Set-up challenges have GP training primed for strong year

February marks one year since the specialist medical colleges officially reassumed responsibility of general practice training in Australia.
 
So how have medical educators delivering the training found the past 12 months?
 
Introducing an entirely new training program to an entire nation is a big task, particularly for the country’s largest state.
 
That is according to Dr Colleen Bradford, Regional Director of Training for Western Australia, who told newsGP it has so far been a mammoth effort to achieve success, notwithstanding some hitches.
 
‘Everyone involved has had the best of intentions and has worked extremely hard,’ Dr Bradford said.
 
‘Many national staff listened to feedback from the regional teams and reflected on their own goals/KPIs and how they want to implement and achieve them, and agreed to requests to slow down the implementation of the program.
 
‘They also prioritised the work in response to feedback and that has been greatly appreciated.’
 
With more than 20 years’ experience as a medical educator, Dr Bradford began her medical education career with the RACGP in 1998 and worked with Western Australian General Practice Education and Training (WAGPET) until moving across with the transition to college-led training.
 
In 2019, Dr Bradford received the Sam Bada Award for medical education from the RACGP WA Faculty.
 
An early career highlight was her first GP job in the Solomon Islands when her husband was posted there in 1990 and she was in her PGY2 year on the training program. Three months of that time in the Honiara Hospital emergency department was counted towards her general practice training time.
 
‘I have always wanted to work as a GP all the way through medical school … and I learnt a huge amount from that experience,’ she said.
 
Dr Bradford currently works as a GP in Mount Lawley, Perth, where she enjoys all aspects of her job.
 
‘I love the fact that general practice is busy, unpredictable, and very fulfilling,’ she said.
 
‘It makes you think, and it is never boring. Yes, it can be tiring and demanding but so is working in a hospital.
 
‘In your practice you can have a community of patients that you get to know well, especially if you have been practising for a while. You also have lovely staff that you work with and who care. It is very enjoyable.’
 
Having been Regional Director of Training since the transition to college-led training, Dr Bradford has had a front-row seat for all of the challenges such a monumental task involves. But while there have been difficulties, she plans to use these experiences to help achieve training goals in WA over the next 12 months.
 
‘We have all worked to achieve a smooth transition for registrars, supervisors, practices, and communities, even though it has been frustrating and difficult at times … especially in WA with 13% of the population over nearly half of the country,’ she said.
 
‘Dealing with a lack of data at the beginning of 2023 was a challenge. As the first year that the RACGP owned training, we had to work hard to gather our own corporate history of supervisors, practices and registrars.’
 
However, no challenges have so far proved unsurmountable.
 
‘We have that [data] now and are in the cycle of doing things for a second time,’ she said.  
 
‘WAGPET prepared all of us well to expect problems and to deal with them and that is what we have done.
 
‘The medical and training team here in WA work extremely well together. In addition, we have tried very hard to link regularly with the WA representatives of national teams and our WA Faculty staff to support them in their work.’
 
As the WA training team for 2024 is ‘well in place’ and the education program currently rolling out, Dr Bradford has two main goals for the coming year.
 
One of those is to gain permission from the Department of Health and Aged Care to change the semester term dates from 2025 onwards to a February rather than mid-January start. Dr Bradford has undertaken a ‘huge consultation process’ for this to occur, and while it has been ‘positively supported by all’, it must be approved by the department first, with recommendations sent this month.
 
But the largest of those goals is working towards the RACGP’s flagship event of the year come November.
 
‘[We want] to get supervisor and medical educator professional development into the GP24 conference as a stream,’ Dr Bradford said.
 
‘The RACGP owns training now and it needs to be an integral part of the annual conference.’
 
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