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Call to action urges GPs to be ‘bold and brave’
As GPs @ Parliament wraps up for 2024, MPs are now urging doctors to reach out and share their stories in a bid to create practical policy solutions.
The RACGP delegation took part in more than 70 meetings with leaders in Canberra.
A groundswell of grassroots GPs is needed to create the changes most useful for frontline doctors, as MPs call on the profession to make clear what they need.
That is the next step forward following this week’s GPs @ Parliament advocacy campaign, which saw a delegation of 20 GPs from across Australia descend on Canberra.
Over the course of three days, the group’s busy schedule saw it attend more than 70 meetings and engagement events, speaking to the nation’s leaders on all political sides and sharing their firsthand experience on what needs changing.
This long list of high-level meetings included sit downs with Federal Health and Aged Care Minister Mark Butler and Assistant Minister Ged Kearney, as well as Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, and Liberal Senator Anne Ruston.
Members of the delegation also met with Speaker of the House of Representatives Milton Dick and Independent New South Wales MP and former GP Dr Sophie Scamps.
They also had a meeting with the crossbench, specifically for the GPs to answer politicians’ questions about general practice, funding, workforce, and future risks.
RACGP President Dr Nicole Higgins told newsGP she has been encouraged by the meetings and the leaders’ willingness to listen and learn about the role general practice plays in the health system.
‘This is advocacy in action. This is members representing members to get our message across about who we are as GPs, what we do, and how we do it,’ she said.
‘There’s been overwhelming feedback from our MPs about the impact of having GPs in Parliament, and their comment back to us was we need to do this more.
‘We need to be bold and brave, and remember MPs are just normal people as well and they actually really want to hear from us, they want to hear our stories, they want to hear our patients’ stories, and they want to take that message back to Parliament on our behalf.’
The delegation also attended a breakfast with the Parliamentary Friends of General Practice group, and the ‘Roundtable: Building Net Zero and Climate-Resilient General Practice’.
The RACGP went to the advocacy event with three specific items it wants funded in the upcoming May Federal Budget:
- Basic work entitlements to reverse workforce shortages, including GP registrars being paid the same as their hospital counterparts
- Universal annual children’s health checks for the first 2000 days
- The establishment of a national practice-based research network
It also spread the message that the
transition back to college-led training has positively impacted communities, and patients, across the country.
The RACGP’s
pre-Budget Submission 2024–25 makes a number of additional funding requests, including for support to carry out longer consultations, and for those practising in regional areas.
Importantly, it says long-term health reform is key to making sustained change, rather than promises based on Budget or election cycles.
Dr Higgins hailed the advocacy campaign a success and said the opportunity for GPs to speak with politicians directly was an invaluable experience.
She is now encouraging all GPs to get in touch with their local members and share their own views on what needs to be change within their individual community.
‘MPs want to see their local GPs regularly and we need our GPs to be knocking on the doors of their local MP. We want to build our GP advocate network and empower our members to be advocates for their profession and for their patients,’ Dr Higgins said.
‘Most MPs are very knowledgeable about their own electorates and the onus is on us to make sure they have the correct information, and they want to hear it from GPs.
‘The power is actually not in the big stuff or the events, it’s actually what we do on the ground and this needs to be driven by GP advocates – we have a strong presence in Parliament now and that will continue and grow.’
GPs @ Parliament 2024 was the second event of its kind hosted by the RACGP, with hopes it will now become an annual campaign.
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