As he prepares to hand over the reins, Professor Peter McCluskey looks back on the work of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists (RANZCO) during his term as President.
When I took on the RANZCO presidency at our 2024 Congress in Adelaide, I knew the two years ahead would be busy. I had little idea that so many government reviews, consultation submissions, and so many airport lounges would be involved.
But behind the travel and the paperwork sits work that genuinely matters, and I want to use this column to look back before we look forward to RANZCO’s 57th Congress.
Getting the Workforce Right
The single issue that has occupied more of my time than any other is the distribution of ophthalmologists across Australia and New Zealand. It is a maldistribution, with too many of us concentrated in major cities and too few in regional, rural, and remote communities. Alongside this sits the question of how internationally trained specialists are assessed and integrated into our workforce fairly and safely.
We have watched closely how the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) and the Medical Board of Australia have redesigned the specialist pathway for internationally qualified doctors, noting that while many changes are valid and necessary, they do not address the fundamental problem of maldistribution. As yet, these changes have not been imposed on ophthalmology.
None of this is simple. Every change must balance patient safety, professional standards, and the genuine urgency of getting more eye care to more people. I am proud of how thoughtfully our fellows have engaged with this, even when the answers are not straightforward.
None of this is simple. Every change must balance patient safety, professional standards, and the genuine urgency of getting more eye care to more people.
Education Remains Our Core Business
Whatever else changes around us, training the next generation of ophthalmologists is why RANZCO exists. I believe that RANZCO produces the best trained ophthalmologists in the world.
It is easy to think of education purely in terms of trainees, but a well-trained trainee depends on a well-supported trainer, so we have put real effort into building the skills of our supervisors and clinical tutors, not just our registrars.
The Standardised Supervisor Training System (SSTS) has been groundbreaking in bringing together a consortium of colleges for a shared purpose. These short, practical training modules for supervisors focus on the fundamentals of medical education, from giving effective feedback to assessing performance fairly. Led by RANZCO, this is a testament to what can be achieved via collaboration.
Over the past two years, we have kept enhancing our continuing professional development ecosystem and support, and we have relied on our branches and special interest groups to deliver locally relevant learning.
This work rarely makes headlines, but it is the quiet engine room of everything else we do.
A Congress That Keeps Growing
Congress is where all of this comes together, and it has been genuinely heartening to see attendance and engagement grow year on year, from Adelaide to Melbourne and now to our 57th Congress in Auckland from 6–9 November. This is also where I will hand over the presidency and my airport lounge feedback to Dr Diana Conrad. I could not ask for a better incoming RANZCO President, and a better final chapter than a Congress hosted, for the first time in some years, on New Zealand soil.
Congress is where all of this comes together, and it has been genuinely heartening to see attendance and engagement grow year on year
A Shared Endeavour
None of this work happens in isolation. Great eye care depends on ophthalmologists, optometrists, orthoptists, nurses, and general practitioners working as a genuine team, and on patients trusting that team. As my term draws to a close, my thanks go to every part of that collaborative effort, not just the fellows wearing the RANZCO badge.
For information on RANZCO’s 57th Congress, visit: ranzco2026.com.
Professor Peter McCluskey AO is the President of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists.
