RANZCR: A Joint Message from the President and CEO

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists

Inside News March 2020

In 2020, as we are all aware, the COVID-19 situation has commanded the attention and the resources of the healthcare system as it continues to escalate globally.

The College’s highest priority is to ensure the health and safety of our members, staff and patients. Radiologists and radiation oncologists are a precious health resource and will be critical in fighting the epidemic and supporting the health system.

We will periodically be providing you all with updates on actions the College is taking to mitigate risks and ensure your safety and the safety of your patients at this time.

COVID-19 College Taskforce

As you are already aware, the College has formed a COVID-19 College Taskforce whose role it is to coordinate a whole-of-College response to the COVID-19 outbreak that effectively mitigates the risk to you, your patients, the College, and College staff.

The Taskforce aims to ensure that the College’s response encompasses all key precautions, information and professional support that you and our patients expect.

As previously communicated, the Taskforce members are:

• Dr Meredith Thomas, Chief Censor Faculty of Clinical Radiology (exofficio)

• Dr Yaw Chin, Chief Censor Faculty of Radiation Oncology (ex-officio)

• Adj Clin Prof Stacy Goergen, Chair Safety and Quality Committee Faculty of Clinical Radiology

• Dr Lisa Sorger, Councillor Faculty of Clinical Radiology

• Prof Liz Kenny, Councillor Faculty of Radiation Oncology

• Dr Johann Tang, Councillor Faculty of Radiation Oncology

• Prof Alan Coulthard, Director nominated by the Board

• Dr Sharyn MacDonald, Chair Australian and New Zealand Society of Thoracic Radiology (ANZSTR) and New Zealand representative

• Ms Natalia Vukolova, RANZCR CEO (Chair)

• Ms Lucy Hutton, RANZCR Senior Media and Communications Officer

The Taskforce meets regularly and will continue to communicate its decisions and provide information via direct email to you and on the College website. The College will support governments’ containment efforts in minimising the spread and flattening the disease curve over time.

Impact on Upcoming College Activities

The College Board of Directors, on the advice of the College’s COVID-19 Taskforce, made the difficult decision to defer all College examinations in Series 1, 2020. The risk of candidates acquiring COVID-19 is low, but real and increasing.

All College events that cannot be delivered in an online format will be cancelled. Where events, examinations or courses are cancelled, the College will refund participant fees. We continue to monitor the situation closely and the College is communicating directly with anyone who is affected. You will also see changes to 2020 planning reflected in these pages.

College members come to the exams and College events from all key health facilities across Australia and New Zealand, and overseas. Clinical radiologists and radiation oncologists play a critical role in the health system and the risk of so many of you, and your colleagues, potentially requiring quarantine for at least two weeks would be devastating to vital health services.

We have also decided to close the Sydney and Wellington College offices to minimise the potential risk of our exposure to COVID-19 which the health system is gearing up to respond to. The staff will continue to work remotely and have shown great professionalism in this exercise, already delivering successfully managed rapid-response virtual workshops.

Advocacy for Personal Protective Equipment

The Taskforce is also focusing on developing advice on access to personal protective equipment (PPE). The Taskforce felt strongly that the College needed to advocate (together with stakeholders) on PPE that is required by radiology practices. An evidence-based statement has been developed for that purpose. The Taskforce believes, based on the Singaporean experience, that in a situation of scarcity our members may miss out on critical PPE without the College’s advocacy. This advocacy has and will continue to take place across both the Australian and New Zealand governments. Further updates will be provided as this work continues over the coming time.

Emerging Literature and Evidence

The Taskforce has reviewed and collated emerging literature and evidence on the role of radiology in COVID-19 detection and management. Australia and New Zealand continue to see patients presenting with respiratory disease either suspected or known to be due to the virus. Radiologists play a key role in diagnosis of disease and the College is providing emerging literature and evidence relevant to the profession on our website which will function as a key point of reference.

Normal appropriate use criteria for imaging patients presenting with an acute respiratory illness should be applied. CT should not be used for routine screening for COVID-19 disease. As with other causes of acute lung injury, it has a role in the evaluation of patients for potential complications.

Further detailed resources are currently available on our website, these will continue to be updated regularly. We would like to thank all College members for their work in reviewing these resources thus far. Separate communiques will be circulated when new resources are uploaded for your reference.

Government Updates

We encourage you to continue closely monitoring updates from the Australian and New Zealand Governments and follow the advice of your local Health Departments.

This is an evolving situation. The College will continue to communicate any significant developments via direct email and through our website at www.ranzcr.com/our-work/coronavirus.

Last but not least, we also fundamentally encourage you to take care of yourselves and everyone around you equally well. We look forward to a time when we can review the challenges faced by the professions in this moment, when we can step back and assess the relative strengths and weaknesses across the healthcare eco-system, when we can to continue to support and advocate for the work of our members in both ordinary and extraordinary circumstances.

Kind regards

Dr Lance Lawler and Natalia Vukolova

RANZCR President and CEO

Dr Lance Lawler

Ms Natalia Vukolova