Pushing for Continual Improvement in an Uncertain Environment

Less certainty and optimism surrounds other areas of change. The introduction of an expediated specialist international medical graduate (SIMG) pathway for ophthalmology, as recommended by the Kruk report1 has not occurred. It is the strong hope of the College that this remains so. The expedited pathway takes a onesize-fits-all approach to workforce across all of medicine; assuming overall shortage of practitioners. This is not the case for ophthalmology in Australia, where reforms to expand rural training places and support for rural and remote practitioners would be better solutions to the problem we do face: maldistribution. Moreover, the underlying premise of the expedited pathway is that other countries have substantially comparable training systems. In fact, RANZCO’s comprehensive generalist training programme is unique and helps to create a workforce that can treat and manage our diverse and geographically dispersed populations.

The College Board, Council, Committees and staffare forging ahead with the implementation of the strategic plan, despite some of these uncertainties. Continual improvement is the name of the game in the education space; ensuring the curriculum is up to date, that technology is being harnessed to improve the learning and teaching experience, and to provide useful data to help support our trainees, and their trainers, through the Vocational Training Program. There is constant pressure to fit more into the same amount of training time, with clinical and medical content being increasingly supplemented by cultural safety, communications, management, advocacy, and the all-important need to maintain health and wellbeing.