Senior Surgeons

The Senior Surgeons Section aims to:

• Apply senior surgeons’ significant depth of knowledge about surgical performance, professionalism and patient safety to all areas of RACS activity including education, training, surgical standards and global health.
• Provide leadership and support for RACS strategies which promote systems and culture within surgery supporting diversity and inclusion, greater equity and safer workplaces.
• Encourage RACS initiatives which promote a shared responsibility for the physical, mental, emotional, social and occupational wellbeing of surgeons.
• Encourage and promote the senior surgeon’s commitment to lifelong learning and professional development in both technical and non-technical RACS competencies, including leadership and management, health advocacy, and scholarship and teaching.
• Advocate on behalf of senior surgeons by being actively involved in RACS discussions, policy positions and government submissions related to senior surgeons and issues of ageing, performance and transition to retirement.
• Provide senior surgeons, including those who are retired, semi-retired or contemplating retirement, with planning resources about retirement, addressing physical, financial, and psychological implications.

• Senior Surgeons program at theAnnual Scientific Congress (ASC)
• The Senior Surgeons Webinar Series

Senior Surgeons Webinar Series

The Senior Surgeons Section has initiated a webinar series whereby senior Fellows can be informed, educated, inspired and entertained in a collegiate environment by invited speakers presenting a variety of topics.

In the inaugural webinar of the RACS Senior Surgeons Webinar series, Dr Bob Klaber, a paediatrician and hospital executive director in London, UK, will argue the importance of kindness as the starting point for health systems of the future.

Kindness is critically important in our everyday work as surgeons.  It is a key cornerstone of all the RACS’ Professional Competence and Performance categories and thereby underpins the safety and excellence of surgical care. Kindness also plays an important part in maintaining the health and wellbeing of our surgical workforce. The positive impact of kindness on the delivery of clinical care has been highlighted by both government and college initiatives.

You can view a recording of this seminar below. 

Further information about the event. (PDF 95.61KB)

The Section is governed by a Committee as per the Sections Terms of Reference (PDF 177.86KB) reporting to the RACS Fellowship Services Committee.

Committee Chair - Anne Kolbe FRACS

Call for nominations now open 

The term of the current Senior Surgeons Section committee comes to an end in May 2023. RACS seeks nominations from Section members to join the committee taking office from May 2023. 

Nominate for the committee online. Nominations are welcome from all Fellows, Trainees and SIMGs on a pathway to Fellowship, and we encourage nominations from diverse groups. 

The nomination period closes at 5.00pm AEDT, Wednesday 07 December 2022. 

Senior Surgeons Section Secretariat
Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
250-290 Spring Street
East Melbourne VIC 3002 Australia

Telephone: +61 3 9249 1237
Fax: +61 3 9276 7432
Email: snr.surgeons@surgeons.org