Committee of Doctors in Training September update

Health Professionals' Mental Health and Wellbeing Summit

We've been advised this week the summit will take place on 17 November as an all-day cross-profession event. Queensland Health's Acting Deputy Director-General Prof Keith McNeil said the event will include keynote speakers from each of the health disciplines, followed by profession-themed workshops to explore practical solutions for change and appropriate support mechanisms. 

Prof McNeil said the summit is intended to be the first step to help ease the pressures currently facing our healthcare workforce and that they are committed to coordinating follow up work after the event to progress key ideas and solutions identified.

We are very pleased Queensland Health has responded to our calls for the summit and look forward to devising and implementing strategies and providing support to help ease the current workload. 

Resident Hospital Health Check 
Thank you to everyone who took part in this year’s Resident Hospital Health Check (RHHC). We know that this year has been especially hard and finding time to answer a survey is low on your list of priorities. That stress has come through clearly in this year’s results. We will be releasing the findings on Monday 26 September. AMA Queensland President Dr Maria Boulton and I will be holding a press conference that day to talk about the state-wide and regional outcomes. 

The report is not only helpful for junior doctors to know which hospital will best look after them, but it also gives hospital administration a better picture of how their staff are coping and what other support they need. 

Regional communities are always very keen to hear the results too, as they want to attract top doctors to work in their regions. 

Maria and CEO Dr Brett Dale will take the RHHC report to the Queensland Health Workforce Summit on 27 September. The summit was called to address the massive workforce issues. The system was in crisis long before COVID hit, but COVID has certainly brought matters to a head. 

Junior Doctor Conference Gold Coast 
If you haven’t already, register now for JDC Gold Coast. It’s going to be a great weekend to network and catch up with peers, win prizes, learn and be engaged. The second day of the conference will finish up at lunch so we can all meet at Topgolf for some food, drinks and a bit of fun. It will be a great wind down after a robust conference. 

Women in Medicine
Our very own Dr Natasha Abeysekera is a panelist at this year’s Women in Medicine breakfast, where the theme is leadership. Tash will join Drs Maria Boulton and AMA Queensland Board Chair Eleanor Chew OAM, as well as A/Prof Beverley Rowbotham AO and Dr Fiona Raciti. It should be a great event and a good chance to meet with influential women in Queensland medicine. 

Elections
As hard as it is to believe, it’s already late September and CDT is starting to look towards 2023. Nominations will open in the next few weeks for those interested in being on the CDT Executive. This is a great opportunity to get involved in the medical community and ensure the voices of DiTs are heard throughout the state in terms of setting AMA Queensland policy and advocacy priorities.

Positions will also include the Chair and Deputy Chair spots for all of our special interest groups (industrial relations, digital health, wellbeing, sustainability, rural and remote, and education and training) as well as the hospital representative coordinators. Next year should be an exciting year for CDT and we’re hopeful to see increased resourcing so we can help with even more local advocacy projects in the future.