Kia ora koutou,

Just as spring brings a fresh start, we’re working hard to prepare for the upcoming MCNZ accreditation visit. We’re looking forward to sharing our progress and receiving valuable feedback from our community through the MCNZ accreditation surveys you’ll receive soon. We’re also thrilled that our recent workforce survey had its best response ever and hoping to share the results very soon. In the meantime, we hope to see you at our upcoming Bootcamp this weekend!

MCNZ Accreditation

As an educational provider for MCNZ, we are required to undergo an accreditation process with them.  We submitted the self-assessment report, an extensive commentary on how we achieve the accreditation standards, in late August.The MCNZ accreditation panel will be visiting the College offices 21 to 23 October, conducting in-person and zoom interviews with a wide range of stakeholders including trainees, Fellows, supervisors, clinics, as well as committee members and office staff.

As part of the accreditation process, MCNZ will be asking you to complete targeted surveys, asking for your thoughts on how well we achieve the accreditation standards. When they arrive, please take time to complete the survey so that we can receive comprehensive feedback from a broad range of members.

Given the surveys to be conducted by MCNZ, I will recommend that we do not conduct the annual surveys, typically sent out in December each year. There may be some information we require (eg feedback on specific courses), but we would be able to target the audience.

With this in mind, it’s even more important that you complete the MCNZ surveys when they arrive in your inbox. Please take the time to complete them.

Torohia – MCNZ trainee survey

Thank you to all trainees who had already completed it, or who responded to my direct email sent a couple of weeks ago.  We have been informed by MCNZ that they are extending the survey deadline to 15 September, so if you have not already completed it, you now have the chance.

Workforce survey

Thank you to all those who completed the workforce survey this year. We had our best response ever, with around 180 of you completing it. I had hoped that we would have the results to you by now, but it is taking a little longer than anticipated.  Please bear with us as we sift through all the details.

As soon as we have the survey results available we’ll post them on the website and advise members.

Bootcamp – online for 2025

Guy, the presenters, along with Kushani and Cleo at the office, are in the final stages of preparing for Bootcamp this Saturday. Ticket sales have been good, but ideally we’d have a final boost of numbers.

Click here to visit the Bootcamp promotion page and to purchase your tickets.

Even if you cannot attend on Saturday, holding a ticket allows you to see the recordings which will be shared only with ticket holders until June or July next year.

Governance – Society Rules changes

I am working on rewriting Society rules as part of the resubmission to satisfy the Societies Act 2022.  I will be communicating with you all by email to get your responses to the following recommendations. We will be holding an SGM in early December to approve the new rules.

  • The College adopts new purpose statements.
    • The new purpose statements align with our commitment to excellence in healthcare, equitable health outcomes, Te Tiriti principles, and equitable access to urgent care to all. They are listed in detail below the other list items.
  • That the College becomes a charity.
    • It is currently a society with not-for-profit tax-exempt status. Advice from the accountant and lawyers is that this status may be at risk with the implementation of the new Societies Act.
  • That the College adopts a Māori name for the College plus certain key individuals.
    • After discussion with our current Māori member of the Executive Committee, I will be engaging with appropriate Māori governance and translation services to achieve this.
  • Membership classes to be Fellow, Member, Registrar.
    • This aligns with the classes of Fellow (FRNZCUC), Senior Registrar (also MRNZCUC), and registrar (no post-nominals) currently mentioned in the Fellowship regulations. Once incorporated into Society rules, they will be removed from Fellowship Regulations which will focus on the criteria to be awarded full Fellow status after completion of the training programme.
  • We include special status for Distinguished Fellow, Honorary Fellow, Retired Fellow.
    • Honorary Fellow already exists, and the members approved (at the 2024 AGM) that the College should award Distinguished Fellow and allow for the use of post nominals for retired Fellows.
  • To be entitled to vote or be a voted-for member of the ExC a member must be registered to practise urgent care medicine in New Zealand and on the Fellowship training or recertification programme.
    • This retains overall control of the College (society), which is a New Zealand based organisation, to those in NZ who are on either the Fellowship training programme or a recertification programme. The ‘voted for’ wording allows the Executive Committee the ability to co-opt those not satisfying the requirements (eg to fill specialised positions on the committee).
  • Officers to be Chair, Vice-chair, Treasurer.
    • The current roles are Chair, Secretary, Treasurer but the secretary role is redundant with their role being completed by the CEO and/or office.  The Vice-chair role responsibilities would be written to take on some of the Chair’s responsibilities. The specific responsibilities would be included in the Governance policy.
  • The registrar member of the ExC would be appointed by the ExC after consultation with, and recommendation from, the Registrar Subcommittee.
    • This is the current practice, and a discussion with the Registrar Subcommittee, supported by a poll of the registrar WhatsApp group shows support for continuing the status quo.
  • The Māori member of the ExC would be appointed by the ExC after consultation with, and recommendation from current Māori member and/or Māori members of the College.
    • This is the current practice, and responses to an email by the CEO to Māori members shows support for continuing the status quo.
  • That the College does not adopt a maximum number of terms for ExC members or chair.
    • This is the current practice. The College does not traditionally have a significant number of nominations at AGM, and limiting the number of terms would likely cause challenges in maintaining numbers in the ExC.
  • That the College financial accounts are audited each year.
    • Our accounts are currently NOT audited but reviewed and prepared by the accountant. This change adds additional oversight to our accounting practices and moves us closer to best practice.
Proposed purpose statements
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Policies approved and published

Several policies have been approved:

To be approved by Executive Committee at the 1 October meeting.

Nāku iti noa, nā

Adrian

Adrian Metcalfe Chief Executive Officer Level 2, 110 Lunn Avenue, Remuera, Auckland 1072, New Zealand P. 64 9 527 7966 www.rnzcuc.org.nz