National ASMS Direct Feb 14

Welcome to the 2nd issue for 2018 of ASMS Direct, our national electronic publication.
You can also keep in touch with the latest news and views on health issues relevant to public hospital specialists via our website www.asms.nz, which contains links (at the top of the home page) to our Facebook and LinkedIn pages, as well as our quarterly magazine The Specialist. We’re also on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ASMSNZ.

Call for nominations for the National Executive
A reminder to put forward nominations for positions on the ASMS National Executive by 23 February 2018.

Nominations are called for the roles of President and Vice-President, as well as regional representatives.

Details of the regions and the contact details for making your nominations are available on the ASMS website at https://www.asms.org.nz/call-nominations-national-executive-positions/.
Reminder to vote in Medical Council election
You are all encouraged to vote in the Medical Council election, which closes at noon on Friday 23 March 2018.

A total of 21 nominations were received for the four positions available on the Medical Council of New Zealand, and you can view the full list of confirmed candidates online at https://www.mcnz.org.nz/assets/News-and-Publications/Media/MCNZ-Notice-of-Confirmed-Candidates-2018.pdf.

All registered doctors with a valid email address recorded with the Medical Council of New Zealand will be emailed their voting details on Tuesday 20 February 2018.

Registered doctors who do not have an email address recorded with the Medical Council of New Zealand will be posted a voter pack on Monday 19 February 2018.

The right of doctors to elect from the medical profession some of the Council members was taken away in the early 2000s and reinstated at the end of the decade. It is important if any future attempt to remove this right is to be prevent that there is a good voting turnout from the profession. ASMS along with others including NZMA fought hard to get this right reinstated and would not want to see this work undone.
Big spend-up shows Ministry is out of touch
Revelations that the Ministry of Health’s recently resigned Director-General, Chai Chuah, spent $31,000 on a nine-day course in the United States and $233,258 to fly overseas facilitators to New Zealand to run workshops illustrate just how out of touch the Ministry has become.

The huge spend-up contrasts poorly with the reality of working in the cash-strapped public health, and really begs the question: what was the Director-General thinking? The full article is athttps://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/101209726/health-boss-chai-chuah-spent-233000-on-foreign-academics-and-31000-on-course-months-before-he-quit.

As we noted in an ASMS media release, there are far more important things for the Ministry to focus on:https://www.asms.org.nz/news/asms-news/2018/02/07/spend-shows-touch-ministry-health-become/.
WMA open letter supporting arrested Turkish researcher
The World Medical Association (WMA) has written an open letter to doctors globally to alert them to the arrest of an internationally known scientific researcher and practitioner by the Turkish police.

WMA says Professor Onur Hamzaoglu had recently been re-elected to the Executive Board of the International Association of Health Policy in Europe in its 18th international conference last year. He is also the editor of the Society and Physicians journal (https://iahponline.wordpress.com/2018/02/09/prof-onur-hamzaoglu-arrested-by-turkish-police/).

In its open letter, WMA asks doctors to publicise the situation on social media and provides a link to further information (https://www.wma.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Update-TMA-9-Feb2018.pdf). If publicising via Twitter, it asks that the hashtag #supportTMA be used, and @medwma be tagged into any posts.

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