President’s update: G’day from the top end!

Hello and happy Friday from beautiful Darwin!

I’m in the Northern Territory visiting our AMA NT colleagues as part of our Presidential Roadshow and I am overwhelmed by the hospitality up here. What an incredible part of the country it is!

Before I get into my NT visit, my thanks to our AMA NSW colleagues for hosting our Council of Private Specialist Practice (CPSP) maternity mini-forum last weekend. We were joined by colleagues from the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) and the National Association of Specialist Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (NASOG), the Australian Society of Anaesthetists, the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, and doctors across anaesthetics, O&G and paediatrics as well as our CPSP committee.

The mini-forum was called to discuss solutions to the crisis in private maternity services, and help our CPSP guide our broader AMA policy regarding private maternity care. Clearly that need is urgent. We have seen at least 14 private maternity units close over the past five years. Too many communities, particularly those outside major metropolitan areas, have been left with no local access to private maternity services. Finding solutions to ensure the sustainability of private maternity units is critical, as projections suggest that if nothing changes, by 2030, there will be too few private births to keep remaining private maternity units open. 

I briefly made it home for a clinic day before heading up here to Darwin for the next leg of our AMA Presidential Roadshow. It’s been a pleasure to catch up with the new AMA NT President, Dr John Zorbas, and the rest of the AMA NT crew. John and I cut our AMA teeth together on Council of Doctors in Training about a decade ago and its great to see him as a state president. 

I’d had the wonderful opportunity up here to visit Careflight and the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre where the AusMAT team is run from. It was fascinating to hear from both organisations how they manage the logistics of emergency care provision. I’ve also brought the whole AMA board with me and we’ve had a great board meeting. We were lucky enough to be invited to visit the Danila Dilba Health Services, an Aboriginal community-controlled organisation providing culturally safe care to the community. And of course a highlight was the Darwin sunset for dinner with local members.

From 30° days here in Darwin I’m off to Canberra, where the mornings are starting off below zero and not going up very much from there, for the Health Services Daily Towards One Healthcare System Summit, which promises to offer up some very interesting sessions… I’ll update you on this and more next Friday.