Welcome to Dr Una Coales’s website, Your Vision for our RCGP

Manifesto, a Mandate for Change | Meet the Candidate | Curriculum Vitae | What I have already achieved for members | The Future of General Practice

 

Read the Manifesto, a Mandate for Change. Contact: unacoales@aol.com or vote4una@aol.com.  Blog: www.drunacoales.blogspot.com

Private Facebook: ufcmd@aol.com. Twitter: http://twitter.com/drunacoales. For GP Education: www.mrcgpcourses.co.uk.

 

PRCGP photo Dr Una Coales.jpg

 

What would You like from Your College? What are Your Ideas, Concerns and Expectations?

My 100-word RCGP Presidential ballot statement

 

'As RCGP President, I will endeavour with integrity to represent our diverse membership, advise the Chair, and preserve the core values of our profession, in the face of politically-driven healthcare and patient demands. I have proven leadership and communication skills as RCGP Council Rep and IDF GP Chair, ensuring accountability and fair treatment of all doctors, protect generalism, promote partnerships and re-introduce personal lists. Show empathy to patients and colleagues. End exploitation. Empower newly-qualified GPs, ensure fairness for IMGs, include sessionals in CCGs, and reduce hurdles for GP returners, show solidarity and support the GPC negotiating revalidation and questioning CQC.'

 

A Modern RCGP Presidential Candidate’s Manifesto

 

‘I wish to represent and serve all the members of our college as the 21st President, supporting modernisation, whilst upholding the college’s core values in promoting generalisation, striving for educational excellence and ensuring equal treatment of all doctors.

 

The President is the constitutional head, an overall ambassador for the College, its members and the discipline of general practice. Past President Roger Neighbour’s legacy was transforming GP education. I hope this has been mine also, as an author and educationalist to over 4,000 GPs.

 

As we celebrate 60 years of College, let us remember how our College was created, embrace all members and celebrate the survival of the generalist! I will extol partnerships and named doctor lists. Halt further disintegration of our profession. In difficult times, remember our greatest asset as GPs, our communication skills and deliver with mutual respect, humility and empathy for a win:win outcome.

 

A principle responsibility for President now includes ‘to represent the interests of Members and Fellows within the College’s organisation and Committees, in particular as Equality & Diversity Champion for the College.’ I promise to ensure all members and associates are treated fairly. I have laboured to ensure fair exam conditions and ensured that grassroots members and fellows’ voices have had a platform at College.

 

The President chairs general meetings and the Awards and Fellowship Committee. I have been a longstanding South London RCGP faculty board member and completed fellowship nominations for several GPs, served as past faculty treasurer and am deputised for the RCGP Chair to sit on the DH CAP payment by results committee. I have gained experience as the first elected GP Chair of IDF, chaired GP meetings, presented at AGM and given members value for money. I hope to do the same for our College and in-addition be involved in fund-raising for the College.

 

The President is a member of the Leadership Team, the Council Executive Committee and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. Having served as member on College Council and my local faculty board, I sense and recognise a frustration with aspects of the current systems and the electoral processes. I believe that modernisation of the internal structure is vital whereby all our College members are given the opportunity to elect their preferred candidates for ALL the committees and positions on the Leadership and Council Executive Committee. I believe this will lead to a more transparent and robust College. The purpose of the Committees needs to be reviewed too, as there is a concern that decisions are being made in a top-down manner.

 

I intend to visit each faculty, listen to your concerns and relay these to the Council Executive Committee and Council action, ensuring they are addressed. I aim to improve communication between the Central College and the local 33 Faculties and am directly accessible on unacoales@aol.com. Let this be a modern College of caring, empathic GPs who practice evidence-based medicine, Cum Scientia Caritas. Empower me to help you. Vote for both my President and Council Rep ballots.’

 

 

News Update on March 31, 2012

 

12 GP proposers (members in good standing) have been approved for my RCGP Presidential application for 2012-2015. Each of these grassroots GP sponsors was personally selected for being a good and true GP, who has selflessly helped colleagues, trainees and patients and cover LMC, MOD, Deanery, GP trainers and programme directors, GP partners, fellows and sessional GP representation across the UK.

 

The application date closed on March 31. New equality rules as of 2012! Dr Howard Bloom and I put in a recent motion to ask that in 2015 Presidential candidates be afforded the same rights as council rep candidates and have a 500-word manifesto and photo on the RCGP website. No need for the motion I am told, as College has already decided to update the Presidential candidate election rules to now include 500-word manifestos on the main RCGP website with a photo, as already permitted for Council Rep Candidates! Email received this week to now submit a 500-word Presidential manifesto and photo. Submitted and updated on this site. A postal ballot will take place between May 14 and noon, June 1, 2012. I urge you all to confirm that the address on the RCGP Integra system matches your current postal address so that we better voter returns of 21% as in 2009. Please email me at vote4una@aol.com with your ICE if I have not covered it.

 

If elected, I will visit each and every faculty and deanery to hear your concerns and also pass on all my teachings on AKT statistics and CSA to all deaneries to enhance/ equalise the pass rates of all trainees, especially IMGs, as I will retire from teaching privately while serving term. I shall take back your concerns to College and ensure the Council Executive Committee and Council consider and action. There will be better 2-way communication between Central College and the local 33 Faculties. Empower me to serve YOU!

 

 

Looking back at 2009 and the last election

 

In retrospect, GPs' ICE in 2009 included:

 

1. Recognition of the GMC position on post-nominals in a Press release dated 25 June 2004, ‘we continue to regard post-nominals such as MRCGP as qualifications, indicating that a doctor has reached a particular stage in his or her training, rather than as symbols of continued association with the bodies that awarded them.’ I would hope that the direction in which the College is moving towards, ie more democratic involvement and engagement with all members, will encourage members to remain part of the College instead.

 

2. Unwelcome cold calls to urge GPs to remain members especially in light of upcoming revalidation. I would hope this is no longer the case and that college staff who man the phones are respectful of all GPs.

 

3. Reasons why some GPs resigned membership - perception that the College had lost touch. Some GPs gave up membership due to the 1990 fiasco. I hope that College’s engagement with clinical commissioning and voicing constructive concerns with the Health Bill are welcome and that there is now solidarity between the BMA and the Royal College on key political GP matters. I shall defer all discussions on the Health Bill to the Chair, Council and the BMA. As long as a democratic process has been followed, the views of all GPs are then represented fairly.

 

4. There was some discord over the RCGP involvement in training of noctors (physician assistants), practice accreditation, revalidation and star rating of practices with fears that the College was not in touch with grassroots GPs, as they and their College faculties were not consulted and did not vote on these areas. I still hear you. We need the voice of faculties to be counted and included in key central College decision-making policies. We need all major activities undertaken by central College to be passed by the faculties first rather than 'rubber-stamped' at Council. All faculty boards should ideally have debated whether they would wish the College to be involved in training physician assistants, practice accreditation, revalidation, etc rather than a top down approach.

 

5. Anti-revalidation. I had a one on one with the Parliamentary Health Select Committee Chair of Revalidation of Doctors in March to raise concerns of the high cost, little benefit of the revalidation‘questionnaire’ in a final bid to scrap revalidation in my role as Secretary of Conservative Health.

 

6. Noctorisation of General Practice. I continue to impress upon patients and GPs that doctors should be doctors and nurses should be nurses to ensure patient safety.

 

7. Promoting partnerships. I continue to praise GP partnerships for hiring partners and not salaried labour, and ensure against financial exploitation of sessionals. The GP partners on my list of proposers hire young GP partners and do not impose years as a salaried GP to then be promoted to GP partner but treat all GPs as equals from day 1.

 

8. I fight against incessant government bureaucracy, a culture of box-ticking and the need to over-regulate our profession (Parkinson's law is working over-time!). CQC practice registration is akin to triplicating appraisal and revalidation. Enough is enough. And as for star rating of practices, with NHS choices, patients can make their own choice and star-rating then is not forced upon practices.

 

9. Associates in training are suffering from high costs of the CSA exam and it is affecting their families' finances as many have young families to raise. In 2012, the fee will rise yet again from £1481 to £1525 a sitting. Already trainees have intimated that they will not pay a penny more to the College if these fees remain so high. We must consider cost containment and look at reducing or freezing exam fees to ultimately retain full membership in the long run. I have suggested monthly installment payments and another on Council suggested to me discounts for the 2nd or 3rd CSA attempts. We must reach a happy financial medium or risk alienating our future GPs.

 

I would like to thank GPs on doctors.net.uk for sharing their GPs' ICE in 2009. It was the late Dr Peter Gooderham with the help of Dr John Leigh, the 2 longest standing GPs on doctors net, who welcomed me to doctors net and guided me through the last Presidential campaign, educating 'Rita' and bringing me up to speed as fast as possible (Bluedragon gave me so many thread links and papers to read and I treasure each email he sent me as homework to read and digest). I still carry on his legacy of fighting for the rights of NHS whistleblowers and making the College truly listen. I owe these grassroots GPs a debt of gratitude for opening my eyes to what ordinary working class GPs want from a modern Royal College and what true democracy means. I acknowledge all your ICE, created a manifesto to keep record of what needs to be attended to and continue to campaign for what you want from your College, a College that comes to visit you, comes to engage you, and comes to make decisions only with you. As I am no longer accessible on doctors net, please email me directly instead. I am always here for you.

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RCGP Presidential and Council Member postal ballots were sent between April 24 and May 29, 2009. Thank you for all your votes, faxes and e-mails of support! RCGP Election Results June 3, 2009 (21.9% total voter returns): I came 2nd for President and 1st for Council. Thank you to the 1,163 GPs who voted for me for President and 898 GPs who voted for me for Council. My term as RCGP Council Member runs from November 21, 2009-2012, and I shall give Voice to all Your Concerns! As I progress down the manifesto, please feel free to make me aware of any new concerns. I have your mandate to deliver! I am your national representative! I shall be re-running for RCGP President in 2012 and hope to transform the College into a Fellowship of Caring GPs!

 

RCGP Council Member Ballot Statement April 2009

 

‘As a council member, I will represent the viewpoints of a burgeoning and diverse membership within Council, reduce fractionation and dissonance, facilitate problem-solving with the aim of preserving the integrity of our profession, whilst promoting clinical excellence in family medicine. Members’ immediate needs include college cost control, reduction of exam and membership fees, increase and protection of partnerships, a voice in revalidation, promulgation of a fair portrayal of GPs and mitigation of unreasonable public and political expectations. Foster inclusivity by democratic member involvement in key decision-making policies through polls, e-mails and post and we have a unified voice.’