We have reflected on a Strategic Plan for the ensuing year(s) ahead.
The VMWS committee met on December 3rd 2018 at 7pm, as we traditionally do, at the Lyceum Club in Melbourne. We welcome non-committee members to attend as ‘visitors’ upon request.
We commenced by revisiting our ‘vision’: ‘To promote and defend equitable healthcare for all Victorians’.
Our Statement of Purpose includes:
1) Advocate for the health needs of disadvantaged groups in the community including, but not limited to, the opportunity to access formal health care services and equality in health outcomes.
2) Promote the needs of women and children, including the personal and professional needs of women working in healthcare industries.
3) Professional Development / Social Networking.
Upon this framework, we have agreed that given our resources and skills, we will take action on, advise and/or advocate for the following:
Women’s and Children’s Health:
– Reproductive and sexual health options/support.
Gendered Medicine:
– the differences between male and female patients as well as the difference in levels of care provided by male and female healthcare professionals.
Mental Health in the medical profession:
– I am currently conducting research on young doctor suicide and am developing a programme for supporting young doctors transitioning from University to the hospital.
Women’s Advocacy:
– Support for parents who are students ( Centrelink/University facilities).
– Breast feeding in public
– Gender discrimination and harassment in the medical work place. The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons has initiated the ‘Operating With Respect’ programme for all of its members and trainees in an effort to address the issues of sexual harassment and sexual discrimination that is endemic in parts of the profession. This is a major step in a positive direction and we commend the strategy.
– Equitable pay and leadership representation in medical organisations
Professional Development:
– Networking: how we can better support each other and each other’s work.
– Skills Sharing Matrix: this is an initiative I welcome all our members to participate in and involves uploading your details, Year of graduation, areas of research, areas of interest and LinkedIn details so that we can connect even if we haven’t yet met, on professional grounds. For instance, how many of our members know what research papers you have authored and in what field. How about your current passion in medicine, do you know if one of us can help you develop relationships, build connections? My aim is that we can support each other through sharing on our skills matrix. It can assist in pairing up with a suitable a mentor.
– Job sharing: We strongly want to develop this and invite members wanting to get involved to contact Dr Anne Stanaway and Dr Elysia Robb.
Other positive developments have been the work on our updated website. Thank you to Rosalie Cooper (Treasurer) and her husband, John Cooper, and our secretary, Madhura Naidu, who have been working on this. It is up and running now and we will have an automated membership reminder system. Comments from members are welcome. We want to ensure we are growing and provide our members with enough interesting material to read, access and even contribute. You do not need to be a committee member to share an interesting article with us.
We congratulate members of VMWS and AFMW for being recipients of honours awards this year.
The list includes:
– Dr Sue Packer Senior Australian of The Year Award from ACT
– Dr Janet Duke
– Dr Kate Drummond
– Dr Jenny Hoy
In January, VMWS sent a letter advocating for equal pay for education in part-time GP training to the RACGP, MCCC, GPRA, AGPT, including Dr Harry Nespolin – current President of RACGP. To date we have received 3 responses and are now awaiting an RACGP response.
February 28th is the final closure date for abstracts for the MWIA centennial congress to be held in New York in July 2019. You also have the wonderful opportunity to have your name and date of graduation printed in the MWIA Centennial Memorial Book for a fee of $20 Australian. All you need to do is pay $20 into the VMWS account, with your name stating that it is for MWIA – then send a separate email to Dr Rosalie Cooper, our secretariat or myself noting that this donation has been made, so that we can send the list of names to the MWIA secretariat by February 20th. The closing date for MWIA is 28th February, but if you miss our deadline, then you will not have the pleasure of being named in the Centennial book. It is a once in a century opportunity!
We are gearing up for our first event of 2019, the “How We Do What We Do” evening seminar, to be held on Thursday, 28th March, starting at 7pm. We have a wonderful panel of medical presenters lined up and look forward to seeing as many of you there.
It’s a full year for us and I look forward to keeping you updated.
