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November 2017

October was certainly a very busy month especially for the jet lagged President. Dr. David Chao had kindly accompanied me to attend GP17 in Sydney, Australia. GP 17 is the official annual conference of the Royal Australia College of General Practitioners. We arrived on the Tuesday morning and after a quick lunch, it was the conferment ceremony of RACGP. The electromagnetic force of RACGP had attracted the attendance of Presidents of Family Physicians Colleges from UK, New Zealand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Fuji. Over 200 GPs were conferred the fellowship and our dear old friend, Dr. Mark Miller, Chief Censor of RACGP had lost his voice after reading out the names of too many successful candidates and had to be replaced by Dr. Tim Koh, Chair of Council. My jealousy obviously popped up and I wish I can read out names at our next conferment until my recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy occurs. Not only was this a wonderful event, RACGP also gave out prizes to the best clinic and best clinical supervisor to recognize the commitment and persistent high standard of her fellows. We will definitely borrow a leaf and enrich our family doctors community.

The following day we had a meeting chaired by Dr. Bastian Seidel, President of RACGP at 7:30 am (HK time 4:30 am) with the two Colleges representatives and discussed the future arrangement of the conjoint examination.

 

 

David and I were intoxicated with caffeine before the meeting to keep us awake. RACGP will soon start a unified pathway and all trainees must satisfy with all the training modules requirement including aboriginal health in order to gain the full fellowship. New nomenclature for the RACGP international fellowship was suggested and we had an amicable discussion. I have to clear the air that our relationship with RACGP is stronger than ever and the rumour of delinking is certainly untrue at this moment! Soon after this meeting, we attended the opening ceremony of GP 17 and the keynote address was delivered by a US Paediatrician on video consultation through internet. Personally I am against internet or digital consultation. The first question asked by the audience was if one had testicular cancer, how could the internet doctor make the diagnosis? Any non-pervert will not take his pants off in front of the camera. This sums up the problem! Then in the afternoon we had the opportunity to exchange the views on the primary care systems and FM training with Presidents and the delegates of other countries. New Zealand will have 300 medical graduates out of 600 to enter FM training with the full support of the government. Hooray!

I returned on Saturday and the following day was our 31st Conjoint Examination with RACGP. I never missed Dr. Mark Miller and we reunited within three days and 7400 km apart. He and Dr. Helen Wilcox were the external examiners. We had reached the trough in terms of the number of trainees sitting the examination. The whole day ran extremely smoothly and I was heartened to see so many dedicated examiners appearing year after year. The trainees did very well and I wish them every success when the result is announced in November. 

The next night I was flying out with Dr. Gene Tsoi, the Vice President of Wonca Asia Pacific Region to Pattaya, Thailand for the APR Conference. At the APR Council meeting, New Zealand was chosen to host the2020 Conference. Rajakumar Movement for young fellows and gender equity representation in the Council were highlighted. I was extremely pleased to see a contingent of 20 from Hong Kong and our young fellows were led by Dr. Loretta Chan. The young folks arrived early and joined the Rajakumar Movement discussion.

Dr. Donald Li, President-Elect Wonca delivered a plenary lecture on “Disaster Management and Family Medicine”. Dr. Chin Weng Yee launched the Wonca guidance paper on non drug interventions for common mental health. Dr. Loretta Chan and Dr. Catherine Chen talked at the Chinese Forum. Drs. Regina Sit, Dana Lo, Chiang Lap Kin, Tse Sut Yee, Cecilia Chung and Amy Wang had oral or poster presentations. Congratulations to Dr. Chin Weng Yee winning the best poster presentation and Dr. Tse Sut Yee winning the best oral presentation! The best was yet to come, we were treated by a 14 course Blue Crab meal by Dr. Donald Li. He is not only our spiritual leader but also our gastronomical leader in enhancing the force on consolidation of fraternity. We had wonderful team spirit! I can’t wait to see more of you at the next Wonca World Conference in Seoul, October 2018.

Dr. Angus M W CHAN
President
 

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