Dr Peter McLaren, GCMA President
Dear Colleagues,
I am the current president of the Gold Coast Medical Association and would encourage all doctors practicing on the Gold Coast to consider becoming members.
The GCMA does the following:
- Holds 10 monthly clinical talks / dinners per year. This is a meeting place for doctors on the ‘coast and is a way of introducing new arrivals. These are sponsored largely by financial services firms and so may also help young practitioners to learn the business of medicine.
- Allows an opportunity for doctors to inform their colleagues of new changes in techniques, procedures or technology that pertain to their practice.
- Holds the annual Gold Coast Health Expo which showcases some of the private healthcare services and helps educate the community.
- Produces a monthly magazine entitled “Medical Link” which goes out to all private doctors and serves to keep them abreast of changes in the local healthcare community as well as informative clinical articles.
- Has initiated a conference on the Gold Coast, which we hope might become an annual event, combining Q Health, Griffith and Bond Universities and the private hospital sector.
- Makes statements to the press and asks questions that those in employment, both public and private, are not allowed to ask. We survive on our membership fees and any profit from conferences and are not beholding to anyone but our members. This allows us to truly claim to be the ‘independent voice of medicine on the Gold Coast.’
- Has continued involvement with promoting charity events and overseas aid projects. We plan to hold a joint meeting in 2012 with the Fiji Medical Association and the Fiji College of General Practice in Fiji. Fiji is one of our closest neighbours and the international response to the present military regieme has served to alienate the medical community from overseas contact.
I would also encourage you to attend our meetings. We try to select a diverse range of speakers and topics. Your input into the selection of these is encouraged as is any participation in the Association’s many activities. The dates appear on our website.. The membership application form can also be easily downloaded.
Yours Sincerely,
Dr Peter McLaren
President, GCMA