RACGP stalwart steps down

For the first time this century, a familiar figure will no longer be taking a seat at the table of the RACGP’s Victoria Council.
 
The state’s RACGP annual meeting held on 10 October marked the end of an era, with Associate Professor Morton Rawlin stepping down from an involvement that stretches back to the 1990s.
 
While he plans to continue clinical duties, he has now left official advocacy work that has seen him in a dizzying array of roles: as a long-serving Chair of RACGP Victoria, Chair of the Faculty of Specific Interests, a prominent GP supervisor and education director to name just a few.
 
‘It’s very difficult to sum up Morton’s career because he did so many things and was so influential across so many sectors and disciplines of medicine,’ current RACGP Victoria Chair Dr Anita Muñoz told newsGP.
 
 ‘He has had important and influential roles in medical education and college training, in advocacy and leadership within Victoria,’
 
She highlighted his ‘significant contributions’ to rural health, dermatology training, skin cancer medicine, and voluntary assisted dying, among others, and said the outgoing faculty member had influenced the way she has executed the RACGP Victoria Chair role.
 
‘He has helped teach and shaped many GPs’ careers in his role as educator,’ Dr Muñoz said.  
 
‘He’s a very generous mentor, advocate and teacher.  
 
‘He’s very thoughtful and considered, he has always made himself available to help matters to do with the college or the profession or the community.
 
‘He’s also extremely experienced, so he’s always been able to provide rich advice and help someone like me.
 
A winner of the prestigious Rose-Hunt Award in 2013, Associate Professor Rawlin has long said his first love is clinical practice.
 
‘It’s my passion to keep people involved in their care and provide the best possible care for my patients,’ he told newsGP.
 
He also believes that advocacy work and a zest for clinical work go hand in hand.
 
‘If you’re a vibrant and keen clinician, that actually is really helpful in your advocacy because it brings a practical element to what you’re trying to get across to the politicians and others, and it’s that practicality that makes it able to be implemented,’ he said.
 
‘And that’s really important.
 
‘There are lots of great ideas, but you can’t implement them, whereas if you’ve got something that you can implement, you’re going to have a win.’
 
For the Melbourne-based GP, who cut his teeth in emergency medicine and as a rural GP, the real key is being involved.
 
‘The main thing is to be at the table as part of the discussion,’ he said.
 
‘Sometimes that can be politically very difficult. Unless you’re at the table and able to give the positives and the negatives, the decisions will be made without you there and that can be very negative.’
 
Reflecting on the highlights since he first began his work on council, he points towards greater uptake of RACGP education and a rising RACGP profile.
 
‘The biggest things have been the growth of the college exam from where it was when I started, which was in the very dark days of the college and very low membership numbers, to where we are now,’ he said.

‘And the fact that we are much more visible in terms of politicians, both at state and federal level, compared to when I started on the college.’
 
After his long involvement in RACGP matters, he is quick to encourage others to follow suit, and hopes that his absence from the council table ‘gives someone else a chance’.
 
Now aged 65, he is not going away, he insists, but ‘stepping back from some of the official things’ – and has plenty to keep him occupied in the newly liberated hours.
 
There are plans to build a house on 20 acres, and ongoing clinical work including his role as the medical director of the Royal Flying Doctor Service Victoria.

‘Essentially, I’m still going to be working full time,’ he said.
 
‘But my evenings are going to be a bit freer.’
 
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Morton Rawlin RACGP advocacy Victoria Faculty