Medical Forum
Three vie for RACGP presidency
Nominations have closed and the three candidates vying for RACGP President have been announced.
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Medical Forum
WA’s Dr Ramya Raman is up against RACGP Victoria Chair Dr Anita Muñoz and Townsville GP Dr Gavin Colthart.
Dr Raman announced her intention to run for President earlier this month, saying she wanted to make the voice of general practice impossible to ignore.
In her candidate statement Dr Raman said general practice was at a defining point and the RACGP must be clear about what it protects, what its ambitions are and be disciplined on where it focuses its finances.
“The question is simple. Will the future of general practice be shaped by GPs, or shaped around us?
“I am standing for RACGP President to represent GPs, protect our profession and ensure its future is shaped by us.
“I will lead a College that is accountable to its members, uses your fees responsibly and delivers measurable results: stronger and more sustainable general practices, fairer funding for the complexity of modern care, protection of clinical autonomy, and a respected, authoritative voice for our profession,” she said in her statement.
Dr Raman listed five key priorities including valuing GP care, protecting continuity, backing every GP, building influence and focusing on the College to deliver for its members.
She faces competition from fellow state chair and practice owner Dr Muñoz
In her candidate statement Dr Muñoz said her six years as RACGP Victoria Chair and her position as RACGP Board Director have taught her what moves government.
“General practice faces one of the most consequential periods in a generation,” she said in her statement
“Medicare funding remains under pressure. Scope of practice reforms are reshaping primary care. Workforce shortages continue, while increasing regulation threatens the viability of general practice as a business.
“I believe the College now needs a President who understands how government works, has earned trust across the political spectrum, and has demonstrated she can deliver outcomes for members.”
She lists her priorities as fair funding for and recognition of GPs, keeping GPs at the centre of patient care, leadership that gets results, and supporting the GP workforce.
Third candidate Dr Colthart, a GP based in Townsville who has also spent time as a medical educator for the RACGP, took a different approach to his campaign, telling voters that he would “in many ways make a terrible RACGP President, as the role is currently conceived”.
In his candidate statement he admits that while he supports most of what the College does, he was not seeing it “break free from its shackles on dissent to speak out on some key ethical red lines our society appears to be crossing”.
“Our College does a great job of supporting the present and advocating for incremental change towards a better future,” he said.
“But, like all our public institutions, it has evolved within a system of constraints on any significant deviation from supporting a status quo defined by powerful political and corporate forces outside its control. And even the College’s limited freedom is constricting.”
Dr Colthart did not list his specific priorities if he is elected President.
Voting for RACGP President takes place between August 11 and 21, with the President announced on August 24.
More information of the candidates, including their statements, is available here.