Australasian Society of Cardiac and Thoracic SurgeonsMessage from the President

Abstract

RACS Annual Scientific Congress Melbourne 2004 I had the pleasure of attending the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons’ (RACS) Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) in Melbourne in May. There has been much discussion in the past about the relevance of this meeting to our Society, but I think the meeting itself exemplified why it is still important for our Members to be actively involved in the RACS ASM rather than only have our own Society Meeting in Noosa each year. There was a clear cross fertilisation of ideas with other areas, in particular vascular surgery and to some degree, plastic surgery. The ability to interact with our colleagues from other specialities both professionally and socially at this meeting was a great highlight for me and I am sure many others. Most importantly two of our senior members were given prestigious College awards which gave them appropriate recognition by the entire College of Surgeons for their enormous commitment and devotion to the craft over many years. Professor Tim Cartmill was awarded the ESR Hughes Award and Professor Brian Buxton was presented with the Award of Excellence in Surgery from the College. The awards are exceedingly prestigious and our warmest congratulations go to both Tim and Brian. Both awards were presented most eloquently to the recipients by the President of the College Mrs Anne Kolbe.Our section meeting was convened by Mr Michael Rowland and we extend our appreciation to him for the excellent effort he put in to run a stimulating program. Professor Cliff Hughes was our hard-working Foundation Visitor and gave a wonderful overview of Aortic Surgery, much appreciated by all present.ACCC DeterminationAs some of you will be aware the final ACCC Determination has been handed down and has certain implications regarding the assessment of overseas trained surgeons who may choose to come to Australia in the next few years. Executive Members of our Society were requested to produce a submission relating to the Society's views regarding the assessment and training of overseas trained surgeons. The Executive submitted its report in the late May. This submission has tried to reflect the feelings of our Board and membership in general in maintaining standards and quality of cardiothoracic surgery at all times without compromise and without allowing multiple tiers of registration and training for different candidates. The Executive firmly believes that cardiothoracic surgeons in this country should be equivalent in all regards no matter what their origins and that further training and/or examination must be carried out by all candidates applying to work here, but who have trained elsewhere. Our submission will be one of many to be considered by the College prior to the development of a final document. There is every indication that several hundred overseas trained doctors will be coming to Australia in the next three years to fill area of need positions and we believe that our ongoing commitment to this issue is vital for the future of cardiothoracic surgery in Australia.Department of Veterans’ Affairs PaymentsIt seems from the Federal Budget handed down recently that a significant injection of funds has gone towards fees for surgical procedures carried out on Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) patients. Although the detail is not as yet clear, it would appear that there will be substantial increases to both consultation fees and procedural billings in the very near future. These potential changes are certainly welcomed by us all and I will keep you abreast of further details.