As Covid and related issues increase the burden on clinicians and students, it’s more important than ever to ensure the next generation are trained and nurtured to cope with the unknown.

The latest issue of medicSA looks at the pressures on interns, the life and times of two medical students undertaking rural placements, and what it’s like to be an international medical graduate (IMG) in South Australia.

On 18 July 2021, Health Ministers approved the Medical Board of Australia's revised Registration Standard: Continuing Professional Development. With the introduction of CPD homes in 2023, from 1 January 2024, all doctors (other than those who are exempt) must participate in the CPD program of an approved CPD 'home'.

AMA(SA) President Dr Michelle Atchison congratulated South Australia’s newest Life Members of the AMA at a morning tea on 2 May.

Dr Atchison welcomed 11 Life Members at an event she said was important in recognising and acknowledging the contributions the doctors had made to medicine over more than half a century.

It’s taken 19 months but AMA(SA) President Dr Michelle Atchison, Vice President Dr John Williams and CEO Dr Sam Mead were finally able to welcome AMA President Dr Omar Khorshid in Adelaide on Tuesday, 15 March. Dr Khorshid outlined to members of AMA(SA) Council the key AMA federal election priorities – with funding for public hospitals obviously a major focus for Saturday’s state election.

AMA(SA) is asking the state’s voters to scrutinise how candidates are proposing to fix the health system after the 19 March election.

In its 2022 Election Priorities document released on 24 February, AMA(SA) outlines key health sectors that require significant attention and investment so patients can access and receive the care they should expect.

AMA(SA) President Dr Michelle Atchison has reinforced the Federal AMA’s call for a significant increase in the Commonwealth contribution to public hospital funding.

On Saturday, 12 February, the AMA released its pre-election call for a major investment from the Commonwealth in the nation’s public hospitals to ‘clear the hospital logjam’.

The resolution of the rural doctors’ contracts announced on 24 January 2022 is a lifeline for regional patients and communities.

South Australia’s rural doctors are seeking a quick and supportive response from SA Health’s Rural Support Services (RSS) to their call for a fair and respectful package of contract conditions

The call comes after AMA(SA) and the Rural Doctors Association of South Australia (RDASA) held an online mass meeting of its rural members on Wednesday, 21 July 2021. The meeting attracted the largest group of rural doctors to attend such a meeting in South Australia’s history.

For many months, AMA(SA) and the Rural Doctors Association of South Australia (RDASA) have been representing the state’s rural general practitioners (GPs) in negotiations with SA Health’s Rural Support Services about the conditions under which the doctors provide services to regional hospitals.

These negotiations followed the expiration of existing contracts with South Australia’s rural doctors in November 2020.

Dr Michelle Atchison is the new President of AMA(SA).

Dr Atchison is a private psychiatrist who specialises in the treatment of the psychological effects of trauma. She was elected as President at the AMA(SA) AGM on 6 May, assuming the position after a two-year term as Vice President under the outgoing President, Dr Chris Moy.

The incoming Vice President is Port Lincoln general practitioner (GP) and AMA(SA) Councillor Dr John Williams.