Meeting with Vicki Dunne

In September, Jenny Robertson from our APA office and I met with Liberal MLA and shadow health minister Vicki Dunne to talk about the APA and our mission in Canberra. She proved to be a good listener and was very receptive to our messages with respect to the potential capacity for healthcare delivery in physiotherapy (and other allied health professions).

She was interested that we had made a submission to the committee for sustainable health and followed that up. At the time she also expressed interest in meeting with National Health Service physiotherapy innovation leaders during her November visit to London. It was a good meeting and follows the one we had with the Labour MLA and minister for health, Meegan Fitzharris, last year.

Continuing professional development

As many of you will know, Branch Council and all of the groups have worked tirelessly this year to deliver a large number of education opportunities to the ACT. There are too many to mention here but we hope you have enjoyed them and we welcome feedback about our program for next year as well as compliments for what we have achieved so far.

New groups

We have two new groups in Canberra: the Paediatric group, chaired by Caroline O’Mahoney, APAM, and the Neurology group, chaired by Debbie Douglas, APAM. If you are interested in joining any of our groups or talking to the chairs, contact Jenny Robertson (jenny.robertson@australian.physio) and she will put you in touch.

Membership

Finally, our membership is flourishing and now totals 736. Our student councillors are doing a brilliant job promoting the importance of the APA to the profession at University of Canberra, and public sector membership is rising.