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RACS leadership
President’s perspective
While we have entered a new year, it looks like the COVID-19 pandemic will be with us for a while longer. With border restrictions coming and going throughout December and January, I am sure it was a very different Christmas break for many and a strange, but increasingly familiar, way to start 2021. Last year I regularly wrote about how the College had been forced to adapt by implementing processes and different ways of working that may have taken several years, or even decades, to occur had the pandemic not hit. The challenge for us in 2021 will be to continue to integrate the lessons learned and use this experience to allow us to be as productive as we possibly can be and deliver excellent value to our membership. I ended 2020 by travelling to Canberra with the Royal Australasian College
of Surgeons (RACS) CEO, John Biviano, and the General Manager – Fellowship Engagement, Etienne Scheepers. As well as meeting with Dr Brendan Murphy, the Secretary of the Australian Government Department of Health; Professor Paul Kelly, the Chief Medical Officer; Dr Nick Coatsworth, infectious disease physician; and other members of the Australian Government Department of Health leadership team, we met with the Hon Mark Coulton MP – Minister for Regional Health; the Hon Chris Bowen MP – Shadow Minister for Health; and others from the Professional Services Review Agency, the Australian Medical Association, the Private Hospitals Association and the Consumers Health Forum. In all meetings we conveyed the view that, as Australia overcomes COVID-19 and looks to rebuilding, RACS is keen to take a more engaged role in working with
government and other stakeholders to ensure the long-term sustainability of surgery in our healthcare system. Specific topics touched on during the visit included fee transparency and the government’s Medical Cost Finder website, telehealth, reforms to use of the title ‘surgeon’, elective surgery during the pandemic and reforms to the management of the Prosthesis List, among others. It was a productive visit with most displaying significant engagement in the issues, as well as interest in collaborating more closely with the College into 2021 and beyond. Another key topic in our Canberra discussions was rural health, and the recently released Rural Health Equity Strategic Action Plan. I would like to thank past and present members of the RACS Rural Surgery Section who led the development of this. The plan is focused
