[UPDATED 20 May 2021]
Australian Federation of Medical Women announcement from The Health Working Group, Better Futures Australia by Magdalena Simonis, Chair AFMW Climate Health Action Group (CHAG).
The Australian Federation of Medical Women (AFMW) is proud to be a member of the Better Futures Australia Health Working Group, which includes representatives from Doctors for the Environment Australia, Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association, NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association, and Climate and Health Alliance.
Climate Action
We see Climate Action as the greatest health opportunity to prevent premature deaths, address climate and health inequity and unlock substantial health and economic benefits.
To this effect, AFMW is one of 58 member organisations to have co-signed the letter addressed and sent to the Prime Minister on 30th April 2021, urging him to commit to:
- Including health in our official Paris Agreement contribution
- Decarbonising health by 2040
- Enact a National Strategy on Climate, Health and Wellbeing.
AFMW Climate Health Action Group Vision
- Advocate for awareness of Climate Change and its gendered impacts
- Encourage membership participation in Climate Change advocacy at local, state, national and international levels
- Recommend doctors and hospitals decarbonize their practices and hospitals by 2040
- Unify the voice of medical women to collectively pressure governments locally, nationally and internationally
- Conduct research on climate change and health effects on women and children through our affiliations
- Reflect on indigenous knowledge of land and health and incorporate these messages
Interested Members Welcome
Other interested members from Australian states and territories are welcome. I invite members from each state and territory to join the AFMW Climate Health Action Group, promote the AFMW actions agreed upon and and represent their state activities. We need Climate Health Action Group members and champions for the cause in each state. Please contact me via [email protected].
6 Practice Tips to Help Decarbonize Our Planet
- Deprescribing versus lifestyle and social prescribing
- Telehealth: access to medical appointments. Telehealth appointments and lower carbon alternatives to transport (eg, walk, ride, public transport) are effective strategies, where safe and appropriate.
- Food choices- recommend reducing red meat intake
- Switch to renewable energy
- Invest ethically. Movie your money to align with community and planetary health – this is a very effective strategy.
- Offsetting emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions associated with our personal and professional lives or medical practice are easy to calculate online. It is then possible to donate to an organisation that offsets those emissions with various projects, such as tree planting, soil sequestration projects, renewable energy projects and sustainable farming education.
For more info please visit: https://insightplus.mja.com.au/2021/4/lets-get-practical- how-we-can-heal-the-planet- and-our-patients/
Associate Professor Magdalena Simonis AM is the Immediate Past President of the AFMW (2020-2023), former President of VMWS (2013 & 2017-2020) and current AFMW National Coordinator (2024-2026). She is a full time clinician who also holds positions on several not for profit organisations, driven by her passion for bridging gaps across the health sector. She is a leading women’s health expert, keynote speaker, climate change and gender equity advocate and government advisor. Magda is member of The Australian Health Team contributing monthly articles.
Magdalena was awarded a lifetime membership of the RACGP for her contributions which include past chair of Women in General Practice, longstanding contribution to the RACGP Expert Committee Quality Care, the RACGP eHealth Expert Committee. She is regularly invited to comment on primary care research though mainstream and medical media and contributes articles on various health issues through newsGP and other publications.
Magdalena has represented the RACGP at senate enquiries and has worked on several National Health Framework reviews. She is author of the RACGP Guide on Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery and co-reviewer of the RACGP Red Book Women’s Health Chapter, and reviewer of the RACGP White book
Both an RACGP examiner and University examiner, she undertakes general practice research and is a GP Educator with the Safer Families Centre of Research Excellence, which develops education tools to assist the primary care sector identify, respond to and manage family violence . Roles outside of RACGP include the Strategy and Policy Committee for Breast Cancer Network Australia, Board Director of the Melbourne University Teaching Health Clinics and the elected GP representative to the AMA Federal Council. In 2022. she was award the AMA (Vic) Patrick Pritzwald-Steggman Award 2022, which celebrates a doctor who has made an exceptional contribution to the wellbeing of their colleagues and the community and was listed as Women’s Agenda 2022 finalist for Emerging Leader in Health.
Magdalena has presented at the United Nations as part of the Australian Assembly and was appointed the Australian representative to the World Health Organisation, World Assembly on COVID 19, by the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) in 2021. In 2023, A/Professor Simonis was included on the King’s COVID-19 Champion’s list and was also awarded a Member (AM) in the General Division for significant service to medicine through a range of roles and to women’s health.
