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A month in the life of an RACGP Board Director

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Since becoming an RACGP Board Director, quite a few colleagues have asked me what it is we actually do.
 
I think this is a reasonable question to ask, and it motivated me to outline the main responsibilities of my roles so that members have a deeper understanding of the RACGP Board and the college itself.
 
So, without further ado, this is what a typical month for me as a Board Director and RACGP Victoria Chair looks like:

• Spend a weekend reading Board papers
• Attend a Board meeting, which usually last 5–7 hours and occur on the third Thursday of every month
• Attend RACGP House in Victoria all day Thursday for meetings and other college activities
• Host (usually) two evening webinars for Victorian Members
• Advocate in the media from anywhere between several times a day to once a fortnight
• Read and review any number of in-house and external agency policy documents
• Respond to queries from Faculty members
• Prepare for and preside over Faculty Council meetings
• Support the Faculty’s strategic projects: at present, we are working on a submission to the Victorian Government on improving clinical handover summaries for our state
• RACGP COVID Response Working Group (stood down as of May 2022)
• Chair’s report

I am also currently Chair of GP22 and attend 2–4 meetings a month for that, and am a member of the Board’s Finance, Risk & Audit Committee as well as the Education & Workforce Committee. These latter commitments require me to spend a weekend reading Board committee papers, and attend committee meetings every 1–3 months.

I also attend to less frequent duties such as: 
 

• Represent RACGP Victoria (and often speak) at conferences (Practice Manager’s Conference, Brainy Women’s Conference, Wellbeing Weekend, Victorian Government Stronger Together Conference, Pharmacy Society of Australia Conference)
• Preside over Faculty Fellowship Ceremonies (five so far this year), which is my absolute favourite duty
• Mentor a candidate in the Future Leader’s Program
• Participate in Board development
• Participate in RACGP strategy development
• Member engagement with the Board every second month
• The RACGP Presidential Taskforce
• Extraordinary Board and committee meetings
• RACGP Research strategy meetings
• Lion’s Club Mobile Skin Cancer Project
• COVID Clinical Champions webinars
• WorkSafe complex claims review GP representation

In addition to the above, I attend a number of advisory committees and expert advisory groups to provide specific advice/consultation. These range from weekly, to monthly, to tri-monthly: 
 

• Victorian COVID Vaccine Expert Advisory Group
• Victorian Government Primary Care Stakeholder Engagement Group
• Victorian Government GP Respiratory Clinic advisory committee
• Victorian Department of Health (DH) GP communications advice
• Victorian Virtual ED Program Advisory Committee
• Victorian Virtual ED GP Advisory Committee
• Victorian Government Emergency Response Committee
• Vaccination in schools advice
• Flu vaccine rollout advice
• A standing meeting with Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas and her office every month
• COVID Positive Pathways Advisory Committee
• Victorian PHN Alliance–RACGP Victoria meeting
• Childcare and Adversity Steering Committee (for Children in Out of Home Care)
• Rural Workforce Agency of Victoria meetings
• Australasian College of Emergency Medicine meetings
• Victorian Surgery Recovery Taskforce
• Priority Primary Care Clinic Clinical Governance
• Priority Primary Care Clinic steering committee
• Surgical Recovery Taskforce
• Department of Health and Aged Care GP Advisory Committee

Now, some members may be rightly wondering how all these meetings and commitments benefit them. So, with that in mind, I’ve put together a list of things I’ve managed to get done in the past two years: 
 

• Executed a services agreement with the Victorian DH, within which GPs representing general practice in Victoria, via RACGP, are remunerated for providing their advice on key health issues and system reform
• Proposed and executed a project with the State Government to directly fund GP respiratory clinics to reduce the strain on the public and private health systems in Victoria, resulting in an investment by the State Government of over 23 million dollars
• Proposed and executed a project with the State Government to stand up five Urgent Care Clinics within already established general practices in Victoria to ease strain on public and private healthcare services within the state, resulting in a more than $5 million investment
• Proposed and executed a grants project to support vaccination activities by general practice during the COVID-19 pandemic, including vaccination in schools, after hours vaccine clinics, and addition flu vaccine clinics
• Advocated for and achieved a state-based injection of vaccines into general practice during the COVID-19 pandemic, to mitigate the issues of supply shortages via Federal supply chains
• Advocated for and achieved a system by which GPs were employed by State Government-based pandemic services to meet the testing and vaccination needs of Victoria
• Established and executed a weekly (then fortnightly, then monthly) online educational webinar series in collaboration with the Victorian DH to keep GPs up to date with matters pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine program
• As a Board member, helped guide the RACGP through the establishment and transition of profession-led training back to the RACGP
• Helped guide the college through an organisational restructure
• Assisted in the appointment of a new CEO

All of my fellow Directors/Chairs have similar lists, with nuances relevant to their own state or national Faculty.
 
I hope this helps unearth what our role is for the wider membership.
 
Log in to join the conversation.

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AGM RACGP Board

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