The closing months of 2025 and the beginning of 2026 have seen RANZCOG intensify advocacy efforts in a range of spaces across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, including workforce, training, private practice reform, and more.

Before addressing these developments, I start my report with an acknowledgement of the allegations raised regarding a gynaecologist. I grieve for the women affected by this case who have experienced harm and had their trust eroded. I thank my colleagues who have bravely spoken up. My thoughts are with the women, families, and clinicians impacted. As this is an evolving situation, I direct you to the College’s statement on the RANZCOG website for more information.

While we respond to the serious concerns raised by the investigation, the regular work of the College must continue.

This work has included the College making pre-budget submissions to the Australian Commonwealth Government seeking ongoing and new funding for initiatives including OGET, maintenance of the Australian Living Evidence Guideline: Endometriosis, birth trauma education, sexual and reproductive health, and a gendered review of the MBS. If successful, funding will enable RANZCOG to continue delivering impact in these critical areas, in alignment with strategic priorities.

This article will further detail some of these priorities, outlining key areas of focus for 2026. As I look at the year ahead, I am invigorated by the passion and dedication of our members and trainees, and I am optimistic that we will continue to better outcomes for women’s health across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

Private Practice

As reported in the previous edition of O&G Magazine, RANZCOG convened its second Private Practice Roundtable in November 2025 in Naarm/ Melbourne, bringing together a diverse coalition of stakeholders united by a common purpose: ensuring the sustainability of private maternity services in Australia.

The themes emerging from the roundtable discussions were clear and urgent. Women seeking private maternity care face substantial and often opaque costs, driven by a combination of private health insurance premiums and insufficient Medicare Benefits Scheme (MBS) rebates that result in significant out-of-pocket expenses.

The roundtable also highlighted promising collaborative care models emerging at local levels. These innovative arrangements, bringing together private obstetricians, midwives, and other health professionals, demonstrate what can be achieved when practitioners adapt their working methods to better serve their patient cohorts while controlling costs.

The roundtable’s deliberations yielded six interconnected solutions, forming the core of RANZCOG’s advocacy priorities for the May 2026 Australian federal budget. The College has tabled its roundtable report at the Private CEO Forum and submitted its pre-budget proposals. The submission called for targeted investments in the areas identified through the roundtable process, with particular emphasis on eliminating gender bias in Medicare rebates and the Extended Medicare Safety Net (EMSN).

Thank you to the members and consumers who participated in the roundtable and continue to advocate. Your expertise and dedication are essential to advancing this critical work.

Private practice is also a key advocacy priority in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Private O&G Committee has had two meetings since its establishment in late 2025 and has analysed survey findings on private practice, which gave a clear indication of support from the Aotearoa membership for RANZCOG advocacy in this space. This comes at a time when New Zealand’s main medical insurer, Southern Cross, is changing the way it contracts surgical gynaecology, with contracts via hospitals and based on a set of surgical procedure codes. 

RANZCOG has been advocating in support of Aotearoa New Zealand members working in private practice, with recommendations around:

• How complexity will be taken into consideration.
• How procedures outside the code set will be funded.
• How multiple procedures in the same surgery will be managed.
• How the approach provides for surgical assistants, dual operating, and multidisciplinary operating, when required to support safe surgery and training or proctoring of surgeons.

The Private O&G Committee is developing a workplan for the 14th Council term, which will include continuing to advocate for access to training experience in private practice, looking at barriers to private obstetric services, and creating professional development resources.

The freedom to choose how and where to give birth is not a luxury – it is a fundamental right that our healthcare systems should protect and preserve. In maternity care, the balance between public and private services is especially important, as women have diverse needs and preferences that cannot be met through a one-size-fits-all approach.

Funding of Obstetric Ultrasound in Aotearoa

Funding of obstetric ultrasounds in Aotearoa New Zealand and the impact of co-payments on access to care has been a significant concern for RANZCOG and its members over many years and has impacts on the implementation of clinical guidelines. Late last year, RANZCOG was notified that the largest obstetric ultrasound provider in Aotearoa, RHCNZ Medical Imaging Group, planned a significant increase to USS co-payments from 19 January 2026. In partnership with the New Zealand College of Midwives, RANZCOG wrote to the Minister of Health, emphasising the need for immediate and shorter-term solutions while longer term work is undertaken, and subsequently met to further discuss solutions. Work in this space is ongoing, and the College will provide updates as developments arise.

Workforce

Advocacy remains ongoing for workforce sustainability, training, and retention in both Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

A key focus in New Zealand is the potential to expand current training sites, including expansion of the rural generalist model. RANZCOG has been engaging Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand (HNZ) to discuss workforce analytics and forecasting, and advocate for investment in O&G workforce, with job sized staffing funded to safe service levels.

Subspeciality services, particularly gynaecological oncology services, remain highly impacted. RANZCOG is working on implementing a pathway for assessing SIMG gynae oncologists for subspecialty certification. SIMG gynae oncologists can already register and work as consultants in Aotearoa, however subspecialty certification will enable them to be professionally recognised and play a more significant role in training. An assessment pathway for subspecialty certification concurrent with medical registration assessment has been developed and is going through RANZCOG’s internal approval process. The College is also advocating for broader system issues to be addressed, including attracting and retaining subspecialists in the Aotearoa health system.

In Australia, expansion of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Education and Training (OGET) project continues. The two latest OGET sub-hubs were launched in August 2025 in Tasmania: one in Launceston and one in Burnie. The first workshop was held at St Helens Hospital in November 2025, led by Dr Jessica Phillips and Midwife Chelsea Rose, focusing on preterm labour in a rural location and postpartum haemorrhage.

The workshop drew an outstanding attendance, and feedback from attendees highlighted the positive value of the project. Additional Tasmanian sessions were held in December 2025 at St Helens, King Island, and Scottsdale, and we look forward to further OGET workshops across the country in 2026.

Birth Trauma Education

In November 2025, RANZCOG partnered with Birth Trauma Australia (BTA) to launch the Birth Trauma Education Project (BTEP), a response to the recommendations from the NSW Parliament’s Select Committee on Birth Trauma Inquiry and ongoing collaboration with the Australian Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. The BTEP pilot training program took place in November and December 2025, with both onsite and virtual workshops. The program included practitioner and patient perspectives on providing trauma-informed care, addressing the key causes of birth trauma and identifying opportunities for change.

Discussions are underway in Aotearoa New Zealand to build on this project – the College is working with Birth Trauma Aotearoa, the New Zealand College of Midwives, and other key stakeholders to research experiences of birth trauma in Aotearoa which will inform the development of an education program specific to Aotearoa New Zealand.

Finally, in Aotearoa New Zealand, RANZCOG has been awarded a contract with Te Whatu Ora HNZ for a Pacific Network Specialty Pilot, which builds on the work of growing the future Pacific O&G workforce in Aotearoa. As part of the contract, the workshop “Cultural Competence when working with Pacific people in O&G” has been developed and will be held alongside the Aotearoa ASM 2026.

As you read through this edition of O&G Magazine, I encourage you to reflect on how you can contribute to our collective efforts. The women we serve deserve nothing less than our full commitment to securing a sustainable, equitable, and patient-centred healthcare system.

You can read the President’s Blog on the RANZCOG website for further updates from me on the College’s advocacy work throughout the year. I am eager to continue our collaboration and efforts in delivering the highest quality of O&G care throughout 2026.