A lot has happened in the month of March, so I’ve taken the liberty to provide our members with this update. It has been a hectic time as you all know for the nation and for many of us too.
Gender Equity Advocacy
- On the National front, the disgraceful culture in Government has left many of us feeling bereft but in fact we are being called to action. We are the voice of medical women and we aim to uplift the health of women and children nationally and the whole of community therefore, we really need to make our individual and group voices heard loud and strong. Letter writing works.
- Please write to your local MPs and to the Prime Minister – I have already written on behalf of AFMW to Prime Minister Scott Morrison. We shall see what comes of that.
- I spoke at the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators panel session last week. The title of my talk was: “Gender Equity – I’m not biased, so what’s the big deal?’
MWIA COVID -19 Survey
Please share and promote – we have only until 30th April to collect as many responses
Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) survey of COVID-19 experiences of women doctors as healthcare providers survey link. www.surveymonkey.com/r/MWIAcovid19
Takes 5 minutes. Responses are anonymous and it’s so important to have a range of countries represented.
UN CSW65 March 20th 2021
- UN CSW65 2021: this was a great success. Most of the webinars were recorded as was ours and will be available to watch if you were one or the lucky 25,000 registrants.
- The Programme guide with abstracts, bios and photos of the speakers is now the benchmark for our CSW sessions moving forward. Please enjoy and peruse the topics https://afmw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/afmw-csw65-parallel-event-programme-ver_2.0.pdf.
- The link to the webinar is now also available: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1C9ZlyKwDwOB0AfGyQK3vrlqQkAZyaLdC/view?usp=sharing
Women and Technology
SAVE THE DATE: 15th April 7pm: The first of our Medical Women in Technology and Health (MedWiTH) sessions for AFMW members with Kley MacPherson our IT support, with be on 15th April Thursday 7-8 Please join us and bring your questions. Kley will be there try to help you with any of your issues as part of a process of increasing member confidence with day to day technology.
Student Advocacy
I presented at the WHISM (Women’s Health Interest Student Society Monash University) webinar with Prof Susan Davis AO , Dr Anita Elias and others. It was interactive and the students were wonderfully engaged. -We were broken up into zoom rooms and workshopped which was great fun for around 2 hours.
International Women’s Health and partnerships Somalia
Meeting with the Health Minister of Somalia on 22nd March 2021, Dr Fawziya Abikar Nur was the highlight of my month.
It was around all things women’s and childrens’ health as Somalia has the highest maternal and child mortality in Africa as outlined in the interview she gave: https://youtu.be/nQyYyC-WnoM
I will keep you all posted around what the developments of this are. A lot is in the pipeline but here is a photo of our first zoom session.
Dr Magdalena Simonis – AFMW President (top left), Dr Chris Sotiropoulos Co-Founder – SEMEA (top right), Dr Hassan Haji – Somalia (bottom left), Dr Fawziya Abikar Nur Health Minister – Somalia (bottom right)
Rotary Club Melbourne
I have been invited to talk on “Adolescent mental health, school failure and juvenile justice – where are the supports?’ at the Sofitel in Melbourne on 31st March. Anyone interested in attending can register here: https://rotaryclubofmelbourne.org.au/
Meeting with RACGP President Dr Karen Price and Ms Kirsten Pilatti, CEO of Breast Cancer Network Australia (BCNS)
We are planning a national campaign for cancer awareness in the community. Involving the GP, of course. This Friday, I will be filming some short videos on the My Journey Toolkit which originally started as a booklet. I’ve been involved in the various edits and reviews over the years and the newly developed online toolkit, provides support and evidence-based information assisting in decisions making and guiding women on their journey when diagnosed with breast cancer. It caters for women and men at all stages of the disease and is interactive. We should all promote this to our patients and friends as the booklet, which was being delivered to more than 15,000 newly diagnosed breast cancer patients annually, was one of the most used resources for breast cancer patients.
Articles
The several articles I have written have been posted already in our chats and on our website.
My International Women’s Day article remains very relevant and topical given the current events nationally , so I will share this with you again: NewsGP 8th March 2021
RACGP – Achieving equality in a COVID-19 world www.racgp.org.au/newsgp/gp-opinion/achieving-equality-in-a-covid-19-world
Stay well and safe,
Magdalena
Magdalena is the President of the AFMW (2020-) and former President of VMWS (2013 & 2017-2020).
Magdalena’s deep engagements with the RACGP over many years includes chair of Women in General Practice, is currently on the RACGP Expert Committee Quality Care, prior to that on RACGP eHealth Expert Committee. She is a regular media spokesperson on numerous health issues, being interviewed most weeks by mainstream and medical media. Magdalena has represented the RACGP at senate enquiries and has worked on several National Health Framework reviews.
Both an RACGP examiner and University examiner she supervises medical students and undertakes general practice research. Roles outside of RACGP include the Strategy and Policy Committee for Breast Cancer Network Australia, Board Director of Women’s Health Victoria and Chair of their Strategy and Policy subcommittee and the AMA Victoria GP Network Committee.
Magdalena has presented at the United Nations as part of the Australian Assembly and was recently appointed the Australian representative to the World Health Organisation, World Assembly on COVID 19, by the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA).
Dr Simonis is currently a member of the National COVID-19 Taskforce expert committee.