Chair’s Report January 2022
New year brings new registrars, renewal and optimism
In the words of the late Don Chipp, the founder of the Australian Democrats, he talked about ‘keeping the bastards honest’. This relates to minor parties playing a role of keeping the major parties true to their word. This is the role of an independent GPSA in the GP Training landscape.
For the past 16 months GPSA has negotiated the terms of the transition for supervisors and training practices with RACGP, ACRRM and government. With the colleges and the Department of Health currently negotiating the money and the KPI’s, GPSA will ensure that supervisors’ voices continue to be heard.
The independent role of GPSA will be pivotal as training moves back to colleges to assist supervisors with industrial support, resources and advocacy for its 8500 members and 3500 training practices across Australia.
In January, RACGP became the sole member of GP Synergy. GPSA sought members’ feedback, the vote was delayed and a better outcome was reached for the parties involved. There is now a transition plan in place in NSW for both RACGP and ACRRM registrars which minimises the loss of key staff, medical educators and local knowledge.
GPSA will be watching closely how this plays out and what happens with the other RTO’s.
The independent role of GPSA will be pivotal as training moves back to colleges to assist supervisors with industrial support, resources and advocacy
A new year brings new registrars who bring renewal and optimism. As a supervisor, this means increased demands on your time as you orientate and support them through their first weeks in your practice. GPSA has free resources which can be downloaded through our website. Whether you need NTCER compliant employment contracts, policies, procedures and teaching resources, we have you covered.
I welcomed GPT1’s Win and Anna this week. It was a lovely distraction from the stresses of Covid and day to practice. I was inspired by my kid’s teacher who gave new charges a Survival kit. I would love to hear what your practice does to celebrate the arrival of new registrars.
In December and January two new guides were sent out to training practices:
- LGBTQIA+ Health and Inclusive Healthcare in General Practice: An introduction to teaching and learning; and
- Helping your registrar plan their learning in general practice
Both guides are now available free to download on the GPSA website. Every GP training practice was sent a hard copy of these new guides as a thank-you from GPSA.
Do you want to be the best training practice that you can be?
GPSA have published resources for training practices to self assess the quality of your clinical learning environment. As we know, holding an accreditation certificate alone is not equivalent to a quality learning environment. Not only will working through the resources support you to identify opportunities for improvement but it will also provide you with an effective evidence base for your accreditations into the future. These resources are available on this page: https://gpsupervisorsaustralia.org.au/gpcle-practice-setup/
Don’t be a stranger. GPSA staff are here to support you throughout your supervision journey. If you need something clarified or support to resolve an issue we encourage you to contact us on admin@gpsa.org.au or via the office landline on 03 5440 9077.
So it is with cautious optimism that I welcome the 2022 training year.
Yours in training,
Dr Nicole Higgins
GPSA Chair
Date reviewed: 20 July 2022
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