Chair Report

As the year races to an end, I am always impressed at how our large multinational service industries draw on big data to anticipate and deliver what they think we need… when, where and how we need it.

That is not to say that despite all of the data and responsiveness that they always get it right. Look at the plastic bags saga. Woolies spent no time in the spotlight and Coles quite a bit of negative attention based on their varying strategies around the same issue.

Learning how to deal with big data, consumer expectations and our evolving work environments is essential. The same is becoming true in healthcare and General Practice will be swept along with this trend whether we like it or not.

Your average consumer before smart devices was not tracking their food macros, sleep quality, or even as aware of how much more interesting other people’s lives appear on social media than their own… like everything, for better or worse this awareness is not likely to go away any time soon. So why not focus on using this information to inform better the service we provide to our internal and external stakeholders? What big data does your practice have access to? Are you using it for the asset that it is?

As we move into the new year, General Practice Supervisors Australia are looking at what resonated the most with the membership over the past three years to ensure we continue to deliver more of the support you need and less of the things that didn’t register.

One thing is clear, members, now more than ever, are seeking advice around performance management, business optimisation, employment contracts, NTCER, in practice teaching resources, and we’ve heard you loud and clear. It’s perhaps reflective of the cost of doing business when things don’t go well and the tighter fiscal and competitive environment we all operate within.

Whether it is a supervisor contracting services from the practice, a practice owner or a registrar learning their discipline, there is one thing that unites us all – we’re all service agents in a market which is driven by consumers.

Consumer demand will always be driven by needs. Have a look at the after hours services delivered over the past four years, whilst not reducing emergency presentations… if we as general practitioners don’t fill a need – there is always someone who will.

We cannot then be unhappy about someone else filling a need when we weren’t happy to fulfil the need ourselves.

As we move into the new year, may we all reflect on what things we do well, where the efficiencies are and where the industry is headed.

Gerard Connors
Chair, GPSA