President's Update | Change at the Top
In his latest President’s update Dr John Willliams reflects on a number of significant changes across AMA at both state and national levels.
New faces on the Board
It’s been an important week for AMA SA as we officially welcomed four new ordinary directors to the AMA SA Board. Dr Bridget Sawyer, Dr Shriram Nath, Prof. Ted Mah and Prof. Tarun Bastiampillai attended their first Board meeting on Thursday 17 October.
The new directors are dedicated and active AMA SA members who bring with them a wealth of varied experience. They’ll work alongside our Vice President A/Prof. Peter Subramaniam, independent Board director Megan Webster and me to advance AMA SA’s strategic plan and shape the future of the organisation.
I’d like to sincerely thank our departing Board directors A/Prof. William Tam, Dr Guy Christie Taylor and Dr Michelle Atchison for their service and commitment to the AMA SA Board throughout their tenure. Our organisation is all the richer for their guidance and contributions over many years.
Change at the top
Since I last wrote to you, Federal AMA has welcomed a new leadership team. Dr Danielle McMullen is our new President and A/Prof. Julian Rait has stepped into the role of Vice President. I look forward to working with them.
Already it’s clear that both doctors bring with them the energy, dedication and experience that’s needed to represent AMA as we approach a Federal election. Dr McMullen has said she wants this to be a ‘health election’ and I couldn’t agree more - we need a focus on healthcare at the Federal level and the funding and systems to provide quality care for all Australians.
Dr McMullen and A/Prof. Rait had their first meeting with the Federal Health Minister Mark Butler this week and I’m told it was a productive and fruitful conversation. In my role as AMA SA President I will continue to work with the South Australian Government too, advocating for smarter investment to increase capacity, improve data collection and use, and boost connectivity across the system.
It's clear that we need our leaders at the national and state levels working together to deliver world-class primary and tertiary care. In a similar vein, we need a coordinated effort across AMA to continue to guide and advise health decision-makers and to hold our governments to account.
On that note, I was so pleased to see the return of WA doctors to the AMA federation this week. This is a fantastic outcome for our whole organisation. We need a united and energised AMA working together to improve the health system for all patients
