SWAN Hill has rolled out the welcome mat for trainee GPs to give nine junior doctors and medical students a taste of regional living.
With country communities crying out for medical staff, the group was given a lifestyle tour courtesy of Swan Hill Rural City Council earlier this week as they also visited Mallee District Aboriginal Services, Swan Hill District Hospital and the Sea Lake Clinic.
They also experienced the Heartbeat of the Murray sound and light show at the Pioneer Settlement, after the Swan Hill Welcomes Junior Doctors dinner at Spoons Riverside.
The visit aimed to show future GPs the benefits of rural and regional practice, and the important role of doctors in the regions.
For Swan Hill-raised final-year medical student Lachlan Carroll, the visit was a chance to sell the region to the other young doctors and students.
“It’s an opportunity to meet a lot of the community, and it’s a good showcase not only of the medical services here but showing them that it is a good place to start a family, to make a living and get involved in the community.
“Hopefully we can suck them in – but (the other visitors) are open-minded and were already keen to pursue rural positions.
“Swan Hill has a lot to offer – with less traffic, cheaper housing, you can make an impact, making a living and it’s a great place to raise a family.”
Back in the city where Mr Carroll is studying at Monash University, there is more hesitance to come to the country especially among those who grew up in Melbourne.
Nathan Sturgess is breaking that trend, as a Melbourne-raised second-year doctor currently based between Bendigo Health and Swan Hill District Health.
With parents raised in regional Victoria and strong rural placements during his time at the Australian National University, Dr Sturgess was open to country life.
After three months working in the emergency team here in Swan Hill, Dr Sturgess is looking forward to returning soon.
“There’s a great team of doctors and nurses, great supervisors, and I felt comfortable and welcomed very quickly,” Dr Sturgess said.
“I could tell really quickly, because it’s the smallest town I’ve worked in, that having the same patients and the continued care, you can make a real impact working rurally.”
At the Swan Hill Welcomes Junior Doctors, following a moving Welcome to Country from Wamba Wamba Elder Aunty Nellie Flagg, Swan Hill deputy mayor Bill Moar spoke from personal experience about his surgeon son’s journey through training.
Dr Kshitij Thapa, a second-year doctor at Echuca Regional Health spoke of his own journey from his home country of Nepal, and how he made the decision to leave his family in Sydney to work rurally.
He has now bought a house in Echuca, and plans to be there for years to come.
The Victorian Rural Generalist Program (VRGP), its Loddon Mallee network and Swan Hill District Health hosted the two-day experience alongside Swan Hill Rural City Council, MCCC GP Training and North West Training Hub (Monash), thanks to a Loddon Mallee Rural Generalist Training and Capacity Grant from the Victorian Department of Health.
“This tour will allow the participants to get a real feel for the role rural doctors play in their communities as leaders as well as clinicians,” VRGP Loddon Mallee Network chair and Northern District Community Health chief executive Mandy Hutchinson said.
“We hope these trainees will go on to become rural generalists, GPs who’ve also trained in a specialised skill such as obstetrics, anaesthetics, mental health or emergency medicine.
“Rural generalists are able to provide rural communities with medical skill sets that they would otherwise need to travel to access.
“We’ve found that the key to attracting and retaining rural doctors is developing a sense of purpose, meaning and connection to the community in each trainee throughout their training.”
Other participants included second-year doctors Dr Janice Chuah from Echuca Regional Health, Dr Anna Hoy from Mildura Private Hospital and Dr Branka Donevska from Echuca Regional Health, interns Dr Molly Flood from Echuca Regional Health and Dr Georgia Gittins from Bendigo Health and Monash medical student Jess Paynter who is also a local having grown up in Nyah.
Ms Paynter has previously said she was inspired growing up by local health professionals Dr Michael Moynihan and Dr Ernan Hession, the latter having been present at her birth.
Further information about the rural generalist pathway, visit bit.ly/3yz0suX or bit.ly/3DZ5yBV to explore pathways for GPs.
