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Dear Member
We welcome any feedback on the contents of the 2nd issue of ASMS Direct for 2010.
1. Positive Reactions to Historic ASMS-IPAC Joint Statement.
2. New Medical Council Chairperson.
1. Positive Reactions to Historic ASMS-IPAC Joint Statement
In the previous ASMS Direct we reported on the historic agreement between ASMS and the Independent Practitioners Association Council (IPAC - an organisation of primary care networks and general practice teams). The feed-back on this agreement has been both positive and bi-partisan. Minister of Health Hon Tony Ryall commended it when meeting the ASMS National Executive earlier today.
It has also been welcomed by the Opposition Labour Party’s health spokesperson, Hon Ruth Dyson. In a quick-of the mark media statement she said:
This agreement brings together GPs and hospital specialists and will create a new era in clinical leadership. 2010 will be a challenging year for the New Zealand health sector with budget cutbacks, frontline services being cut, health promotion being scrapped, hospital part charges being proposed and wage freezes for frontline medical staff, which will make clinical leadership all the more important.
As uncertainty increases about what health services will be cut next, communities will look to their medical professionals for leadership, which is why the timing of this announcement is all the more important.
Having strong leadership from the medical community is an important step forward. I look forward to seeing this new partnership taking a strong position on any further erosion of public access to health services.
The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners also welcomed it stating:
We all need to work together. This new agreement is an exciting innovation towards general practice networks and hospital specialists working better together. The College commends improved collaboration between primary and secondary care and this is a promising step towards better results for patients.
2. New Medical Council Chairperson
The Medical Council has elected Dr John Adams as its chairperson, succeeding Professor John Campbell who did not seek re-election and has been the Council's chair since 2002. The ASMS has had a good relationship with Professor Campbell who has addressed our Annual Conference and has been willing to meet with the National Executive on a number of occasions. He was always keen to receive the ASMS’s advice on various issues being considered by the Council.
Announcing the appointment, the Council said:
Dr Adams brings to the role of chairperson a tremendous depth of knowledge and experience which will be invaluable as the Council moves to implement key strategic initiatives such as regular practice reviews for the profession. Dr Adams has been Dean of the Dunedin School of Medicine since 2003, and a University of Otago graduate, who subsequently trained in psychiatry.
He gained his Fellowship of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists in 1984. He worked for many years at the Ashburn Clinic in Dunedin, where he was appointed Medical Director in 1988.
Dr Adams has had extensive involvement with the New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA), initially as a Board member, and later as NZMA Chairman from 2001 to 2003. A long-term interest in professionalism and ethics led to him chairing the NZMA Ethics Committee during the recent review of the NZMA Code of Ethics.
Dr Adams teaches in the professional development programme in the undergraduate course in Dunedin. He is a Trustee on the New Zealand Institute of Rural Health, the Ashburn Hall Board of Trustees, and the Alexander McMillan Trust.
Since joining the Council in 2008, he has participated as a member of the Health Committee, and has recently become chairperson of the Education Committee.
Best wishes
Ian Powell
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR | 
