I am proud of our specialty, which I believe is the best of them all. Emergency medicine physicians are hands-on and practical. We work in teams to diagnose and manage increasingly complex and acute presentations. We are asked to be resilient under stress and we deliver. But we also need support, and I want you to know the College is advocating for you.
ACEM launched Strategy 2025-2030 to set up our College for the future. Informed by months of fruitful discussions and consultation from members, staff and stakeholders, the Strategy follows the principle of mahi tahi – working together to solve problems.
It is envisioned that this inclusive approach will help the College effectively serve, train and expand our membership, advocate for high-quality equitable healthcare bi-nationally, and connect us to world-class research. You can download the Strategy here. Comments are also welcomed here.
It is so rewarding to meet, listen and learn from members about your very real concerns at a time of chronic under-resourcing and growing demand. And it is an honour to be able to distil those conversations and make your voices heard with leading stakeholders and decision-makers at all levels of government in both countries.
In the lead-up to the Australian Federal Election on 3 May, I’ve been advocating to state, territory and Commonwealth health ministers for increased resourcing and capacity in the healthcare system, and for more work to be done to make EDs safer places to give and receive care.
The College has been working steadily on your behalf in the background, and we’ve been having regular conversations with all sides of the political spectrum. These have been good conversations and have ensured that our politicians are well-versed in the challenges currently facing our health system and the College’s evidence-based solutions.
Our three main ‘asks’ in this election, as outlined in ACEM’s media release, were reflected in our recent Pre-Budget Submission and based on lengthy consultation with individual members, committees, faculties, networks and the Board.
The College called for improving access to emergency health care for rural communities through continued ongoing funding for the Emergency Medicine Education and Training (EMET) program; the establishment of a National Emergency Medicine Research Foundation (NEMRF); and national leadership and reform to ensure our EDs are safe for staff, patients and their families.
To support these asks we publicly launched our State of Emergency: Regional, Rural and Remote report in January to raise awareness that the fundamental issues causing Australia’s emergency medicine crisis - access block, delayed admissions and decreasing numbers of public hospital beds - are as common in RRR areas as in the cities.
ACEM’s FundEMET campaign has been backed up with visits to decision-makers at state, territory and federal level, where productive conversations regarding the future of this highly successful program are taking place.
Another important step in our commitment to improve RRR health was March’s launch of the second Rural Health Action Plan (RuHAP). Led by the Regional, Rural and Remote Advisory Committee (RRRAC), this document is a blueprint to increase engagement in RRR emergency medicine and pilot innovative strategies focused on building and upskilling the EM workforce.
On the topic of upskilling, we have recently finished our federally funded blended supervision pilot project, which was evaluating whether sites that are not currently accredited for FACEM Core ED training could provide a 6 month FTE, 100 per cent ED training placement for a FACEM Trainee using a blended supervision model. Our evaluation report has been published on the ACEM website and will be considered by the Council of Education in due course.
Our accredited training networks pilot project is also currently being trialled, and I look forward to reporting back on progress later this year. Giving future trainees a rural experience, with its healthy work/life balance, community connections and exposure to the breadth of emergency medicine, can only be of great benefit to our specialty.
The College is advocating for the establishment of a National Emergency Medicine Research Foundation (NEMRF), administered by ACEM. Despite managing 10 per cent of all clinical encounters, on average emergency medicine receives roughly only 0.4 per cent of available research funding in Australia.
This is magnified in RRR communities, where we know that relationships with traditional research institutions, such as tertiary hospitals and centres, are comparatively lacking. This was one of the hot topics discussed at the recent Research Symposium in Brisbane, which was held in collaboration with the Queensland-based Emergency Medicine Foundation.
In February we launched ACEM’s Breaking Point: An Urgent Call to Action on Emergency Department Safety report which gained a great deal of media attention. Based on a snapshot survey sent to DEMs at all 131 ACEM-accredited EDs, the report confirmed that violence in Australian EDs is an escalating crisis requiring immediate systemic interventions. By speaking out and having our voice heard we have begun the essential national conversation about ED violence that can lead to hoped-for urgent and coordinated actions from all levels of government.
We are also putting the finishing touches to a similar report focusing on Aotearoa New Zealand. In the last national election, ACEM called for 24/7 security staff at every ED. In the 2024 Budget the New Zealand government announced funding for eight EDs and ‘surge support’ for regional EDs, but this has not been expanded. We will restart this important national conversation with our new report.
The Australian Government's Scope of Practice Review is another hot topic in the medical community. Extending the roles of health practitioners has been shown to work in EDs with appropriate clinical autonomy. However, the effectiveness of these roles is contingent upon having a clearly defined and agreed scope of practice, within a framework of ongoing education, training, credentialling, audit and quality improvement.
The College is advising the Department of Health and Aged Care in its implementation of the review’s recommendations, noting that long-term deficits in health workforce planning and resourcing cannot be resolved simply by extending the scope of the existing healthcare workforce and introducing non-medical health practitioner roles. Read our statement here.
In Aotearoa New Zealand ACEM has been active, both independently and through its engagement with the Council of Medical Colleges (CMC). This is in response to the steady stream of consultations being run by the government in the health workforce planning and regulatory space at present. The College has contributed to and recently endorsed a CMC Joint Position Statement on the Regulation of Physicians Assistants.
The imminent publication of that document is a timely arrival as the Medical Council of New Zealand sets about establishing a regulatory framework for these roles. The government has announced a review of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance (HPCA) Act 2003 via the Putting Patients First: Modernising Health Workforce Regulation consultation. ACEM is preparing an individual submission to contribute the emergency medicine perspective and stands ready to collaborate with the other medical colleges to make a submission via the CMC.
In March, our ACT Faculty Chair Dr Aline Archambeau and I met with the ACT Health Minister Rachael Stephen-Smith. We had good discussions on access block solutions, particularly around some of the measures being put in place in the Territory and the improvements they're seeing with regards to waiting times.
Just before Cyclone Alfred struck Queensland, I was in Hervey Bay, Bundaberg and Gladstone, meeting FACEMs, trainees and other ED staff and sharing experiences of rural life. The emergency medicine community is expected to continue to cope in the face of immense pressure and trying circumstances. Often forgotten but equally important is the recovery process. Please remember to take care of yourself and each other and reach out for assistance - supports are in place and available to help you.
The theme for the Aotearoa New Zealand Emergency Medicine Conference 2025, held in beautiful Tairāwhiti in March, was also on the topic of resilience – Manawaroa. It was wonderful to get to meet so many of you and I’d like to thank the co-convenors, Gisborne ED’s Dr Matthew Marion and Dr Jason Prystowsky, for their thought-provoking and inspiring curation of speakers and sessions. Future-proofing EDs was explored in the AI-themed keynote and Sustainable EMs sessions, while an afternoon focusing on wellbeing resonated with many attendees.
I want you to know that the College is listening to members’ concerns and acting on them. We're working really hard to try and address the root causes of access block, particularly around aged care, on mental health, the NDIS, and building health capacity.
We welcome opportunities to make the voices of our members heard and ensure that healthcare systems across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand are well equipped to continue providing high-quality equitable and safe care now and into the future.
No matter what the result of the election, or the budget, please be assured that ACEM will continue to advocate for its members and push for better outcomes.