Professor Lena Sanci is the inaugural Chief General Practice Adviser for Victoria and a strong voice in favour of strengthening primary care.
Professor Lena Sanci (MBBS 1988, PhD 2000) has spent more than 30 years working in general practice and she is as passionate about the importance and value of the primary care system now as she was when she started her career.
“For most of the population, primary care is the first point of contact with the healthcare system, and at least 80 per cent of people see a primary care medical service at least once a year. It’s a service that walks through life with a person,” says Professor Sanci, Head of the Department of General Practice and Primary Care at the Melbourne Medical School.
Recognising her experience in general practice and her advocacy for improving primary care, Professor Sanci is the first person to be appointed by the Victorian Department of Health as Chief General Practice Adviser.
The role was introduced by the government to strengthen the department’s engagement with general practice. It also aims to improve connections between primary care and other health services by providing advice on primary care policy and programs, and by facilitating collaborative practice and system improvements.
“The appointment is about moving towards an integrated and less fragmented healthcare system at a policy and practical level,” says Professor Sanci. “My goal is around strengthening the role of primary care in our health system. The integration of services across primary, secondary and tertiary care is essential if we want more efficient care, less low-value care, safer care and better patient experiences.”
Professor Sanci is also keen to help ensure that the future primary care workforce is prepared for an ever-evolving and dynamic working environment.
We are going to need practitioners who are highly trained and good generalists who know a lot about many different things. As part of that, I think some workforce training for the future needs to move towards community settings — you can’t learn all you need to learn in a hospital ward she says.
“We also need to look more at interdisciplinary training and we have the Collaborative Practice Centre, where the curriculum for all health students brings them together to learn how to co-manage the many issues that patients present with.
“That is going to better equip our primary care doctors to work in teams and I think that team environment will be attractive to GPs of the future. AI and machine learning are also tools in general practice that doctors will have to learn to work with.”
Professor Sanci still works as a GP, spending half a day a week seeing patients at a Sexual Health Victoria clinic in Melbourne. “It grounds me and it’s what I was trained to do. I enjoy the interaction with patients and it keeps me in touch with the issues they face when they seek medical care,” she says.
Away from the office, Professor Sanci says, “I don’t have much time to entertain but I try to catch up with good friends and family for coffee, lunch or dinner on weekends — social connection is important to me.”
Now that her child is 18, she has more time for herself. “I prioritise exercise and enjoy it — I found I was getting more stressed when I felt unfit. I have a weekly personal training session and I do a group circuit for 30 minutes on a Saturday morning, plus whatever I can do in between on my own — especially being outside in nature and walking with our kelpie!”
Her advice to the next generation of doctors? “Be proud of and enjoy your profession… I am biased but I think we need more GPs engaged in the academic work of advancing the profession through quality teaching, leading or participating in research, and advocacy.
I hope general practice as a speciality discipline within medicine is highly valued and seen as a vital and important career choice because it’s where most of the care happens.