Dr Walter Abhayaratna used to think that Canberra's health system could be among the world's best - "the Mayo Clinic of Australia" - but lately, he's been increasingly worried it'll never make the cut.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
That's why he put his hand up to become the Australian Medical Association's ACT branch president. He will replace Dr Antonio Di Dio, whose tenure is up on Wednesday.
Dr Abhayaratna said he wanted to use his two-year term to start trying to "turn the ship around" for Canberra's health system. However, he warned there was "no short-term fix" for a system with such deeply ingrained issues.
"It's going to take years, it'll be ongoing," he said.
"But hopefully in five years we've done a lot of the shifting."
One of Dr Abhayaratna's main concerns was that Canberra's healthcare service lacked a well-delineated identity.
He said it was partly the brand recognition around Mayo Clinic in Minnesota in the US, where he completed a fellowship in the early 2000s, that drew people to the place. Mayo is widely considered to be the best hospital in the world.
"It's a population of 100,000 people in the middle of the cornfields in a frozen tundra five months of the year," Dr Abhayaratna said.
"It's not geographically ideal, but yet all these people come and work there for a reason - it's something special.
"And all these patients come to it from all over the country and the world to get excellent care."
He said Canberra Hospital's identity should be three-pronged: it should be renowned for its excellent clinical service, great training program, and top-notch research capability.
Dr Abhayaratna said to achieve clinical excellence, workers had to be highly engaged and operating at the top of their scope of practice. A great training program was necessary to get them to that level.
"That's where you get motivation," he said.
"I don't see that happening as often as it could."
On the research front, Dr Abhayaratna said it was widely known that hospitals and healthcare services that had research at their core attracted better clinical staff.
He said they wanted evidence to not just be read and practiced, but created where they worked.
He said some people in Canberra's health system had wanted change but kept "hitting their heads against a wall", and he believed the service had lost some good people to places "that perhaps they would be a better fit with".
"I don't see us working to what we could be given we live in Canberra," Dr Abhayaratna said.
"[We have] a very highly educated population; [it's] an easy to live in city, it's not like Sydney where it takes you an hour to get to and from work.
"[We have a] good work-life balance, and look at the universities and the organisations we've got for potential education and research partnerships.
"Why can't we do it here?"
Dr Abhayaratna said while media reporting often singled out emergency department performance as a big issue in Canberra, it was just a function of the other issues happening around it.
He described Canberra's healthcare system as "siloed", with little integration between general practice, community healthcare centres, hospitals, aged care facilities, and palliative care.
"What happens is, because we haven't got the services in the community to provide to patients with complex and chronic conditions, I think people come into the emergency department as a one-stop shop," Dr Abhayaratna said.
"The message that I'm going to be saying over and over again is that we have dedicated and highly skilled healthcare providers here.
"The issue is more how those providers can actually more deeply connect with each other."
Dr Abhayaratna has been heavily involved with Canberra's health system for decades, and is currently a senior staff specialist, consultant cardiologist, and the clinical director of reform at Canberra Hospital and Health Services.
He's also the director of clinical trials at ACT Health.
READ MORE:
Dr Abhayaratna said none of these roles would conflict with his new post. In fact, there was a "confluence of interests", and he would be a fierce advocate for the territory's doctors, he said.
"Why did I do this job? I recognise that AMA is a trusted voice and it's a membership organisation for doctors, so, first and foremost, we need to advocate for our members," he said.
"But why do we advocate for our members? We don't just do it for the sake of it, we do it because our members want to provide excellent healthcare for their consumers.
"Our advocating is to help our members provide excellent healthcare."
Dr Abhayaratna will be officially inaugurated as president of the Australian Medical Association's ACT branch at the organisation's annual general meeting on Wednesday evening.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark canberratimes.com.au
- Download our app
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
Cassandra Morgan
It has never been more important for Canberrans to be able to access reliable and accurate information about health. As The Canberra Times’ health reporter, I am committed to ensuring our readers have access to this. I, like many in the territory, have family members who work in the sector. Although providing comprehensive coverage on the coronavirus pandemic is obviously my number one priority, I aim to frequently shed light on the fantastic work our frontline professionals do, as well as the challenges they face. Email me tips and story ideas at: c.morgan@canberratimes.com.au.
It has never been more important for Canberrans to be able to access reliable and accurate information about health. As The Canberra Times’ health reporter, I am committed to ensuring our readers have access to this. I, like many in the territory, have family members who work in the sector. Although providing comprehensive coverage on the coronavirus pandemic is obviously my number one priority, I aim to frequently shed light on the fantastic work our frontline professionals do, as well as the challenges they face. Email me tips and story ideas at: c.morgan@canberratimes.com.au.
