Chair Reports -
August 2024

The supervisor is the one constant across learner levels, standards and outcomes; yet it is the supervisor who has to adapt and change the most to meet the learner’s needs, and the training provider’s requirements, with every individual placement.

The last year or so has seen increased training numbers. While this may have been greater in rural areas and across certain pathways, we know that access to and sustainability of future workforce goes beyond just vocational training to supporting the pipelines leading to general practice and rural generalism. Yet again there is an expectation not only from our profession and peers but also our funders that we, supervisors and training sites, continue to volunteer considerable resources to scaffolding medical students and prevocational trainees. This comes at a time when the sustainability of general practice remains a challenge, as evidenced by the increasing number of practices closing around the country. Although an integral part of every learner’s needs, clinical supervision continues to be unremunerated. Thus a role that comes with clinical accountability and potential reputational risk for any practice or training site, a role that is central to the perpetuation of our profession, remains altruistically-powered (less by choice than need) for the overwhelming majority.

The Board and team of GPSA are all too aware of the challenges and responsibilities our members face. We remain committed to being responsive to your needs and supporting you in all possible ways. This year again our research team has been working tirelessly on the development of systems and structures that best empower supervision teams through evidence-backed innovation.  The education team continues to develop more webinars and resources to help you deliver educational supervision with excellence at its heart. In addition to Scenario – our first mobile app – along with its corresponding learner-facing app, ScenarioEd, this team now brings you Consultation! The Board Game, which had a successful international launch in Wellington at this year’s general practice conference celebrating the RNZCGP’s 50^th anniversary.

Like you, we are largely unfunded for what we do: all of which is for you, our members. We are unique in our provision of open access resources, and we remain committed to continuing to share our content for free for the benefit of the broader community, and equally committed to keeping membership free for all Australians involved in GP training. Shoring up the sustainability of GPSA so we can continue to deliver the calibre of support you deserve is naturally one of our key priorities; your purchase of our apps and game will help ensure GPSA can continue to represent and support you into the future.

Our future focus also extends to exploring sponsorships and partnering opportunities with organisations who share our values. This last is part of our goal of ensuring any emerging areas of clinical practice and learner perceived needs can be addressed with confidence by our valued members.

How we work on your behalf in terms of our stakeholder engagement and advocacy efforts takes numerous forms. While some of this advocacy occurs behind closed doors and over many conversations across a variety of settings, our goal is singular: to ensure that your interests do not get buried under other pressing priorities and demands placed on this sector. I want to assure you that your priorities continue to be prosecuted even when some of the issues highlighted earlier in the year have still not been announced as resolved. This is quite frankly because we have either met with relative deafness from sector partners pursuing their own political agendas or encountered unexpected environmental changes requiring additional time to navigate.

The GPSA team and I have invested more than 4 months establishing our member priorities for the NTCER review and the future of GP training via the national annual survey, the NTCER survey, the NTCER working groups, networking events, conferences, the Community platform and the many one-on-one conversations we have had. I remain confident that we have heard from across the full and diverse membership of GPSA, and am grateful that so many of you have been keen to offer solution-focussed and innovative ways to tackle the problems we face. We will continue to raise these insights with other member organisations, training providers and our funders. In addition, we remain involved in other discussions including the various SEM trials occurring across the country, always determined to ensure inclusion of the supervisor voice. We continue to support the SLO Advisory Council too, under the able leadership of its Co-Chairs – Drs Sue Harrison, Tim Chappell and Candice Baker -, facilitating their conversations with both colleges on topics such as dual accreditation of supervisor PD, improved communication, access to regional supervision teams, and proactive measures to support an optimum training experience.

As we start to gear up for the next round of placements in the AGPT space, we encourage training sites to continue to offer as much as is viable by way of both financial and non-financial supports. The NTCER is a minimum set of national terms and conditions, which a great many of you have indicated you already surpass in varying degrees to show the value you place on your future colleagues and potential practice partners. Through the ongoing NTCER review process, we have learnt about the wide range of ways practices offer meaningful support for their trainees over and above the required minimum, including additional exam practice sessions run by volunteer GPs, and personal finance training and assistance delivered by our phenomenal practice managers in their own time. This confirms my belief that the values that drive GP supervision remain enshrined and safe, capable of weathering any pressures or changes to the external environment. I salute your commitment and resilience.

As the Chair of the GPSA Board, I understand that we may all be facing up to the same storm, but we are not all in the same boat. Our role as a membership organisation is to support the entire fleet, including looking after the smallest and the biggest ships through a lens of equity, so each can do their best and sail together. We represent otherwise unassociated individuals and businesses, and do so with humility and respect for all each of you offer to ensure quality health outcomes through high quality training.

This time I leave you to ponder over one of my favourite movie quotes, from of all things the Disney animation ‘Bambi’:

“Life is all about perspective” (not just perception).

Dr Srishti Dutta
Chair