Leading GP educator to quit RACGP over PLAN

A medical editor has vowed to quit the RACGP over its decision to impose a compulsory CPD requirement

Sydney GP and medical editor Dr Linda Calabresi has vowed to quit the RACGP over its decision to impose a compulsory CPD requirement that the college will administer in-house.

Dr Calabresi said she would turn to ACRRM to maintain her vocational registration, though she did not work in a rural area nor have fellowship of the college founded for rural GPs.

“For me, the upcoming changes to the RACGP’s QI&CPD program are the final straw,” she said.

“The college has simply become too corporate; it has too much power and too little accountability.”

Dr Calabresi, the medical editor and coordinator of clinical education material for Australian Doctor, went public with her decision on the GP newspaper’s online edition on Tuesday.

Several readers chimed in, saying they were making the same move.

Dr Calabresi criticised the RACGP’s failure to consult members over its Planning Learning and Need (PLAN) program to be introduced as a compulsory CPD element next year.

“It sets the rules, it accredits the activities, it runs the program,” she said.

The PLAN approach, asking doctors to identify areas of practice they needed to improve and monitoring whether they were filling the gaps, was “patronising”, she said.

She rejected the RACGP’s line that the online activity would help pre-empt moves towards formal revalidation by the Medical Board.

Instead, she said GPs’ education choices would shrink and education providers would suffer as a result of the RACGP’s controversial decision to charge a $2 fee every time a GP completes a CPD activity.

“To say this has caused a furore in the medical world is an understatement, as it represents a significant additional cost to every education provider, including Australian Doctor,” she said.

Dr Calabresi said she had been assured she could stay on the vocational registration list by doing ACRRM’s Professional Development Program.

She said she would be happy to be associated with a college that “works with its members rather than dictates to them”.