supervising?

“When I moved into the role as a Supervisor and had the opportunity to be on the other side of the table, I instantly realised how hard it can be to be a supervisor!

“I was so determined that there really is no excuse for being a poor supervisor, but the actual experience of doing the job for more than a decade, and having more than 50 trainees over the years, has led me to realise it’s not that simple at all.

“Supervisors deal with registrars of varying needs, and this requires a flexible system that can be very difficult to achieve.”

As a practice owner, what do you see as the challenges facing educating and training the next generation of GPs?

“I see two big challenges or barriers – adequate funding and adequate recognition.

“You want to be altruistic and you want to help somebody – vulnerable people and vulnerable communities – and you want to spend lots of time with patients. And that is beautiful, but you can’t do that if the practice closes because you can’t pay the wages.

“Let’s start with money, and we must talk about that. If your business goes bankrupt you can’t help anyone. It's a fundamental part of what I teach trainees, they have to understand the business of general practice."

So let’s talk about the money!

“It can seem unpleasant to raise, but thinking that money isn’t important is part of the reason we have ended up in this current situation.

“It is important – and there are some key barriers we need to address.

“To start with, the funding model of general practice is fit-for-purpose for 1975, but it is not fit-for-purpose for 2025, 2035, 2045… It hasn’t been fit-for-purpose for a very long time because everything has changed around us, just not this funding model. That is the biggest barrier.

“We are not funded as supervisors, and until that changes we will not have consistency in the quality of training placements… Which means appropriate funding is needed urgently for supervisors and training practices as well as the trainee.

“There is a vast difference between the funding for hospital-based supervisors with payment built into their contracts, and how GP supervisors do it: GP supervisors take a pay cut to teach!”

Any other barriers you’d like knocked down?

“The culture of general practice.

“The idea of #justagp – ‘Are you a specialist or just a GP?’ – is problematic.

“We need something much more powerful in recognition of the specialty of general practice.”

“I believe we must bring back the PGPPP so that everybody gets a turn in general practice – so they understand what it’s about.

“I also strongly believe that we need a name change, because everyone uses ‘GP’ whether they should or shouldn’t.”

“We need to identify our unique skill set, it’s got to be marketed, again back to the finances... We pay equivalently, we recognise the specialty equivalently, and everyone understands what the specialty does."

What challenges are presently of greatest concern in the realm of supervision for our members?

“My sense is that the biggest concern is ‘who’s going to take over when I am done?’

“We have members who are passionate, dedicated and committed in that role. And they are altruistic, self sacrificing, they are doing it without any money, without any recognition, because they want to and they think it’s important.

“Part of it is they are there for the future of the profession, part of it is they are there for the future of their practice. They are thinking, ‘If I am not supervising, we can’t get trainees; if we can’t get trainees, we can’t get succession planning and workforce’ and so on.

“I am living that experience right now. I am not currently supervising registrars in my practice so this equates to empty consulting rooms in my practice.

“People might say if we can’t get registrars then why not get Fellows. That is proving almost impossible in the current climate.” 

We need more women in supervision. How would you encourage women to pursue roles as supervisors? 

“Firstly, GPSA’s current Women in Supervision research is important because if it doesn’t get measured it doesn’t get fixed.

“Data is key and can be used strategically. Commonwealth Departments respond well to data, and politicians respond to real life stories. So you have to tackle any issues with submissions and data.

“With regards encouraging more women into supervision, I’ve already said that supervision is altruistic – you give of your time and your money. Women already have less money and less time, and we are asking them to have even less money and even less time. We have to fix that!

“Another factor is that historically women carry the greater burden of child care. If we have more, better, financially accessible child care for women in primary care, women would do more in primary care.

“If GPSA found a way to subsidise women volunteering to supervise with a cleaner? We’d be inundated! Essentially, childcare and financial recognition are the two things I think will get more women into supervision.”

“If we can adequately remunerate or financially recognise supervision overall, then this will no longer be yet another cut to women who are already being cut by the financial disparity we continue to endure. This would benefit everyone - not just women of course, but it would proportionately benefit women even more.”

What would you like to say to Australia’s supervisors?

“My message to Australian supervisors is to hang in there!

“You are special, you are doing amazing things. GPSA understands this and we’ve got your back. We’re going to do everything we can to make it better for you, so please hang in there while we do that.

“I’d also like to send a message to our trainees, our early Fellows and our new supervisors, and that is to please show up, please don’t expect everyone else to do it. It is a champion team, so show up, be brave, put yourselves out there.

“I urge you to support the industry leaders who are saying GPs have to charge privately and we have to charge our worth to make it so that we can afford to supervise in practices. Be brave, be there, show up and take it on!

“I am taken back to my time in the Navy when the mantra in an emergency or attack was to never leave the ship – the three step approach was ‘Fight, Move, Float’ and ‘we do not abandon ship!’

“So I say to my colleagues: we value you, we need you, don’t abandon the ship!”

Date reviewed: 28 March 2024

Please note that while reasonable care is taken to provide accurate information at the time of creation, we frequently update content and links as needed. If you identify any inconsistencies or broken links, please let us know by email.

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GPSA Chair Report – March 2024

It sure has been a busy month or so – no doubt if you’re looking after a new trainee, you will be feeling this along with me!

I hope it’s a been a good start to the training year for you, and want to remind you that, whenever guidance might be needed, you are not alone. 

At the vocational training level, your College supports include your local SLO and relevant Regional Team member(s); complementing these, regardless if you are involved in placements for medical students, prevocational doctors or vocational registrars, GPSA offers the Community platform as a supervision intranet of sorts, where you can seek help from your peers and brainstorm solutions for emerging problems. 

We also provide advice via email for all things NTCER, registrar onboarding and supervision support, along with regular educational webinars and over 1,000 best practice resources and digital tools.

Supervisors and practice managers in GP training form a vital community of practice, and February was marked by many of our sector partners releasing pre-budget submissions that paid homage to this community: aligning with GPSA’s priorities of recognition, reward and respect for our members.

We actively seek cross-portfolio recognition and reward for training practices and supervisors and commend all stakeholders who have used the platform of their own pre-budget submissions to argue the need for greater support of all parties at the coalface of GP training. This includes the RACGP’s calls for improved funding of GPT1, when significant trainee support is provided by supervisors, as well as training programs like FSP and PEP – which need to be sufficiently funded to allow consistent quality of training and supervision for all GPs in-training across the country.

I firmly believe that the increasing burdens and complexity of healthcare delivery, coupled with the worldwide shortage of medical workforce, make a collaborative focus on developing high quality “medical generalism” the only true solution for our communities. Strengthening and supporting placement experiences for optimum learning of these generalist skills is essential for a robust, effective future workforce. The breadth of knowledge and skills we command and convey through GP supervision is the bedrock of our health system, such that every training practice is a workshop where the next generation of GPs is crafted with a commitment to quality.

With the power in the hands of our members when it comes to the delivery of high quality placements, for the last 10 months GPSA’s research team has been tackling the gargantuan task of developing a tool to support benchmarking and quality improvement in GP training. Based on the best practice framework known as the General Practice Clinical Learning Environment (GPCLE), this tool now needs your input. As a supervisor of both medical students and GPs in-training, I am keen to contribute to the refinement of this innovative tool, and I encourage every member, everyone – educators, supervisors and practice team members – involved or aspiring to be involved in GP training across all educational levels, to test and provide your feedback on the GPCLE tool to ensure it serves as a fit-for-purpose resource to maximise the power you have in the future-proofing of primary healthcare.

Until next month… may the force be with you!

Dr Srishti Dutta
Chair

Date reviewed: 28 March 2024

Please note that while reasonable care is taken to provide accurate information at the time of creation, we frequently update content and links as needed. If you identify any inconsistencies or broken links, please let us know by email.

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Dr Sue Harrison, OAM shares insights into Supervision

We congratulate Sue on being recognised in the 2024 Australia Day Honours List for her service to rural medicine.

Dr Sue Harrison, a rural generalist in Echuca and one of ACRRM’s founding fellows, has been a GP and Visiting Medical Officer (VMO) in Echuca and Moama (Victoria/NSW) for the past 40 years. In addition to her experience in clinical work as a GP and GP Anaesthetist, Sue is also senior lecturer for the University of Melbourne RCS and engaged with remote supervision of a RVTS registrar and occasional GP locums.

Sue talked with GPSA about her contribution to supervision, and more.

When did your involvement with supervision begin?

Sue has a made a valuable contribution to the training and supervision of our future workforce. This began over two decades ago in rural general practice. The practice she worked at had a “supervisory team focus” managing learners at different levels. She took on a more active role in supervision when she became a practice owner.

What qualities are needed to be a good supervisor?

“I think that you need to have an interest in education and trained but I think you also need to have an interest in the people under your supervision as people individually. Where are we going? What are your goals? How can we help you to get there? How can we make this available placement for you? Those are the questions that I like to ask.”

“I try to make sure that I have an understanding of what their current curriculum is and what they’re actually trying to get out of the placement. The aim is to optimize the experience for the learner but also optimize the usefulness within the practice of having that person as an engaged learner so that they’re actually contributing to the practice team.”

Why is quality supervision so important for trainees?

“I think it’s important that students or learners feel safe with what they’re doing in the practice. My experience over the last 25 years is that students are probably less experienced and less well ready for practice. As such, by the time they get to General Practice they often haven’t had as much clinical experience as I would have expected someone who was trained 25 years ago to have. So, supervisors have to be quite cognizant that sometimes they need a bit more hand-holding to get to a place where they feel safe in that independent practice environment.”

Can you share a highlight that you’ve had in your role supervising either medical students or other learners?

“An ongoing highlight for me is when I have the opportunity to work with people who I supported during their training, and they remember the time they spent with me positively. Sometimes that had a big influence on their career decision making.”

“I’m especially thrilled to be working with other rural generalist doctors whose training I’ve been involved in and to see them working in, or working as, a rural generalist throughout Australia.”

“Rural doctors make enormous investments into education and supervision which has positive flow on affects to the communities they work in.”

“An aspect of the rural community that I’ve been especially proud of is that some young doctors have taken up the baton of rural medical politics and advocacy. In particular, Dr Megan Belot, immediate past-president of RDA, who I have mentored and have a long-lasting friendship with. Also, my daughter, Dr Emily Harrison, who is now on the Board of RDA and a Council Member with ACRRM. I am so proud that they’ve taken up these voluntary roles and that their passion about rural medicine has resulted in such big commitments.”

What would you like to say to Australia’s supervisors?

 “I have four messages for supervisors and the supervision sector:

– Call for integrated supervisor training

“Firstly, I’d like to call for the organisations who support learning in general practice – so the colleges and those in the prevocational space and medical schools – to recognize that supervision training is important, but that GPs don’t need to do a separate lot of supervision training for each of those organisations. I believe these organisations should work together to provide the training and updating rather than mandate that it’s duplicated for every environment. I strongly believe the organisations concerned should get together an cooperate.”

– Supervisor PD

“In my role as Victorian SLO with ACRRM, I’m advocating that we make it as easy as possible for our supervisors to stay engaged with ongoing professional development in the supervision space.”

– Engage younger colleagues

“The next thing I would say is to engage your younger colleagues with supervision early in the piece, even as a registrar, to start letting them see that that it’s an important part of their role as a doctor. So, looking at opportunities for vertical integration of training within practices.”

– Spend some time getting to know learners and trainees.

“I encourage supervisors to spend time to get an idea of who this learner is and where they’ve come from. Even if each learner’s medical knowledge is the same, there are going to be different things they need assistance with. I need to know who this person is where they come from and what are they hoping to get out with us and for their career progression. What can we do to make this day as useful to you as possible whilst of getting the work done? This approach gives me a level of safety in my current hospital roles. Knowing that this person has just arrived from a city hospital this week and has been doing rotations in great big teams where the work is less hands on, and now I’m asking them to actually step up to be a very active member of my team.”

Date reviewed: 02 February 2024

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GPSA Chair Report – February 2024

Prestige, pay, and recognition

I write this Chair report hoping that you have all had a great holiday period and returned to your workplaces reinvigorated and refreshed. It’s February already, a month of this year already gone – a month that has seen us acknowledge some of the positive trends emerging after a full year of College led training.

For me, this year started with a long-awaited trip to see my family, visit my roots, and reflect on my early exposure to community physicians in the small town where I was born. This certainly set the tone for me to meet with the new GPSA Board to strategise as we did mid-January – with new ideas and energised minds – about what promises to be an exciting year ahead.

The most recent statistics show an increased interest in vocational GP training, notably with rural generalist positions fully subscribed. This has not been achieved without a lot of hard work, and GPSA is honoured to advocate for the supervisors who remain an integral part of growing this workforce through the quality of the experience they provide, irrespective of where they may be located. January has also seen the recognition of several GPSA members on the Australia Day Honours list. I invite you to join me in congratulating:

  • Dr Jeff Robinson, OAM;
  • Dr Christine Longman, OAM;
  • Prof Charlotte Hespe, AM; and
  • Dr Suzanne Harrison, OAM: Co-Chair of the SLO Advisory Council

This year we hope to build on the existing work that our members do in the community as both GPs and supervisors: community consultants and leaders. As we move towards formal recognition of the rural generalist sub-specialty, it is worth considering the role of the supervisor in general practice through the RG lens. Supervisors provide the hands-on guidance, teaching, training and management advice that would be provided by Consultants in the hospital context. It is only through our supervision role that a sustainable future GP/RG workforce can be developed; it is our influence over the learning experience that inspires the GPiT to become a GP/RG, and from there, a future supervisor.

In the GPSA pre-budget submission, we seek the value of supervision to be recognised through a more collaborative mindset both within primary care and across potential funding sources. While various solutions are at play to attract medical students and junior doctors to general practice, the ability to capitalise on these initiatives for the long-term benefit of our communities relies on the continued commitment of both existing and future supervision teams. This commitment in turn relies on respect for the critical role our members play, taking the form of an increase in remuneration and prestige, and greater recognition within our wider GP community as well.

In coming months, prevocational exposure to general practice will significantly increase across urban, outer metro and rural regions, with expanded medical student placements soon to follow. While this has the potential to spark the youngest and brightest minds into action as our future colleagues and the problem solvers of the next generation, the success of this opportunity will be commensurate with the level of support and empowerment provided to the training practices and supervisors responsible for cultivating medical students, prevocational doctors and vocational trainees into the autonomous, patient-centred healthcare professionals our communities need. It all starts with recognition.

And this report ends with recognition too – specifically recognising the amazing contribution of one individual known to and responsible for inspiring so many across this sector and beyond. As the first semester of 2024 kicks off, the life and legacy of Prof Dennis Pashen – Founder and Former President of ACRRM; Former President of RDAA; Rural Generalist; Supervisor; passionate supporter and member of GPSA – will be celebrated in a memorial that befits the life work of a premier advocate for community healthcare. May Prof Pashen long be remembered as a driver of change.

Dr Srishti Dutta
Chair

Date reviewed: 02 February 2024

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(Deputy) GPSA Chair Report – January 2024

~ In Dr Srishti Dutta’s absence, this report comes from GPSA’s Deputy Chair, Dr Frank Maldari ~

The ‘Santa Delusion’ and reading the fine print

What an interesting year we have had with the transition to College-led training. This has gone remarkably smoothly at the coalface – with only a few hiccups along the way, probably fewer than expected – which has a lot to do with the resilience of GPs and practice teams.

I would like to express from all at GPSA the enormous admiration we have for GP supervisors and training practices across the country. Given GPSA’s membership consists of more than 7,000 supervisors and 3,000+ honorary members, you represent arguably the largest unrecognised charitable organisation in Australia.

The peak representatives of GP supervision – the Supervisor Liaison Officers (SLOs) – met in Sydney on 8th December 2023. SLOs from all states and the NT participated in this Advisory Council meeting, representing RACGP (AGPT and FSP), ACRRM (AGPT, IP and RGTS) and RVTS. The passion and commitment to GP training was readily palpable and augurs well for the future of GP training if supervisors are appropriately supported. The main issues facing GP Training were discussed in an open and frank meeting with Georgina Van de Water representing RACGP as well as ACRRM’s President Dr Dan Halliday and General Manager of Education Services, Kyra Moss. The key issues identified by SLOs were clearly presented so that there was no question about what was important to GP training and the desired outcomes.

All SLOs were on the same page: we have significant headwinds in GP training, and future health workforce is dependent upon these being clearly addressed to avoid further negative impact to the already perilous state in which we find general practice currently.

The main issues addressed in no particular order were: supervisor support and professional development, bi-College collaboration and interface, registrar caps, Single Employer Model (SEM), the importance of data to drive progress, placement processes , and , specifically for RACGP, the new EASL requirements.

Supervisor professional development (SPD) – which has simultaneously experienced a significant reduction in support and a progressive increase in requirements – runs along the same lines as GP continuing professional development (CPD)… increasing requirements of a profession in a dire situation. The unintended consequences of reduced participation and loss of quality supervisors are readily apparent. There is only so much supervisors can give, and the tank is running on empty.

Placement process and registrar caps – a challenge for everyone but probably more so for registrars with many horror tales out there about practices receiving either unmanageable numbers of applications… or none; and registrars and practices having 1 week to arrange interviews and finalise offers. It is a mixed story across the country, NSW has obviously had the most experience of this process, and it seems to have become a game of ignore the rules or risk not retaining a registrar. Anecdotally, it seems to have failed on the two key metrics of placement in best quality training practices or highest area of need.

 

SEM – the devil is in the detail. This seems to be a very hot issue with state Health Ministers across the country champing at the bit to get a piece of the action. Terms like “cost neutrality” and “control” of primary care workforce carry a sense of foreboding and beg the questions: who is paying the piper? who is missing out? It cannot be cost neutral when an extra layer of bureaucracy is installed without extra funding. Fortunately, we had some reports from members and SLOs on the nature of contracts being proposed in NSW which really reinforced the view that the devil is in the detail. Please, read the fine print.

RACGP’s Early Assessment for Safety and Learning (EASL) – dramatic increase in demand put on supervisors for a payment of… $Zero. There was reassurance that we do not necessarily need to review every consultation for the full 4 weeks and can make a determination earlier, but no funding for those who do require closer monitoring. I must confess that I am a strong supporter of the concept and many supervisors do undertake this process both as educational and risk management for the practice. Indeed, studies undertaken by Drs Simon Morgan and Gerard Ingham do highlight the number of errors early term GP registrars make, many minor but still a significant number of serious errors. Ideally, in my humble opinion, we should be funded to review all consultations for the first three months of a GPT1 registrar term with time set aside for face-to-face discussion, random case analysis, etc. This would greatly improve competency and patient outcomes especially in the areas of rational investigation and prescribing practices. I would argue that if we did the study and looked at the data it would end up surprisingly cost-effective across the wider health system.

Data is vital in our field, and I think the 2021 GPEx report to which GPSA contributed, “The financial costs and revenue associated with teaching and supervision in general practice”, should be on the Christmas Reading List for all Health Ministers, RACGP and ACRRM Boards.

 

Speaking of Christmas, I do believe in Santa Claus. I wrote him a letter before Christmas, and to my surprise I actually received the requested gift. I asked that, as GP supervision was fundamentally a charitable service, we should be given DGR status and tax exemption from the ATO. To my surprise, in my stocking on Christmas Day was a letter from the ATO confirming that all payments for GP supervision would become tax free and the repayment would be backdated for 20 years and to please find a refund cheque enclosed!! Then I read the fine print… you have never received any payment whatsoever for supervising GP trainees so enjoy your tax-free status on $Zero income!

I would be happy to pay tax on any income from supervision, which I would argue should come through an MBS item number for every phone call and patient review I (and all supervisors) undertake for our registrars.

GPSA is listening and batting strongly on all these issues for training practices and supervisors; I would ask that you all be forthright and vocal about any perceived challenges and instances of neglect in GP training through the year ahead. Your contribution is not only vital to your patients and communities today, but to the health of all Australians going forward.

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year.

Frank Maldari


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Date reviewed: 30 January 2024

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GPSA Chair Report – December 2023

Celebrating the year that was, and excited about what lies ahead!

As I write this Chair report, the last one of this year and my first as Chair, I cannot help but reflect on what a phenomenal year 2023 has been for all of us.

General Practice continues to show we are resilient and resolute despite the challenges that have come our way – attempting to return to a new normal post-COVID, the MBA’s new CPD requirements, and the transition to College-led training to name a few.

The year has also brought opportunities to reconnect, reinvigorate and reinvest ourselves in sharing, teaching and learning across the many events where GPSA has been well represented: PONC, RDAQ, GPME, AAPM, RMA, WONCA, the Australian and New Zealand Prevocational Medical Education Forum, and AIDA. I am sure our members and stakeholders maximised these opportunities to meet with our CEO Carla Taylor, COO Leonie Chamberlain, my predecessor Dr Kevin Arlett, Education Manager Dr Simon Morgan, and Director of Research and Policy Dr Samia Toukhsati.

The GPSA board remains committed to supporting all staff members in our small but effective team in order to deliver high quality educational content, trailblazing research, and useful resources. We envisage these activities and resources will ensure ongoing support to our supervisor and practice manager members, and keep us aligned with our ultimate mission to be the voice of a thriving GP training sector that is united, suitably recognised, rewarded, and respected as the cornerstone of this nation’s healthcare system.

This year we have run a total of twenty (20) webinars that were attended and viewed in record numbers by our members, and the GPSA teaching plans and guides continue to be widely downloaded by supervisors – and at times registrars to support their learning. Kudos to our education team Drs Simon Morgan, Jess Wrigley and Matt Burden, the latter two joining GPSA in an official capacity this year.

The research and policy team has more than its fair share of wins too, having just learnt we’ve successfully secured funding for “Strengthening the recruitment, support, and retention of women GP supervisors: a framework and implementation model” from the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ (RACGP) Education Research Grant 2024 program. This is a legacy piece that was conceived under the guidance of Dr Nicole Higgins in her time as Chair.

GPSA also launched the “Scenario” mobile app – a clinical reasoning toolbox designed to augment the learning experience for educators, supervisors, medical students, and trainees alike – and will soon be rolling out a student-facing forum app that ties in with this, “ScenarioEd”, for medical students and trainees across the globe to better experience the international community of practice we work in.

We are indeed still the little team that gets a lot of stuff done!

I take on the role of Chair for the GPSA Board with a mixed bag of emotions. On the one hand, we said goodbye to Dr Kevin Arlett our previous chair, Dr Justin Coleman and Dr Madhu Tamilarasan – all stalwarts in their own right in the GP training domain. You will be missed. Yet at the same time I am looking forward to working with an incredibly talented and diverse Board with two new members, Drs Nick Tellis and Shea Wilcox. We are grateful you have chosen to bring your wisdom and enthusiasm to the GPSA board. This a Board that seeks to represent the best aspects of GP training and its members in its diversity. It captures not just diversity of identity, also of skills, thinking, type of trainees, geographical location, and GP experience/roles. We haven’t quite reached perfection, but I am a firm believer of progress over perfection.

Lastly, I will say this: the coming year will bring us many new issues to navigate such as the 2024 review of the NTCER, new rounds of GP registrar placements, Single Employer Model, and a steady increase in the number of medical student placements in community general practice. Ultimately it is the junior doctor and medical student experience that is a testament to how we have succeeded in enabling and ensuring a safe and thriving learning environment. We will continue to work closely first and foremost with GPRA and indeed other peak bodies – RACGP, ACRRM, AIDA, RDAA and AMA – and advocate for sustainability of our supervisor workforce and training practices.

Training practices and supervisors currently function in an imperfect environment and yet have always delivered effective teaching. Supervisors are to GP education what GPs are to the nation’s healthcare; this expert generalism in training / teaching under our apprenticeship model is not easy to measure and too often feels invisible. Future-proofing GP teaching and training includes making supervision in practice viable and sustainable – financially and in terms of cognitive effort. I hope we do not forget that there is a fine line between heroism and martyrdom.

To the members of GPSA, this is an organisation that is inclusive in values and in action. I invite supervisors irrespective of where you are and who you supervise/teach to join the GPSA Community. The Community reflects our commitment to developing communication channels for peer-to-peer networking and mentoring, and we will receive all member contributions with gratitude.

To end (and this is particularly for the Marvel fans amongst us), I will borrow the words of the one called Optimus Prime: GPSA members and potential members, “it is time to come home!

Date reviewed: 30 November 2023

Please note that while reasonable care is taken to provide accurate information at the time of creation, we frequently update content and links as needed. If you identify any inconsistencies or broken links, please let us know by email.

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GPSA Chair Report – October 2023

Conferences, AGMs, Registrar Placements... It's just that time of the year!

We look forward to welcoming as many members at our AGM as possible, so please attend if you can, and make sure that you keep supporting us just as we support you!

To change it up, this month's Chair Report has been recorded as a short video for you...

For avid readers, I've also provided the written version - something for everyone!

Hi all, another month and we are preparing for the AGM.  There are 3 Elected Director positions vacant, plus the option for 2 appointed Board Director positions available.  Nominations have closed and we are running this AGM as a virtual meeting, so please make sure you can attend, or if not, please get your proxies in to the Company Secretary (Carla) according to the instructions here.
The allocation of Registrars for 2024 has now occurred in most of the country and there has been a lot of angst from Registrars and Supervisors re the process.  ACRRM allocations have been smooth but the very short timeframes and the “open market” approach from RACGP has been fraught.  On the first day the TMS could not cope with the volume of potential applicants, some practices receiving many applicants and others not enough! Positions have been limited with a lot of practices who have received a much smaller number of Registrar positions  than they felt that they were expecting.  There were other issues as well, which were discussed on our Community Platforms. All these comments are being collated and will be discussed with RACGP at our next meeting.  I get the feeling that a lot of the anger and disappointment could have been avoided with much clearer and more timely communication with RACGP members. 
On the brighter side, our new app “Scenario” has been released now and there has been an overwhelming response to it.  This app will allow the user to generate a clinical scenario in a number of different areas with a suggested prompt or two.  These scenarios are great to use in training sessions and everyone who has seen the app so far has been very quick to heap praise upon it.  Get it now from your Apple or Android app store!
We have of course been attending a number of conferences recently, showing our support for Supervisors and Supervising Practices.  We always seem to have someone at the booth talking about quality GP Supervision and looking at the educational supports that we provide as well as looking at “Scenario” and just asking for advice.  We have been presenting various papers at these conferences and this shows the quality of research that GPSA undertakes – congratulations to Sami and our research team at GPSA. 
Please let us know if you want to be involved in the research that is undertaken by us. We are currently developing an evaluation tool for the GPCLE (General Practice Clinical Learning Environment) that is described on our website here

Date reviewed: 26 October 2023

Please note that while reasonable care is taken to provide accurate information at the time of creation, we frequently update content and links as needed. If you identify any inconsistencies or broken links, please let us know by email.

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Date reviewed: 12 October 2023

Please note that while reasonable care is taken to provide accurate information at the time of creation, we frequently update content and links as needed. If you identify any inconsistencies or broken links, please let us know by email.

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GPSA Chair Report – October 2023

Lots of hard work… And it’s beginning to pay off!

As the year races along, it remains a busy time for the GPSA community. With this in mind, I will try to keep my report a bit more succinct this month, however there are a number of important issues I want to draw your attention to:

  1. GPSA members finally recognised for providing the educational continuum from medical student to fellowed GP /RG
  2. Conference Season is upon us
  3. GPSA’s Scenario App to launch for the international healthcare / educational community
  4. The importance of this community of practice for the community at large

I thank you for your support of our recent Media Release outlining our reasons to be enheartened by the long-overdue acknowledgement of our GP supervisor and practice team members in the recently published Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand (MDANZ) Position Paper: Doctors our Communities Need: Building, Sustaining and Supporting the General Practice Workforce in Australia and New Zealand.

Throughout this year we have been actively lobbying the Department and other GP organisations, particularly in the forum of the General Practice Training Advisory Committee (GPTAC), for a concerted effort to unify the many and disparate entities involved in pathways leading to vocational GP training. In the fragmented space we’ve endured for far too long, the placement experiences crucial to attracting more medical students and prevocational doctors to a career in general practice / rural generalism have invariably been under-valued and thus under-supported. Changes arising from the AMC’s new supervision framework also make future supervisor disengagement increasingly likely due to new requirements failing to recognise the experience of AGPT-accredited supervision, resulting in unnecessary and time-consuming duplication of PD activities.

When MDANZ published their Position Paper recommending the need for increased exposure to general practice to improve the attractiveness of our specialty, their focus on more and higher quality GP placements for medical students and prevocational doctors – underpinned by an appropriate level of support and remuneration, and greater consistency across the educational spectrum – effectively signalled the very change Carla and I have been advocating for. DOHAC has been very supportive of our work to facilitate greater interaction between MDANZ, CPMEC and the GP specialty Colleges, recognising the value of turning the spotlight on the GP supervisor as best placed to encourage more interest in our profession. Subsequent discussions with MDANZ indicate a strong willingness to work with GPSA, inviting our members to embed their observations and suggestions in a new curriculum for general practice at the university level. This is really very exciting.

Of course October is ‘Conference Season’ for our sector, and we are excited to be participating in a number of conferences around the country. We hope to catch up with you at any or all of the AAPM, RMA23, WONCA, PMEF and AIDA events. See full details of our conference involvement in the body of the newsletter or on our website here.

We have also been working diligently on the development of our Scenario App, scheduled for release in time for RMA23. This mobile app will produce case scenarios and prompts across a range of topics for supervisors to incorporate into their teaching sessions with registrars and students. It promises to be an indispensable educational tool with international application, noteworthy for its origin right here in Australia. Excitingly, all profits generated by this resource will be directed right back into our support of the GP training sector. Who knows, maybe GPSA will be running its own national networking conference for our members before long?

While GPSA has been directing energy into innovation and greater recognition and reward for our members, we all have a role in fighting for our profession. As supervisors and training practice teams we need to ensure that whatever role we play in supervision is performed at the highest level of quality possible, displaying just why general practice is the best medical specialty and one that all doctors should strive for. The trust and value bestowed upon us by our patients reinforces every day how important we are to the community. Ours is probably one of the most difficult specialties in medicine, but it is also one of the most rewarding – especially when we band together as a community of practice and support one another.

Stay strong and keep on keeping on.

Date reviewed: 25 September 2023

Please note that while reasonable care is taken to provide accurate information at the time of creation, we frequently update content and links as needed. If you identify any inconsistencies or broken links, please let us know by email.

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