What drove you to become a Rural GP?

My decision to become a Rural GP was a practical one made during my time at medical school. I have always wanted to work in Africa. When I considered about what kind of doctor would be most useful in a rural setting in Africa, I settled on rural General Practice. An interventional cardiologist without a cath lab is not that helpful in a remote setting, however a Rural GP has the skills for the setting. 

Why did you choose to train with ACRRM?

ACRRM is the college which best fits rural and remote GP training.

You recently acquired your DRANZCOG Advanced. What made you want to become an obstetrician?

Originally, I wanted to choose GP Surgery but given the complexities and lack of pathway in Western Australia I decided to build my surgical skill through caesarean sections, so I decided to obtain my DRANZCOG Advanced. As I did my obstetrics training I grew to love it. 

What does a typical workday look like for you?

I work in between my GP clinic and the hospital, doing obstetrics. In the clinic I see general practice patients and antenatal patients for antenatal clinic. If my patients are sent to hospital, if, say, the baby’s not moving or they are in labour, I’ll go up to the hospital to see them and rearrange my GP patients to suit. If labour continues into the night, I will follow my patients through. I also provide on call services for obstetrics and gynaecology to the hospital after hours.

You mentioned you would like to practise in Africa. What is driving you to that?

I’ve wanted to work in Africa since I was 12 years old. It’s why I became a doctor to start with and that goal has stayed with me since then. 

What part of country life do you enjoy the most?

It’s the simple things I like about living in the country. I like driving less than five minutes to get to work. I enjoy that in general people are more friendly in the country; they’re less stressed so you’re less stressed. You’re also close to the bush so you can get out of town easily if you want.

What is the most challenging part of being a Rural GP?

There’s a lack of public specialist clinics in Geraldton. That often leads to, as a GP, having to provide more technically difficult consults and services to patients who wouldn’t be able to access them otherwise. It certainly challenges you in terms of how much you need to be knowledgeable on versus if you lived in the city and had easy access to specialists.

What has been your best day working as a GP?

I’m not sure if I have a ‘best day’. I enjoy my work quite a lot, so every day feels like my ‘best day’. I particularly enjoy the ‘bit of this, bit of that’ in rural practice and obstetrics and delivering babies is a privilege. 

Do you have any advice for aspiring GPs?

I think GP is a very privileged specialty to be in as you get access to, and build relationships with, patients that no other doctor does. With that comes the ability to really have make impact in someone’s life and play an important role in the community. Although there are some downsides, like being looked down on by other specialties at times and being overlooked in public policy such as with some of the COVID vaccine decisions and with the challenges of Medicare. To improve this, I think as GPs we need to stand together more unified than we currently are and push for policy decisions that will be good for general practice which will ultimately benefit the whole community.