����TV advises all Members that, with the commencement of the 14th RANZCOG Council, a number of important changes to the College’s Committees, reporting lines, and Terms of Reference (ToR) have taken effect.

These changes form part of a broader governance review to ensure clarity, consistency, and alignment across all College committees and project groups.

Global changes to committee terms of reference

• Committee appointments will now be made by the RANZCOG Board, rather than by the President
• Chairs and Deputy Chairs of Committees will no longer automatically be Board Members or Councillors
• The Board may, when appropriate, extend the term of a Committee Chair or Deputy Chair beyond the maximum term

Retirement of committees

20 Committees have been formally retired as part of the governance restructure commencing with the 14th Council:

Please note

• The Cervical Quality Improvement Program (C-QuIP) Committee, Fetal Surveillance Education Program (FSEP) Committee, and Nuchal Translucency Ultrasound, Education and Monitoring Program (NTUEMP) Committee will be replaced by Clinical Advisors.
• The Obstetric and Gynaecology Education and Training (OGET) Steering and Resource Development Working Groups will merge into the OGET Project Group subject to funding.
• The work of the Endoscopic Surgery Advisory Committee (ESAC) will continue under the Research, Policy and Guidelines Committee (RPGC) and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Committees, with subject matter experts invited as needed.
• ����TV will also establish a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Australasian Gynaecological Endoscopy & Surgery (AGES), New Zealand Association of Specialist Obstetricians & Gynaecologists (NASOG), and Urogynaecology Society of Australasia (UGSA) for future collaboration.

����TV sincerely thanks all members of the retired Committees for their time, contributions, and dedication. We hope you will continue to be involved in other College activities and initiatives.

Name changes

����TV has introduced consistent naming conventions across all committees to ensure College-wide alignment and better reflect their functions. Accordingly:

• Committees established for specific, time-limited purposes will now be called Project Groups
• Groups that meet on an ad-hoc basis to review, assess, or make recommendations will now be called Panels
• Ongoing or standing bodies will continue to be called Committees

Changes to reporting lines

To enhance alignment between governance bodies, the following Committees will now report to different entities:

Appointment of Deputy Chairs

• Deputy Chairs of State and Territory Committees must be RANZCOG Councillors from the same State or Territory as their Committee
• For the Aotearoa New Zealand Committee, if the Chair is not a Board Member or Councillor, a Deputy Chair must be a Councillor from Aotearoa New Zealand
• The updated Terms of Reference reflecting these arrangements are now available on the RANZCOG website

The updated Terms of Reference (ToR) reflecting all of the above changes have been uploaded to the ����TV Committees Directory. Some details are still being finalised, so further updates may be published as required.

For any questions regarding these changes, please contact the Governance & Legal Team at governance@ranzcog.edu.au.

Thank you to all members for your ongoing contributions to College activities.

Notice is hereby given that the 2025 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Fellows of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists will be conducted as a hybrid meeting.

Details of AGM

• What: RANZCOG AGM
• When: Tuesday, 21 October 2025
• Time: 5.30pm Australian Central Daylight Saving Time (ACDT)
• Where: Hall A, Upper Level, Adelaide Convention and Exhibition Centre and online

Attending online

Our AGM will be hosted online by the meeting provider Vero Voting, an independent voting and meeting service provider appointed by RANZCOG.

Once you register with Vero Voting, from Tuesday, 30 September 2025, you will be able to:

• Securely view the Notice of AGM and the relevant documentation
• Submit questions in advance (must be submitted by 5.30pm (ACDT), Sunday, 19 October 2025)
• On the day of the AGM:
  • Watch the live AGM webcast
  • Ask questions live

All Fellows eligible to vote can participate in the live voting.

Are you a Fellow eligible to vote but cannot attend the AGM?

• Nominate a proxy online (must be submitted by 5.30pm (ACDT), Sunday, 19 October 2025)
• Your proxy must be another Fellow

Vero Voting guide

• Find out how to register, nominate a proxy and submit questions
• Find out how to watch the webcast and cast live votes

Alternate access

If you are a Fellow who does not wish to use the Vero Voting platform or you cannot attend the live AGM and vote, there is an alternate way to access the documents and nominate a proxy to vote on your behalf (only a Fellow may be appointed as your proxy).

to view the Notice of AGM and the relevant documentation, and download a proxy voting form; you will find the documents under the Resources tab.

If you are using the PDF proxy voting form, please email your completed form to the Secretary at ceo@ranzcog.edu.au by 5.30pm (ACDT), Sunday, 19 October 2025.

Further information

If you are a RANZCOG member and have not received an email, please contact ceo@ranzcog.edu.au.

A deidentified report on the formal complaints received and handled by the College is made publicly available annually.

Review of complaints received and handled by the College

Pursuant to cl. 3.3.2 of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG/College) Complaints Policy, a deidentified report on the formal complaints received and handled by the College is made publicly available annually.

The review conducted by the Independent External Reviewer (IER) covered:

• The number and nature of complaints
• Findings in relation to the complaint handling and resolution process
• Recommendations for future improvement

Primary findings and recommendations

Last year, complaints lodged from January 2022 to June 2023 were reviewed, and the primary findings and recommendations include:

• • There was a total of 19 complaints lodged in this period;
  • The majority of complaints related to allegations of bullying and related issues like unfair treatment;
  • On the whole, the College handles complaints efficiently, and in a timely and careful manner;
  • The IER following review gave 10 recommendations for continuous improvement, including:
    • that complaint files are best assigned to a complaint handling officer;
    • that an assessment and/or investigation report should be conducted and prepared for every complaint;
    • that the complaint handler must ensure that every issue raised in a complaint is properly assessed; and
    • to help manage complainant expectations, that the College should consider setting out expressly its investigation limitations and state its preference for hospitals/ external regulatory bodies conducting investigations at first instance.

You can access the full report containing all findings and recommendations below.

Review of complaint management policies and procedures

The IER also conducted a review on the College’s complaint management policies and procedures. The major findings of the review include:

• that the College complies with the AS/NZS ISO 10002:2018 Guidelines for Complaint Management in Organisations (Standards);
• that the College should set up a dedicated page on the College’s website explaining the College’s complaint handling system, policies and procedures, and to provide a place for submitting a complaint;
• that publishing factors relevant to the CEO and President’s determination of outcomes (for example, whether to refer a matter to AHPRA) is advisable in the interests of greater transparency;
• that the College should clearly set out its position on unreasonable conduct by complainants; and
• that the false, frivolous and vexatious complaints section should be reviewed and updated.

You can access the full report on the complaint management policies and procedures reviews below.

Find out more about the recent communications about changes to the RANZCOG Diploma and Advanced Diploma programs.

We are writing to you about the recent communications about changes to the RANZCOG Diploma and Advanced Diploma programs. We understand that the initial notification came as a surprise to some members, with concern about lack of clarity about why the change was necessary. We would like to acknowledge and apologise for any distress this has caused.

����TV, RACGP, ACRRM and RDAA have been collaborating to determine the best way to communicate on this matter with our valued GP members and trainees, and we hope that a shared statement is an appropriate starting point.

���������첵���dzܲԻ�

In 2022, the Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA) first raised concerns that a number of non-GP Specialist Medical Colleges were offering Diploma courses without being registered as a provider under TEQSA, as is required under the Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency Act 2011. The terms “Diploma” and “Advanced Diploma” form part of the Australian Qualifications Framework and are protected under that Act. Medical Colleges, including RANZCOG, RACGP and ACRRM were invited to discussions around this matter. We have engaged in ongoing discussions with the Department of Health and Aged Care (DoHA) and TEQSA over a two-year period, but unfortunately medical Colleges were not permitted to prospectively to use the diploma nomenclature.

The final decision on this matter was made by TEQSA in an extremely short timeframe, and we were directed to change our program nomenclature to comply with restrictions imposed by the TEQSA Act. We strongly advocated for a change in legislation as the most meaningful way to mitigate this issue, but this was rejected by DoHA and TEQSA. Other options involved significant ongoing costs and multiple accreditation and reaccreditation processes, the costs of which would have had to be passed on to our members. We believed that this would be an unfair imposition, particularly to accredit programs that have an existing and a strong reputation.

The Colleges were originally provided a deadline of December 2023 to implement changes. Upon requests from multiple Colleges, TEQSA provided a final extension to push the deadline to February 2024. Non-compliant Colleges will face significant financial penalties. We would like to reiterate that we were faced with very limited choice in progressing with this decision.

Consultation process

����TV undertook a consultation process which presented alternative nomenclature options to diplomate members and trainees. 427 responses were received, with the majority selecting the following option:

Impact and risk mitigation

We recognise and acknowledge the importance of GP Obstetricians in providing timely and effective care for women and their babies. We also understand the critical role GP Obstetricians, especially Rural Generalists, play in maintaining a regional, rural, and remote workforce, and in ensuring the quality and safety of care. We are pleased to note the progress around specialist recognition for Rural Generalist Medicine and await assessment outcomes from the Australian Medical Council (AMC) and the Medical Board of Australia (MBA). As member-based organisations, our priority remains to ensure that members receive the highest level of education, training, professional development, and support.

If you are an existing Diplomate or Advanced Diplomate member, your postnominals and qualifications will not be impacted, and you will be able to continue using your postnominals, qualifications and logos. If you are a current or prospective trainee, we want to reassure you that the change in nomenclature does not impact the quality of education and training you receive, or the integrity of your qualifications once you complete the program.

The curriculum and assessment standards remain the same, and our objective continues to be the development of competent and skilled healthcare professionals who are able to provide effective and timely care. The changes do not in any way impact the services and support you currently receive from RANZCOG, RACGP, ACRRM or RDAA.

We will be united in our ongoing communications with the government, DoHA, hospitals and other stakeholders, to ensure that there are no adverse impacts on credentialing, employment, or medico-legal support for our members. As the key organisations involved, we will continue to work in partnership with one another to ensure the ongoing integrity and quality of these programs.

Next steps

����TV will present the proposed nomenclature change at an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on 12 February in order to meet the TEQSA-mandated deadline. You will receive further communication from RANZCOG that outlines in detail the process undertaken, as well as the next steps relating to these changes. A webinar will be held 19 February following the EGM to provide an update on progress, and to answer any queries you may have. A separate email in the coming weeks, will provide an invitation and registration link. We encourage you to attend the webinar and to share this information with your colleagues.

Once again, we apologise for the concern the nomenclature change process has caused, and we hope the context and circumstances under which we have had to undertake this change has provided a better understanding of the issue. Please reach out to us at any time if you wish to discuss this further. We will continue to communicate with you as we progress through the various phases of this change.

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) has announced Dr Gillian Gibson as the College’s next President.

Dr Gibson was elected following a ballot and will take up her role in November 2023, after RANZCOG’s Annual General Meeting. Her term will run to November 2025.

Dr Gibson will become the second female President of RANZCOG*. She will also become the second New Zealander to hold the office.

Dr Gibson has been a full-time Auckland-based Generalist Obstetrician and Gynaecologist for 25 years, combining public and private practice. She currently holds Medical Officer and Service Clinical Director positions at Te Whatu Ora | Te Toka Tumai Auckland (formerly Auckland District Health Board).

Dr Gibson has been involved in College activities for much of her professional life, joining Te Kāhui Oranga ō Nuku (formerly the New Zealand Committee) nearly 20 years ago. She has served two terms on the Council and two terms on the Board, culminating in her current role as Vice-President (New Zealand). She has chaired several standing committees and working groups of the College, and is Deputy Chair of the Gender Equity and Diversity Working Group.

����TV President Dr Benjamin Bopp said he was delighted to congratulate Dr Gibson on being elected as President-Elect: “Gill has extensive skills and experience that she will bring to the role of President. On behalf of the RANZCOG Board and Council, I congratulate Gill and am confident her passion and dedication will help deliver the best guidance and support to all our Members and trainees across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.”

Dr Gibson said: “It’s an honour and a privilege to be RANZCOG’s next President. I look forward to working with the Board, CEO, Council, committees, Members, trainees and College staff across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, living out our values. Together we will ensure the College is well run, achieves its strategic purpose, has a sustainable future, continues to train the next generation of specialist Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and GP Obstetricians, and advances excellence and equity in Women’s Health.”

“I hope my election will motivate and inspire a succession of women in senior College leadership, building on the significant advances the College has made in the areas of gender equity and diversity.”

����TV exceeded gender targets for female representation on its current Board and Council – 18 of 24 Councillors and five of nine Board Directors are women. There has also been a considerable increase in the female representation and Chairs on various committees and working groups of the College compared with previous years.

_{* Dr Heather Munro AO was the first and only woman President of the Royal Australian College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RACOG) (1994–1996). The late Associate Professor Christine Tippett AM was the first woman President of RANZCOG (2006–2008).}

Dr Gillian Gibson is looking forward to when she becomes RANZCOG President later this year.

“RANZCOG has an important role in ongoing advocacy for women’s health needs, and I welcome the opportunity to lead that,” Gill says.

Gill will take up the position of��President-Elect��until November 2023, then step in to the position of College President for a two-year term.
She will become the second female President of RANZCOG*. She will also become the second New Zealander to hold the office.

“I hope my election will motivate and inspire a succession of women in senior College leadership, building on the significant advances the College has made in the areas of gender equity and diversity,” she says.

Gill is Deputy Chair of the College’s Gender Equity and Diversity Working Group. “We are on a journey and have a clear commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.”

Extensive experience

Gill has been a full-time Auckland-based Generalist Obstetrician and Gynaecologist for 25 years, combining public and private practice. She currently holds Medical Officer and Service Clinical Director positions at Te Whatu Ora | Te Toka Tumai Auckland (formerly Auckland District Health Board).

Gill has been involved in College activities for much of her professional life, joining Te Kāhui Oranga ō Nuku (formerly the New Zealand Committee) nearly 20 years ago. She has served two terms on the Council and two terms on the Board, culminating in her current Vice-President (New Zealand) role. She has chaired several standing committees and working groups of the College.

Priority issues

Gill says she looks forward to pursuing the objectives set out in the��College’s Strategic Plan; however she nominates workforce issues and access to sexual and reproductive health services as two key areas.

“As Chair of the New Zealand Workforce Working Group I have a deep understanding of the challenges the College faces for future workforce planning,” she says. “Aiming to keep maternity services open, an issue for both regional and rural Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, will require government support for expanding projects such as the successful OGET pilot (rural upskilling and training) and improving access for GPOs to ongoing procedural training. Improved access to sexual and reproductive health services in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand requires government commitment, and responsibility as a College to train future specialists with the necessary skills.”

“RANZCOG has an important role in ongoing advocacy for women’s health needs. Over the past 20 years in Aotearoa New Zealand, I have helped successfully advocate for a maternity quality framework, abortion law reform, improvements to the cervical screening program, Māori women’s health issues and most recently incorporating a women’s health strategy into New Zealand health legislation.”

Away from work

Gill loves nothing better than spending time with her friends and family, including her daughter, who has recently qualified as a GP.

_{* Dr Heather Munro AO was the first and only woman President of the Royal Australian College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RACOG) (1994–1996). The late Associate Professor Christine Tippett AM was the first woman President of RANZCOG (2006–2008).}

Congratulations to the members recently elected to our subspecialty committees.

Following the close of elections, we would like to congratulate the following members on their election:

Congratulations to the members recently elected to our state and territory committees and Te Kāhui Oranga ō Nuku.