It’s GROSS and it makes perfect sense, says AMA Victoria President Dr Jillian Tomlinson, a champion for the global initiative to ‘get rid of stupid stuff’ like waste and duplication in healthcare.

“Why is it that we are doing it this way and how can we make it better?” This is perhaps the most important question we should be asking across every part of the system, Dr Tomlinson told PULSE the Podcast hosts Dr Louise Schaper and Dr George Margelis.

Appearing on the current episode “ Getting rid of the stupid stuff in healthcare”, Dr Tomlinson advocates for the Victorian healthcare system, its clinicians and consumers. 

The AMA Victoria has launched a petition calling on the Victorian government to implement GROSS across all the state’s health services. 

“One of the key challenges perhaps we face in healthcare is the culture that we tend to just work our way through it, making sure our patients get high quality care,” she said on the show. 

“How do we empower clinicians to call out these inefficiencies or low value processes early? 

“How does an intern who’s filling in the same form 13 times for the same patient point out to the right people this is a waste of my time and energy? 

Time for change

“I think our senior leaders play a crucial role in setting the time for change because when the leaders are actively supporting something like getting rid of stupid stuff then doctors feel empowered to report the inefficiencies that they see without fear of backlash from the system and from those leaders,” Dr Tomlinson said.

“We need our leaders to be willing to listen, to act quickly and to remove barriers to implementation and we see that growth thrives in an environment of psychological safety. If people feel safe to speak up then we can normalise the act of questioning the existing processes.”