Associate Professor Kerin Fielding passes the President's gown to Professor Owen Ung

Taking Optimist's pulsating organ profusion trainer for a spin

Captain Chris Lin drawing lessons from aviation that could make surgery safer

Behind the scenes: Professor Henry Woo snaps a pic of his co-convenors with plenary speakers

Women in Surgery 2024 essay competition winner Rebecca Caster with Professor Owen Ung

Is it time to declutter your pile of professional commitments? Associate Professor James Lee thinks so

Associate Professor Brenessa Lindeman gives her keynote lecture

Recording sessions for our On-Demand platform

“Impact only occurs if it reaches the patient.”

—Professor Peter Choong on academic surgery

"Surgeons are the low-hanging fruit of medical comedy."

—Dr Will Flanary (aka Dr Glaucomflecken) on his comedic inspiration.

"Until we are truly equal, we are all diminished."

—former BMA Council Chair Mark Porter (2017), as quoted by surgical historian section visitor Professor John Collins on gender in surgery.

"Don't just stand there!"

—Associate Professor Raewyn Campbell on good ergonomic practice

In brief

Advocacy that shifts the dial

Advocacy doesn't always have to be loud to be powerful. It’s about triggering the right levers to bring about change. Dr Joyce Yu, keynote speaker at Monday’s Women in Surgery breakfast, shared her vision of a world without sexual violence. As Executive Director of Consent Labs, a youth-run non-profit, she’s on a mission to educate students across Australia about consent and respectful relationships. 

She emphasised the role of advocacy in achieving this vision, saying, “We can’t rely on the evidence speaking for itself. Every time we speak up, we shift the dial.” 

A heartfelt thank you was also given to Associate Professor Kerin Fielding on her final day as RACS President. Her advocacy and support have been a source of inspiration for many. The change we seek starts with speaking up.  

Passion only takes you so far

A call to action from Dr Cameron Wells, General Surgery Trainee from Aotearoa New Zealand, for RACS and the specialty societies and associations to help shape the next generation of academic surgeons. He shared the challenges Trainees face in clinical research, citing barriers like time constraints, inconsistent supervision, and limited access to data. These lead to a “staggering volume” of low-quality research, which can leave Trainees disillusioned about being involved in clinical research. 

Dr Wells highlighted the power of Trainee collaboratives, such as COVIDSurg, an which influenced clinical guidelines during the height of the pandemic and gained a Guiness World Record for the largest number of authors. These collaboratives are reshaping who can contribute to surgical knowledge and growing careers, providing structured leadership development for Trainees interested in research. 

There are challenges though, especially around the high turnover of those involved in Trainee collaboratives. Succession planning is difficult, and he is calling on Fellows, RACS and the societies to help. 

“Passion has carried us this far. Now support systems are needed.” 

Beyond policy: discussing difficult professional encounters

The challenging professional encounters session aimed to confront attitudes among the audience regarding acceptable and unacceptable professional behaviour through a panel discussion on real-life clinical cases.

The panel of medical leaders, including surgeons, a perioperative nurse representative and hospital manager, debated the use of offensive language in operating theatres, verbal bullying, touching patients inappropriately, and intimidation of trainees. The session also spoke on the challenges in developing a culture of safe reporting, confronting power imbalances, and addressing poor behavior within the healthcare system, with a focus on enhancing reporting mechanisms and empowering staff to speak up. 

Women in leadership

The session discussed how women can be more resilient, succeed in male-dominated fields and have the self-assurance to become senior leaders. Hannah de Wet shed light on mental health factors and stressors impacting female surgeons, like significantly higher prevalence of burnout, harassment and being twice as likely to report alcohol disorders.

Alex Blackwell, former Australian women’s cricket captain, shared her journey to advocate for LGBT+ people in sport and for women from all backgrounds to rise to the highest levels of professional sport. 

Rasika Deheragoda from Abbott Medical Australia provided strategies on harnessing the power of discipline, confidence and self-belief to become successful leaders, describing confidence as "liquid gold".

Dr Callisia Clarke from the Medical College of Wisconsin explained the current legislative landscape for diversity, equity and inclusion in the United States. 

The Bondi incident: maintaining order amid chaos

A year on from the tragic attack at Bondi Junction, we revisited the actions of responders.

Shane Halliday, Chief Inspector, Incident and Emergency Management Command, NSW Police, and Chief Superintendent, Associate Director Emergency Management, NSW Ambulance, outlined their respective services’ approach to managing incidents when "at the whim of the community”. Response time is critical and communication "at different levels – horizontally and vertically" is key. 

Michael Cavaye was a third-year registrar at St Vincent's Hospital Sydney when he was called to treat victims of the attack. He recounted the gravity of the situation slowly setting in and thanked strong training and support for allowing him to zero in on his patients' care amid the chaos. 

Responding surgeon Dr Chambers discussed the challenge of establishing leadership during critical incidents. "ED becomes the rallying point for staff...in the chaos, no one knows who's who or who is in charge." He explained hospitals can better prepare for similar crises with simulated exercises, training for key specialists in triage decision-making, and building closer relationships between hospitals and incident response planners. 

Offering an administrative view, Raj Ubeja, St Vincent's Director of Medical Services, echoed Dr Chambers' emphasis on defining control, and stressed the importance of cascading communication and staff capacity.

"No incident response should be person-dependent."

Financial sustainability and controversies in private healthcare

The RACS ASC Health Policy and Advocacy Panel, the largest voices in surgery, patient advocacy, private hospitals, and insurers discussed the rising pressures on Australia's private health system. 

Increasing out-of-pocket costs, fee opaqueness, declining inpatient volumes, workforce shortages, unsustainable wage rises, and financial instability of small private hospitals were the key topics. Dr Nick Coatsworth highlighted survey data to reveal widespread dissatisfaction with specialist billing fees and billing practices, and Dr William Blake stressed surgical clinic cost pressure.

Rachel David and Sue Williams gave special prominence to the imperative need for root-and-branch reform, in the guise of national pricing approaches, responsiveness from the workforce, and clarity around the role of private equity in hospital ownership. The session called for action now to ensure viability, equity, and innovation across the industry.

Implementing change: environmental sustainability in surgical care

In a roundtable discussion on environmental sustainability and eliminating low value care, panellists shared how they’ve been driving change in their organisations. Professor Neil Merrett from Western Sydney University discussed the clinical aspects of value based care, identifying ineffective treatment and ultimately producing a self-sustaining culture and system of care. 

Stanley Chen from John Hunter Hospital explained how adopting an ethos of “rethink and reduce” is the simplest and most reliable strategy. Replacing single-use with reusable equipment that doesn’t require sterilisation can reduce carbon footprint, but a cost-benefit analysis needs to be conducted to assess financial viability.  

Hayden Snow from Peter Snow MacCallum Cancer Centre shared how his organisation produces 11 tonnes of single use plastic surgical gowns and drapes annually. However, the use of reusable gowns has been met with high levels of staff satisfaction, suggesting a permanent shift to reusable is feasible and leading to significant savings in waste and carbon footprint.