RACGP and ACRRM cement training partnership

A new joint venture will oversee the development of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health plans and services in the Northern Territory.

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Both GP colleges have united ahead of next year’s training handover, creating a separate joint venture to oversee certain aspects of the Australian GP Training (AGPT) program.

The new company, Joint Colleges Training Services, will primarily be tasked with delivering services related to the management of Indigenous health strategic plans, as well as some services in the Northern Territory.

“This is to make sure that we can share resources and share knowledge and all the complexities that come with training in the Northern Territory,” RACGP president-elect Dr Nicole Higgins told TMR last week.

The first order of business for the company will be offering employment contracts to all current RTO staff who are involved in the development and delivery of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health strategic plans, including cultural educators and mentors.

It will also seek to continue any contracts with Aboriginal Medical Services (AMS) which supply cultural educators and mentors to individual RTOs on a contract basis.

“We have the finalisation of the employment contracts and the contracts with AMSs as a priority and will move quickly to ensure that all people who are currently employed in cultural education and cultural mentorship have certainty about the security of their employment,” the colleges said.

Just last week, Dr Higgins and RACGP vice-president Dr Bruce Willett did a tour of the Top End, where the college only recently set up an NT faculty.

“It’s really important to be able to say that the RACGP is a national body, it’s not some body that comes out of a capital city,” she told TMR.

“It does change the view of rural health … [and] I think one of the things that I have really enjoyed is having the cultural educators there to make introductions with some of the elders, especially some of the elder women.”

Other activities that Joint Colleges Training Services will oversee include the provision of registrar housing in the Northern Territory and various other potential areas of collaboration.

Each college has a 50% stake in the company, and it will be overseen by a board of seven advisers.

Three representatives will be from ACRRM, three will be from the RACGP and the final member will be a yet-to-be-named independent chair.

The daily activities of the company itself will be overseen by a board-appointed general manager.

This article was updated on 17/11/22 to clarify the scope of the joint venture