Stop treating us as third-rate health professionals, says this candidate for college leadership.
Dr Chris Ogonowski, the seventh and final candidate for RACGP president to join us in The Tea Room, brings an interesting CV to the table.
He’s been a doctor for 11 years, six of those in general practice, but he’s also worked in law and briefly in investment banking.
The Sydney-based GP is calling for more effective lobbying of government, closer engagement with the media to give GPs greater prominence, and more feedback from college members on what they want from the RACGP.
But he’s also concerned about the way GPs are treated.
“My kind of ethos is that we are being treated as third-rate health professionals or backseat players behind specialists and, ever increasingly, behind allied health professionals.
“During the pandemic, things like the vaccine rollout showed that we were put behind allied health professionals and other doctors who were not seeing patients. That’s what really got my goat, if I’m honest, and that’s what made me look a little deeper into running for president.”
Dr Ogonowski wants to see a closer relationship between the college leadership and its members.
“Trying to develop policy without proper member engagement is difficult,” he says. “I think the college tries to do this, but it’s not being done as well as it could. Member apathy is probably at an all-time low – one out of 10 members voted at the last election.
“If I was to be elected president, I can guarantee you’d be hearing a lot more from me than what’s been heard in the last couple of years,” he says. “That’s not a criticism of Dr Price; I’ve got tremendous respect for her. But I do think the RACGP has effectively disappeared from public view, so I’d like to get us back into the public eye and to explain these issues to the public.”
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