By Dr Philip Morris, GCMA President
Dear Colleagues,
The festive season is fast approaching and the year of GCMA activities is coming to a close. We have one more general meeting presentation. The meeting in November will be addressed by Prof Allan Cripps from the Griffith University Centre for Medicine and Oral Health. It will be very interesting to hear from Prof Allan Cripps about the progress of the medical school program and how local general practitioners and specialists (especially those in private practice) can contribute.
Just recently we announced at a press conference the initiative for local state parliamentarians to provide us with a regular diary of their activities in the health area. These activities will be published in the Medical Link for the information of the health professional community on the Gold Coast. We are also making space available in the Medical Link to local parliamentarians to write short articles about health topics of their interest. Hopefully in this way we will be better informed about what our political representatives are doing in advancing health services on the Gold Coast and their thoughts about health topics. I have initiated a state parliament petition asking the government to "immediately ensure the people of the Gold Coast that the Southport campus of the Gold Coast Hospital will be retained as a substantial acute medical and surgical inpatient and outpatient facility for public usage in addition to the new Gold Coast University Hospital after the new hospital is completed in 2012." This petition gives voice to our Association's concerns that even with the building of the Parklands Hospital and the additions to Robina Hospital there will be too few public hospital beds on the Gold Coast to serve the needs of our growing population in 2012 and beyond. The retention of the Southport Gold Coast Hospital as a 300 bed facility is needed to provide the additional beds required for a population of 600,000 in 2012. If you would like to support the petition please sign on electronically via the GCMA web site at www.gcma.org.au.
It is pleasing to report that the GCMA has been invited to sit on the Gold Coast University Hospital Stakeholders Advisory Group. I attended a meeting of this group on Friday 12 Sept. I would like to thank Dr Adrian Nowitzke, CEO of the Gold Coast Health District, for this invitation. The next meeting of the advisory group is on Friday 14 Nov. If any member wishes me to raise items concerning the new hospital at that meeting, please get in touch with me.
The GCMA Health Expo held on Saturday 4 Oct was a huge success. Attendance was notably up on 2007 and the new location at Robina Community Centre was excellent. I would like to thank all the sponsors/exhibitors, the speakers and the general public who attended for making this so worthwhile. We are especially thankful to John Campbell and his management team for doing such a good job organising the Expo.
Planning for the joint conference in Fiji on 24-26 Sept 2009 is going ahead. We soon will have a web site presence (via www.gcma.org.au) for information and registrations for that meeting. The conference will have academic and practical clinical streams and is a collaboration between the GCMA, the Gold Coast Division of GPs, Griffith University, Bond University, the Fiji Medical Association, the Fiji College of GPs and the Fiji School of Medicine. A lot of enthusiasm is building around this meeting. It will be held at the Denarau resort area outside Nandi, Fiji. This is an idyllic place to have a conference and a holiday! I look forward to seeing members at the next general meeting this year and at our annual general meeting in early 2009.
In the meantime all the best for the holiday season.
Philip Morris.