Page 4 - RCPA

PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE
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The 2017-2018 year has been an interesting time for the College. June 2017 saw then President, Dr Michael Harrison, CEO Dr Debra Graves, and myself represent the College at the annual International Liaison of Pathology Presidents meeting which was held on Prince Edward Island in Canada. The ILPP includes Colleges from UK, Ireland, Canada, USA, Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Africa as well as Australia. It provides a forum for cooperation and collaboration over many areas of common policy.
On the Australian front, we continue to be represented on the Council of Presidents of Medical Colleges (CPMC) by the CEO and myself. This Council offers the opportunity to share issues with our fellow Colleges
and provides a contact point with many other organisations and Government Health Of cers.
The RCPA has conducted a number of meetings and courses during the year. We attended the New Zealand Annual Scienti c Meeting which was held in Rotorua in September 2017 and was very successful. The 2018 meeting will be held in Wellington.
In 2018 Pathology Update was held in the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre. We had record numbers of delegates and extremely successful academic and social programs. Congratulations and thanks must go out to the organising committees and to the RCPA Events Manager. In 2019 Pathology Update will return to Melbourne and we fully expect the success of the meeting to continue and to grow.
November 2017 saw the College Strategic Planning Day, International Pathology Day and the RCPA Annual General Meeting. Dr Michael Harrison completed his term of two years
as President at the AGM and I commenced
my term.
In 2018 there have been a number of
initiatives by the RCPA. The RCPAQAP is now
a wholly owned subsidiary of the College
and the organisation is performing extremely strongly in a competitive international market. Congratulations to the RCPAQAP Board, the CEO Dr Tony Badrick and to all the RCPAQAP staff who have worked very hard to achieve
this success. The restructure has brought about signi cant tax advantages to the College and has enabled the Board to make a signi cant investment in the RCPA Foundation. The Board’s long term aim is for the RCPA Foundation to
be fully capitalised and self-sustaining.
The Board of Directors approved a formal workforce survey to determine what our
future needs are going to be, both in terms of Trainee numbers and Fellows, and also of Senior Scientists. Overall, despite the perception that the job market is getting tighter, we are still projecting a shortfall in pathologists in most streams if we do not continue to increase the