READY FOR ACTION
Dr Kathryn Austin has stepped up to the AMA (NSW) Presidency after two years as vice-president. Dr Austin has been involved in advocacy since her school days and is a passionate advocate for the AMA, the medical profession and her patients.
Q: DESCRIBE YOUR specialty and the highs and lows that come with it. I am a staff specialist in obstetrics and sub-specialist in maternal fetal medicine at Royal North Shore Hospital. The hospital’s maternal fetal medicine service covers Northern Sydney LHD and we also are involved with transfers of women to our service for some of the most complex pregnancies
across the state. I also practice in the private setting in obstetrics as a VMO through North Shore Private Hospital. I am a director of a private women’s health practice offering obstetrics, gynaecology, midwifery, psychology and physiotherapy.
Obstetrics is an excellent foundation for an AMA presidency. It has procedural elements, continuity of care, hospital work, running a private practice – with all of the joys and challenges that brings.
Obstetrics is often at the front line of the threats facing the profession, we are often the canary in the coal mine for the challenges facing the medical profession. We are in the midst of the rise of consumerism over quality and evidence based care, litigation is a major issue, private health funding and an outdated MBS to name a few of the challenges.
Q: What makes you most proud of your profession?
To see doctors working collaboratively to get the best for their patients. I see my colleagues staying back after hours, working together in teams to absolutely get the very best outcomes for the patient in front of them. The incredible sacrifices they’ve all given Images: Supplied
to be there at that very moment is humbling. It’s the birthdays they miss to be on call and the family dinners they miss to stay back to look after someone because their patients come first. Seeing the incredible amount of dedication at every level of medicine and seeing colleagues give their all in every part of medicine just makes me so incredibly proud to be part of this profession.
Q: What does the AMA mean to you?
The AMA is the representative group of doctors for the profession. It is all that is best about the profession, and we take seriously the work we do to care for doctors and patients. Most doctors probably don’t realise the work that is funded by their membership fees to safeguard our profession - by monitoring and responding to every policy change, responding and appearing at government inquiries, to be in the rooms where decisions are made, all so we can keep practicing and caring for our patients.
The AMA is about all aspects of being a doctor. When I set up my practice, I used the AMA’s incredible Workplace Relations Service, which I didn’t fully appreciate until I needed it. I continue to use it regularly, most recently for advice on part of my staff specialist contract in the public hospital and in my private practice for our staff contracts and practice governance support. There is nowhere better to offer professional, thoughtful advice with an understanding of the intricacies of the medical system.
Q: What will be your priorities as President?
My main priority is how we fight to ensure that our health system and our patients have the resources we need. Medicare is woefully out of pace with the costs of healthcare and not fit for purpose.
“The AMA is the representative group of doctors for the profession. It is all that is best about the profession, and we take seriously the work we do to care for doctors and patients.”
This leads to out-of-pocket costs and unfair blame on doctors. This is an important priority for state and federal AMA.
While change and reform are necessary, I am deeply fearful of the short-sighted hospital funding solutions being considered in place of quality care.
I am worried about our indemnity landscape, not simply the cost but the emotional burden and how much claims distort good
clinical practice.
It is vital that we improve the standing of GPs in our state health system to ensure it is inclusive of their needs.
I want to continue to try to support and influence the Special Commission into Healthcare Funding. Being in the room, offering advice and speaking for doctors and patients will be critical.
I have a strong passion for leadership, particularly but not only
women’s leadership.
I think I’m in a unique position to be able to lead at a time when obstetrics and gynaecology services are being transformed and I hope to help lead and direct them to a place where we can provide a safe and sustaining service both psychologically and physically. I also hope to advocate to expand women’s health services across all aspects of pregnancy care as this is the cornerstone of the foundations for a healthy society.
Q: You are well known for being decision and outcomes oriented. What frustrates you with our public hospital system?
Big systems create great bureaucracy and the challenge is that the individual delivery of patient services is usually outstanding, but it’s often the nonclinical distractions that get in the way. Time constraints that take people away from frontline services,
such as administrative burdens that actually don’t provide better patient outcomes. Situations where they’re under resourced, and therefore have seen significant challenges of time constraints and not having
those teams in place behind them to support the care that’s required. Doctors can provide excellent clinical care and should be supported to be providing that care without those challenges that make those jobs incredibly and unnecessarily difficult.
Q: In your view, what is the state of the NSW public hospital system?
It’s like a house of cards. Most of the time that house of cards is stable simply because of the goodwill of the treating professionals. But you see when those holes in the system line up, how incredibly fragile it is, and how challenging it is for those workers on the front line to try and provide that care needed. It is just so taxing to do that in the current circumstances. NSW offers an exceptional level of care if you’re very unwell. But that comes at the cost of large numbers of other areas of the health service being pulled and pressured and pushed. And that’s where the challenges and gaps arise. I think that’s something that we need to look at very carefully - how do we resource that appropriately? dr.
AMA (NSW) Vice President Dr Fred Betros and AMA (NSW) President Dr Kathryn Austin
Prof. Saxon Smith presents Dr Austin with the AMA (NSW) President’s Award for Contribution to Medicine in 2015
Images: Supplied