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President’s message As we get into the colder months of winter, we expect to see a growing number of COVID-19 infections and influenza. This is a stark reminder that the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over and that we have many issues that need to be addressed, including the impact of long COVID and its implications for ongoing medical support. As governments try to get the elective backlog under control, I fear that the already exhausted and burnt out healthcare workers’ health and wellbeing will continue to be adversely affected. We desperately need more staff, particularly nurses and other clinical professionals. We recently received notification from the Australian Department of Health’s
Health Products Regulations Group, that there is an extreme shortage of non-ionic IV contrast (Omnipaque) for radiological investigations. Aotearoa New Zealand had adequate supply when this message was published. We wrote to our members advising that they comply with restrictions in requesting diagnostic imaging that requires IV contrast, such as angiograms, CT scans, intra-operative imaging, retrograde pyelography, ERCP, operative cholangiogram among other items. The current stock of IV contrast should be reserved for urgent, non-deferrable indications and surgeons should consider alternative investigation methods if appropriate for the indication. This is likely to mean deferral
of some planned surgery until the supply is restored in hopefully, one to two months. We encourage surgeons to make sure their Trainees are aware of these guidelines. In May we held our 90th RACS Annual Scientific Congress in Brisbane. It was a successful event that attracted more than 2600 attendees from more than 25 countries. It was great to see so many people in one place—enjoying catching up with friends and colleagues. I’m sure that like me, many of you were reminded of just how much we have missed in-person interaction with each other. We were able to have more meaningful conversations and make important connections.
