Dr Pat Giddings, CEO
Welcome to the latest edition of our Journeys newsletter!
RVTS extended a warm welcome to a new cohort of 17 registrars who commenced training with us in our July mid-year intake. Our recent September skills-based workshop provided the perfect opportunity for registrars, both new and old, to connect with their peers from all over the country.
Interest in the RVTS program is at an all-time high, with over 50 applicants applying for the 16 positions available to commence training with us in January 2024. Expressions of interest are now being taken for training to commence in July 2024.
The Company behind the RVTS program (Remote Vocational Training Scheme Ltd) held its AGM on 21 September, at which Dr Abigail Harwood and Dr Suzanne Harrison were appointed as RACGP and ACRRM nominees respectively. Dr Sanjaya Kapuwatte was reappointed unopposed as a nominee of our registrar and supervisor membership for a further two-year term. We look forward to introducing our new Directors, Abby and Sue – who will no doubt be known to many readers – in our next edition of Journeys.
We congratulate Dr Jacki Mein and Dr Sanjaya Kapuwatte, elected respectively as RVTS Chair and Deputy Chair, at the Board meeting following the AGM. You may have read our past profile piece on Jacki from the first issue of Journeys. Jacki has a long history with RVTS, having been a past RVTS registrar, current supervisor, and past Board Chair and Deputy Chair.
The AGM also saw the departure of Dr David Moniz and Dr Rod Omond from the Board. David has served as Chair of the Board for the past 12 months and Rod has been a Board member for six years, having served in a variety of roles including Deputy Chair. I am very grateful for the contribution that David and Rod have made to the organisation and wish them well.
With the winding-up of the RACGP PEP, I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the dedication of the RVTS team in their support of RACGP PEP participants over our contracted period to deliver support services on behalf of the College (2019 to 30 June 2023).
The successful delivery of this activity was largely due to the commitment and dedication of those medical educators, mentors and support staff involved. Participants in the program supported by RVTS received a remarkably high standard of support.
We delivered our 5th Grand Round Webinar in July – a fireside chat with the National Rural Health Commissioner, Adjunct Professor Ruth Stewart, on ‘Searching for innovative rural workforce solutions’. The event was well received and prompted passionate, informed discussion. We look forward to sharing highlights from these discussions as our next RVTS4GPs Blog podcast.
Innovations and improvements are afoot, with our Workshop team developing a quinsy training model and a paediatric lumbar puncture training model for procedural simulations.
IT projects have also kept us busy, with the migration of business systems to Microsoft 365 from the Google suite, and our new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and RVTS website nearing their implementation phase.
I hope you enjoy this edition of Journeys – and I particularly encourage you to take the time to read the profile piece on one of our Cultural Educators, Glenda Humes, as hers is a truly fascinating story.
Best wishes from all of us at RVTS.
Dr Pat Giddings
September 2023
