The appointment
Dr Cutbush is now Queensland Chairman of the Australian Society of Orthopaedic Surgeons (ASOS).
What ASOS is
The Australian Society of Orthopaedic Surgeons is an association of orthopaedic surgeons in Australia concerned with the circumstances in which the speciality is practised. Its work sits alongside, rather than within, the two other bodies most orthopaedic surgeons belong to: the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, which trains, examines and certifies surgeons, and the Australian Orthopaedic Association, which oversees orthopaedic training and professional development.
Where those two deal largely with standards and education, ASOS deals with the conditions of practice. That covers matters such as how medical services are funded and rebated, how private health insurance arrangements affect patients and surgeons, workforce questions, and the practical consequences of health policy for people waiting for orthopaedic treatment. Much of the work involves putting the views of surgeons to government departments, insurers and the other organisations that set the rules surgeons and patients have to work within.
What a state chairman does
Membership organisations of this kind are usually organised by state as well as nationally, because health in Australia is administered largely at state level. Public hospitals, waiting lists and much of the regulation that affects surgical practice are state responsibilities, so the state branch is the level at which a great many issues are actually dealt with.
A state chairman convenes the branch, represents the position of its members to the national body and to state authorities, and attends meetings with health departments and ministers on the branch's behalf. It is unpaid work carried on alongside a full clinical practice, as most medical representative roles are. Its value is that the people making submissions about how orthopaedic care is organised are the ones still running clinics and operating lists, and are therefore describing a system they deal with daily rather than one they have read about.
Related information
- Our post on the meeting with the Federal Health Minister, attended in this role
- Our post on the meeting with Queensland Health, also attended in this role
- Consultation information
- Our shoulder conditions pages