ACRRM: Rural College taking fight to the next level

Thank you to UN Medical Director Dr Jillann Farmer for her rousing appearance at RMA18 today. Her presentation on self-discovery and confronting your own bias was well received by our 750+ delegates, with many feeling the resonance of her words. 

ACRRM would like to address one topic in particular that Dr Farmer discussed. When recalling the need to confront her own bias, Dr Farmer brought up racism in Australia, stating “it is my personal view that Australia remains a deeply racist country. It may not be a view that is shared by everyone in this room but having seen my own inner dialogues and the automatic stereotyping that I had been so unaware of when I was living and working in Australia, I did have to come to terms with that”*.

This message spoke deeply to many of our delegates, staff, Board and Council. We understand the trouble this inherent bias can cause for our international and indigenous registrars and Fellows. We have heard personal accounts from doctors who experience racism in their work, sometimes from their community. It makes us all the more determined to play what role we can in breaking down those barriers, closing the gap, and bridging the divide. 

Today, we formed a new working party to continue to examine ACRRM'S policies and procedures to ensure that whilst these issues may be faced by our doctors in their work, it's not something they'll face when they interact with us for training, assessment, professional development, or any of the other services we provide. We maintain a strong commitment to ensuring our standards are best practice and are not tainted by discrimination on any grounds. We don't want anyone to face that additional burden while training or working with ACRRM. 

Dr Ewen McPhee, ACRRM President said: “ACRRM is an open, transparent College. We will ensure cultural safety for our Registrars on their journey with our Educational partners, our Supervisors and the Communities we serve. After years of smoothing ourselves into a sophisticated organisation, it’s time to glue some rough edges back onto ACRRM, explore new opportunities, and stop being constrained by structures from government.”

A/Prof Ruth Stewart, immediate Past President of ACRRM said: “I’m very proud to be handing the reins of ACRRM over to Ewen at this time. It’s time to return to our roots as a College. When we began, we began with a fight. We won a lot of battles when it comes to training and recognition of rural generalist medicine, but now it’s time to take that fight to the next level and tackle the social issues our members sometimes face.”

As incoming and outgoing Presidents of this College, both looking to the future of rural medicine and how our College can grow, we jointly send out this statement to let our members know that their College stands with them.

Signed

Dr Ewen McPhee, ACRRM President

A/Prof Ruth Stewart, ACRRM Immediate Past President

*This is the opinion of Dr Jillann Farmer and does not represent the view of the United Nations.