Dr Bill Boyd for President Elect AMA Queensland.
Nominated Dr Bill Glasson and Dr Dana Wainwright
Friday, April 24, 2009
VOTE 1 BOYD Please do return your ballot papers to have your say.
AMA Queensland has a long and proud history. Very much work has gone in over the years to establish a mature, respected Association to which people from many walks of life have looked up with respect. Our Association has been carefully crafted with principles and tenets of the highest order such that AMA Queensland brings to the minds of those who come in contact with us the notions of accomplishment, integrity, advocacy and honour. The Association lives for the Members. We are however a broad church with a plethora of ideas, requirements and aspirations. The work of Branch Council covers a broad area but the thrust is to ensure the best of outcomes for our Members and our patients. Critical business includes General Practice, Queensland Public Hospitals, International Medical Graduates, adequate training for students and young doctors and National Registration which is a real and present threat to all of Australia's doctors. As you read this the Federal Government is withdrawing support from provincial MSOAP services and starving vital remote health facilities. AMA Queensland has a great deal of core business to attend to. It can be all too easy to be distracted from the main game and to be taken down any one of a number of blind alleys. We could discuss the order of importance of the items of core business but critically we must return our focus to the fact that General Practice is under siege from not only the Federal Government which seeks to control who is employed where and when (think GP Superclinics) but also the State Government in their handling of particularly Public Hospital admissions where decisions appear to be more driven by politics than clinical parameters. AMA is best placed to pressurise Government to recognise the pivotal place General Practice has in the entire health system. Few Practitioners would argue other than the service able to be offered by the Public Hospitals is less than adequate. Delays and bed block are up there alongside problems such as lack of staff and facilities. A pervasive attitude peculiar to central Government serves to exasperate Medical and Nursing staff alike. AMA Queensland must continue to highlight these problem and engage and negotiate with State Government to keep them up to speed. Our Public Hospitals chronically teeter on the edge of a precipice – at times seeming to regain their composure from an impossible angle of list. Where we should have flagships we have instead flags of convenience with all the rubber band firepower of the third world countries which they mimic. Sure, throw money, but hey! How about spending it with a little intellect? It’s not rocket science. Around half of all doctors working in Queensland may be classified as IMG's. These doctors frequently have their own set of issues which have been poorly addressed by Government. AMA Queensland must continue to advocate on their behalf in order to improve their lot with particular reference to orientation, career structure, job opportunities and recognition.With a wave of trainees coming through AMA Queensland needs to keep the Government honest with regards the structure and management of facilities and case load. There is a real risk that training will be devalued with insufficient teachers, classrooms and access to clinical material. training doctors costs money. We must ensure that we are not short changed. National Registration is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. On the surface we have an apparently helpful initiative to facilitate the movement of practitioners around Australia with one Registration but hidden in the wording is a powerful move to backbench the Medical Profession to the watering down of essential demarcations between genuine medical practitioners and assorted others who want to be. This works to dull the distinction between a doctor and an allied health worker such that patients may be exposed to individuals with watered down qualifications easily obtained in truncated training regimes. Karl Marx said that the government which controls the Medical Profession will control the masses. State and Federal Governments of either persuasion would love to be able to control absolutely where and when you work and how much you will earn. They have spent an inordinate amount of time and money already to arrive at National Registration. This manoeuvre will give central Government control over training and entry into the various disciplines, emasculating our Colleges and producing doctor-free Medical Boards excising from the latter their function of quality control. Thus they will control numbers of trainees and be in a position to not only flood the service with new people but to achieve that end by reducing the length and thus the standard of training. In unison with the other States, Queensland must work to minimise the effect of this legislation at the Federal level.AMA Queensland core business includes advocacy both for Members and patients. Government traditionally does its best to minimise the lot of the Medical Profession. We have to front them and argue strongly for decency to prevail. Equally it is our lot to take to Government the inadequacies experienced by those for whom we endeavour to care – our patients. Despite all the distortions and distractions, in the final analysis it is our patients who are our constituents.My job as President Elect and then as President will be to focus on these challenges and without pretending they will all vanish in a year, strive to make some headway by discussing the issues with skilled colleagues and putting cogent arguments to Government. My 14 years on Council, including one as Secretary and immediate past as Chairman, hold me in good stead for the position of President Elect. I am a seasoned leader of a number of Community organisations. I am well positioned to try on your behalf to achieve these ends. Please do fill in and return your ballot paper. Vote 1 BOYD. Thankyou.
I am a single-handed Obstetrician/Gynaecologist in Mackay but confined now to Gynaecology after 30 years of Obstetrics.
I graduated in Dundee, Scotland 1976.
Early O and G training in Scotland, London and Cardiff.
Met Julie (Australian student midwife) Dundee.
3 adult children, none in Medicine.
1982 MRCOG
1983 Med Super plus private GP – Weipa
1984 – 1986 finish O and G training Adelaide.
1986 – 1988 Director O and G Mackay Base Hospital.
1988 - ........Private O and G Mackay
Visiting Proserpine, Glenden, Moranbah, Clermont, Emerald monthly. Clinics and GP trainee tutorials plus IMG support. Working with isolated, single-handed GPs.
Member Branch Council 14 years.
Secretary Branch Council 1 year.
Immediate past Chairman Branch Council.
Chairman AMA Queensland State Conference.
Wide range of extra-curricular activities.
email: billboyd@easynet.net.au or boydgyn@bigpond.com
Have you been away? - Votes accepted till 20th May 09
