FIJI MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
FIJI MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
Monday 23rd
September, 2019
Dear Members
Bula Vinaka,
Namaste, Noa’ia e mau’ri!. I would like to thank all the members for all the
hard work you have done this week in your respective disciplines. We had a
total of 123 registrants for our Annual Scientific Conference this year.
Considering the FMA members that attended this was perhaps one of the most well
attended conferences. As you may recall, in the past our attendance has been
boosted by participation from FNU staff and students. Unfortunately, this year,
this did not eventuate due to FNU having other workshops in the week preceding.
Their absence was more than made up for by our own members attending in
droves. We did have a net loss at our
conference this year as we absorbed the meal costs for members’ spouses and
children. This enabled you all to enjoy the conference with a clear conscience
that your loved ones were fed and watered while you were engaged in the
scientific sessions. Also, they were able to mingle during the dinners and it
provided an opportunity for our loved ones to get to know each other and
network. Certainly the feedback we have received has highlighted this as a
strong point.
The Executive
Council of FMA is in the process of embarking on a journey that is designed to
make FMA processes more efficient. As alluded to in my previous address, we now
have 18 members in the executive council and that means that we have more heads
working together for your benefit and welfare. With our boosted numbers, we can
now concentrate on a few key areas that we have identified. These are:
1.
Education – this will involve CME opportunities in
multiple forms. We will be running 3 mini-conferences in Suva, Lautoka and
Labasa and the annual scientific conference in September. We have our online
CME portal that we encourage you to use. We also have the Fiji Medical Journal
where we encourage you to send your original research for publication.
2.
Member Welfare – we will set up and continually strive
to strengthen our mentoring program. We now have a renowned Psychiatrist Dr
Myrielle Allen in the executive council who will lead the charge in terms of
member welfare and she will no doubt be an excellent resource for our members
to utilize if they have a need to access counselling.
3.
Finance – we will be more proactive and smart in trying
to grow our funds. Our ultimate aim is financial consolidation which will
enable FMA to, in the future, subsidize the costs incurred by its members
during registration process for conferences.
We are also
pleased to announce that the FMA representative to the Fiji Medical and Dental
Council will be our immediate past-president, Dr Luke Nasedra.
Finally, we will
endeavor to work closely with the Fiji College of General Practitioner’s so
that we can help in addressing issues of all Doctors in Fiji.
Vinaka vakalevu,
Daniyabaad and Fa’eksia
Dr Basharat Munshi
President
Fiji
Medical Association