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Regular fixture confirmed for Macquarie Street advocacy
GPs were welcomed into NSW Parliament on Wednesday, with free health checks and RACGP advocacy on the agenda.
Dr Rebekah Hoffman at NSW Parliament House with the NSW Health Minister Ryan Park.
The GPs@Parliament NSW event is set to become an annual tradition after its second successful running in Sydney’s Macquarie Street on Wednesday.
Six GPs, including RACGP NSW&ACT Chair Dr Rebekah Hoffman, were at NSW Parliament House for the occasion, offering health checks to the state’s politicians.
‘We had about 27 of our local members come down and get health checks, which was really lovely,’ Dr Hoffman told newsGP.
‘We had the opposition leader and the Health Minister come down and the shadow Health Minister as well.
‘They’re all really keen to have a chat, really pro-GPs and really wanting to talk about what the RACGP is doing.
‘And it always surprises me how much they actually want to get a health check done. They’re there for more than just the chat, they actually really want to talk about their health as well, which is nice.’
Vaccinations were high on the GPs’ discussion list, including advocacy to expand access to influenza, meningococcal B and RSV immunisations.
Attracting and retaining doctors in remote communities was another key talking point, as was allowing GPs to prescribe oral isotretinoin (Roaccutane) for severe acne and offering greater support for general practices during natural disasters.
‘Last year, it was more about “this is the RACGP and this is what we do” whereas this year it’s more about “well, this is what we’d like you to do and you to work with us on” as well,’ Dr Hoffman said.
‘We’ve decided today we’ll be heading out there every year at about this time because we get a really good response and it’s nice to sit down with people that are now getting to know us.
‘If you’re not there you sometimes get forgotten about, so it’s making sure that we continue to have a presence and continue to remind them that we want to be involved in the conversations and that we really want to be consulted with as much as we can on some of their key issues.’
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