The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners

Doing the Real Business of Listening to and Representing our Members

Our College should be one of the most influential and respected bodies in the primary healthcare sector.

Dr Harry Pert

We have a duty of care to our patients. We must ensure that GPs in New Zealand are among the best trained specialists in the world, delivering safe, effective and affordable primary healthcare.

We have a duty to policymakers. You work at the coalface and know better than anyone how well our health service works, and what can improve it. The College must ensure policymakers get a chance to listen to and act on your views.

And lastly, but by no means least, we have a duty to you. It’s a duty to ensure we do everything possible to create an environment in which you can do your job effectively, efficiently and enjoyably.

Unless we do that, we are failing in perhaps our most fundamental duty.

We are not sure we fulfil any of those duties of care as well as we might. We’re not bad ... but we could do a lot better.

Dr Tony Townsend

Part of the problem is that we get so busy working ‘in’ the business we forget to work ‘on’ it.

As a College, we get distracted from the real business of listening to and talking with members and acting on your concerns and requirements.

We can too often get caught up with ‘developing policy’.

We strive not to upset our ‘sector stakeholders’ and, in doing that, we sometimes upset our members.

And that’s the challenge facing us in the coming year - to engage effectively with members at all levels so we can do a better job of representing you and advocating on the issues that impact on your ability to do your job.

The challenge this past year has been getting the College to a point where it can do that.

Last year the College faced significant financial losses. We had to make some hard decisions that would alleviate what was a very serious financial situation.

We achieved that, not without a lot of angst along the way. We reduced costs, renegotiated contracts and improved systems. The College’s finances are now in a much healthier state - a $1million improvement against expected losses.

That gives us the platform to tackle the other issues that now confront us.

We have to re-position general practice as a specialty, with all that means in terms of proper recognition and reward for what you do.

We need to make real progress with long-outstanding issues around Vocational Training. Our view is clear. All doctors in independent general practice should be vocationally trained.

We must continue to develop our training programme. We made good progress last year, but not enough.

We must focus much more on professional development support for GPs after training.

We have to step up to our potential when it comes to setting national standards, frameworks and resources.

We need to address the paperwork and compliance war you fight day after day.

But, above all else, we need to remember that all our actions, all our strategic plans, our work programmes, our committees – they are totally irrelevant unless they are focused on what our membership wants us to deliver.

Tony and I spent much of last year sorting out the backroom threats facing the College.

Now the real work starts.

Now we can get on with the business of positioning the College as an influential advocacy organisation that has a key role to play in setting policy and creating the best outcomes for New Zealand doctors and patients.

Now we can do the real business of listening to and representing our members.

Now we can deliver better services and benefits for members.

That is fundamental to enhancing the College’s relevance within the sector and reinforcing to members that we are still ‘value for money’.

To read more about our ideas and plans visit our website: www.abetterfuture.co.nz.