The rural and indigenous health environment is one that is crowded to the hilt with bucket loads of different stakeholders and acronyms. AMSA is just one of many groups with an interest in rural health issues such as workforce maldistribution and programs to address it, multidisciplinary teaching and indigenous health. AMSA can achieve a lot more of its goals by working with others. We need to partner with other likeminded organisations if we are going to succeed in any of our important policy areas, and I hope to be able to continue the work that Shannon has done in 2009 by continuing to build bridges between AMSA and its rural partners.

One of the most important relationships I’ll be looking to develop is with the NRHSN. Having sat on its executive for two years as the BMP policy rep, I’ve got a great perspective about how other groups approach the same issues that AMSA does and how we can work collaboratively with them to achieve better things. The MOU with the NRHSN (and other groups) has been a really positive thing, but I hope to move AMSA’s relationship beyond this to an even more productive one by working jointly on developing rural and indigenous policy and even running joint events.

Knowing and having worked with both the outgoing executive of the NRHSN and the new incoming executive and Co-Chair, I believe we can revive the Rural Health Leadership Development Seminar in 2010 and I will see that this happens if elected.

There are so many other issues I feel it is important for AMSA to be dealing with in the future. Having grown up in a regional centre myself I have seen the impact of workforce maldistribution and the difficulties large parts of Australia have in enticing and retaining doctors and medical students. Similarly, bonding schemes like the BMP and MRBS are here to stay and AMSA needs to be pushing ways about how to improve them in the future.

While up until now I’ve only really experienced AMSA from a Convention perspective, I’m looking forward to getting involved in it next year and filling some fairly big shoes.