CEO update April 2022 WardRound
Dear Members,
I hope the start of 2022 has allowed you some time to connect to Country with your family and friends. This year is shaping up to be very interesting already and I want to take some time to acknowledge some of the challenging circumstances our Communities are facing before updating you on AIDA’s many activities.
Firstly, the devastating floods in New South Wales and Queensland have left thousands in our communities without a home. I hope you and your loved ones have not been adversely affected by these floods. If you have, I urge you to contact us to see if there is anything we can do to support you. Koori Mail, a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander newspaper, have been doing some great work in the wider Bundjalung nation, spearheading the clean-up and recovery phase for communities. If you would like to extend your support in any way, I recommend following their daily updates on Facebook.
The events of 2022 to date highlight the importance of our work at AIDA. The challenges remain the same but the urgency to reduce the impact or severity for our people is increasing.
Earlier this year, the Australian Government released the National Medical Workforce Strategy 2021–2031. AIDA actively shaped the development of this important 10-year strategy through our work on the Medical Workforce Reform Advisory Committee. This mainstream strategy has three cross cutting themes for us; growing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander medical workforce, increasing specialist training in regional, rural, remote and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health settings to population parity; and improving cultural safety.
We are also proactively undertaking advocacy work in the health policy space. Since the last Ward Round, we have made several submissions to Government, all of which can be found on our website.
AIDA continues to look at innovative ways to grow, support and retain Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander doctors, and I am pleased to announce that AIDA formed a consortia with eleven non-GP specialist medical colleges. This consortia has recently secured funding for AIDA to implement a new program targeted at recruiting and support non-GP specialist trainees. Read more here.
AIDA recently published our 2021 Growing the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander medical specialists report. We have been working closely with the specialist medical colleges to assist them to integrate and embed these standards. While I would like to thank the specialist medical colleges on their progress to implementing changes, I also want to acknowledge that there is still much work to be done to embed effective and sustainable change. I look forward to working closely with colleges on, not only implementing these standards, but implementing the STSP and growing and supporting our trainees in a positive manner.
And to end on a celebratory note, I am sure you are aware that this year marks AIDA’s 25th anniversary. The theme for this year is ‘Celebrating the Past, Challenging the Future’, and we will be doing just that with a number of key events throughout the year. On 8 March we hosted an International Women’s Day Breakfast held on Ngunnawal/Ngambri Country. This event brought together an amazing panel of female thought leaders who discussed a range of topics. Read more about the event here.
Our annual Conference will return this year and will be held on Yugambeh Country on the Gold Coast from 4-6 October. I hope to see you all there! Visit our events page for more information about the Conference as well as other member events.
I look forward to seeing you at one of our events very soon. Stay deadly, stay safe and stay connected.
Mumuk
Monica-Barolits McCabe
Chief Executive Officer.