Canberra GP Rashmi Sharma, at home with her family, from left, Rishabh Archer-Sharma, 4, Stuart Archer and Anuradha Archer-Sharma, 3. Photo: Melissa Adams
After seven years at the helm of ACT Medicare Local, Canberra GP Rashmi Sharma has announced she is stepping down as the organisation’s chair.
Dr Sharma spent a decade on the ACT Medicare Local board and she finished as the organisation’s chair last month. Her successor is Dr Martin Liedvogel, a GP in Fisher.
Dr Sharma said she felt the time was right to hand over the baton, although she will remain an adviser to the ACT Medicare Local.
Canberra GP Rashmi Sharma said the time was right to hand over the baton. Photo: Melissa Adams
“I think in terms of good governance, it’s a good idea that you don’t stay on the board for too long because you can become a bit complacent,” she said.
“It’s probably time to look at the board getting refreshed with new members, new ideas.
“For me, it was time for a change and to move on and do something else or have a bit of a rest.”
Dr Sharma said she had enjoyed “every minute” of being chair and a board member of ACTML.
“I’m certainly a little bit sad to go but I think it’s good for the Medicare Local to have other people round the table and I think it’s also good for me to try my hand at something else,” she said.
Reflecting on her time with ACTML, Dr Sharma said there had been a number of challenges facing general practice in the ACT, including overcoming workforce shortages.
“I think we were incredibly stressed and incredibly overworked,” she said.
“Those challenges have eased somewhat because we have concentrated a lot in trying to ease the workforce issues.”
Dr Sharma said much work had been done to resolve the shortages the ACT faced, including enticing doctors to move to territory and focusing on medical graduates keen to work in Canberra.
“Growing your own is now bearing fruit and it’s been 10 years in the making, but we’re now seeing our own graduates coming back to the ACT or remaining in the ACT and training as GPs in the region,” she said.
Among the achievements of which Dr Sharma was most proud was improving collaboration with health consumers and being able to fill healthcare gaps such as supporting clinicians to look after the disadvantaged. She was also proud to have been involved in establishing a dedicated “quick access” telephone line to hospitals for doctors and clinicians.
Dr Sharma believes the future of general practice in the ACT is very promising.
“We’ve got a very promising future in terms of very high quality GPs serving the community,” she said.
Dr Sharma said among the challenges facing her successor was the federal government’s decision to replace Medicare Locals with Primary Health Networks.
“While we’re cautiously optimistic that we’ll (ACTML) hopefully transition to become the Primary Health Network in the ACT, there are of course no promises and I think that is probably the most pressing issue at the moment,” she said.