I’m really excited to see the continued progress with new Board appointments. Following the vote in May and June this year, where the Fellowship overwhelmingly supported change, we are preparing to appoint two FACEMs from the general membership to the Board. We’ll also have our first ever community representative on the Board.
With the changes to the structure of the Board, and as part of good organisational governance, the Board is looking to introduce greater feedback mechanisms for our executive, members, trainees and staff to report back to us. This will give us a more robust platform from which to assess how we are going aligning our activities and direction to the College’s strategic plan and core values.
These are both wonderful steps for our College. I look forward to being able to share more with you in the coming months.
Recently, we have had elections for the Chair and Deputy Chair of the Council of Advocacy, Practice and Partnerships (CAPP), for the next two years commencing from the November 2019 Annual General Meeting (AGM).
We welcome the new CAPP leaders: Dr Didier Palmer from Darwin as Chair and Dr Clare Skinner, from Hornsby Ku-ring-gai ED, as Deputy Chair. A fantastic, excellent leadership team for an important body in ACEM’s governance structures.
I’d also like to acknowledge the dedicated leadership of Dr Yusuf Nagree, who will finish his term as Chair of CAPP at the November 2019 AGM. Yusuf was appointed Chair of CAPP in February 2015 and I take this opportunity to acknowledge all that has been achieved under his leadership.
On the advocacy front, we’ve been hard at it for Emergency Departments, hospitals and public health. Our Driving Change project on presentation data for Canberra and Melbourne EDs and alcohol harm exposed the scale of harm and the urgent need for national action.
Mental health and its care within EDs continues to be a core focus of our work. Last month, we submitted to Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System and will continue to keep a watch on this important issue.
In other significant developments, ACEM’s Health System Reform Committee has drafted our position on Emergency Department measures, which encourage a whole-of-hospital approach to managing long wait times and access block. We look forward to seeking your feedback and input on this in due course.
Climate change and its impacts on human health and Emergency Departments is another work in progress for the Public Health and Disaster Committee. Chaired by Dr Lai Heng Foong, we have thoroughly reviewed the evidence to support the College's climate change statement for your feedback and input. Please watch out for this.
Another project we have been working on is ACEM’s core values – Respect, Equity, Collaboration, Integrity. These are at the heart of who we are. Our core values are important to us and it’s something we want to make sure is embedded right across the College.
Like any organisation committed to these values, we are excited at the opportunities.
I would also note that the OSCE Preparation Program, run at ACEM HQ, has been a significant and welcomed step in the preparation of trainees for the OSCE. The introduction of the video reviews has been well-received and is having a positive impact for trainees. The next program is currently open for registration by any Advanced Trainee who has had a previous attempt, has not attended a previous OSCE Preparation Program at the College, and who is intending to sit the OSCE in 2020. Details are available in the Bulletin tonight.
The SUPER Course has been a welcome addition to the calendar, providing a much needed link back into the workplace for those FACEMs who have been away from the clinical coalface for a period of time, whether that be for long service leave, family leave or illness. It's a great initiative from advanced trainee Nicole Delaat (thank you !), which ACEM has supported.
Finally, I'd like to welcome a number of new staff into ACEM HQ. In total, we have 29 new staff join the College this year, bringing our total to more than 100 staff. Check out who they are and their new roles at the end of my blog. For ACEM's external public facing work with advocacy and strategic partnerships, we have a new media team with Andrew MacDonald and Vienna Richards.
Don't forget the nominations for our ACEM Wellbeing Award close this Monday at 9am. A heads up too that nominees will be contacted next week to submit a supporting citation (written or video) for their nomination.
New Staff at ACEM this year
Ilana Lewis – Education Development Coordinator
Lucinda Jenkins – Administrative Assistant
Kylie Grose – Governance & Standards Support Officer
Vienna Richards – Media Relations Coordinator
Troy Faltado – IT Support Officer
Daniel Skinner – Net Developer
Kristy Johnson – Business Analyst
Jarrod Bradley – Business Analyst
Bonnie Williams – Accounts Payable/Payroll Officer
Nikki Galea – Accounts Receivable Officer
Chaminda Ranwala – Finance Manager
Georgie O’Connor-Stubbs – HR Officer
Freya Saich – Policy Officer
Sarah Kover – Manager, Global EM
Alicia Passingham – Accreditation Support Officer
Amelia Howard – General Manager, Strategic Partnerships
George Kadmos – Executive Director, Corporate Services
Miranda Smith – Communications Manager, IFEM
Christelle Wessels – Faculty Coordinator
Andrew Tham – Faculty Coordinator
Diana James – Administration Officer, IFEM
Asher Lee – Training Officer
Stefan Soldatovic – Administration Assistant (SIMG)
Ian Woodruff – GM, Accreditation, CPD & National Program
Jo Tyler – Project Events Coordinator
Andrew MacDonald – Media Relations Manager
Raelene McNaughton – Educational Resources Project Officer
Robert Lee – General Manager, Research & Policy
Ye-seul Park – Education Project Support Officer