OUR DOCTORS IN BORROLOOLA
IWGP DOCTORS ARE SOMETIMES IN THE BUSH!!
The initiative is a collaboration between Inner West General Practice and the NT Department of Health, it is the first of its kind to be trialled in Australia.
When Dr. Dianne Chambers first arrived in the Northern Territory’s Gulf region she was a little daunted by what she found. But just one week on and she was relishing the challenge of working with a remote community in a region with limited access to GPs and health services. Dr. Chambers is the first of 13 Sydney GPs each spending one month a year working in Borroloola, as part of a programme to give the community access to medical care. Dr. Chambers, who helped develop the program, hoped it would encourage more metropolitan doctors to play a desperately-needed role in remote regional healthcare.
News from DR. LINDA MANN August, 2009
Swine Flu in the NT
As you read this on your computer in Sydney, you may like to know that the same problems about the flu have affected the people who live in the towns and settlements in the Northern Territory, that are visited by doctors from IWGP.
Dr Linda Mann is in Borroloola just now, having some medical responsibilities for Robinson River and Kiana.
Our IWGP doctors fly to these places by small (4 seater) chartered plane. Once there, they are able to use the Top End wide computer system to record medical records, and provide medical resources for the Remote Area Nurses who work full time in these areas.
Mobile vaccination clinic
The swine flu has been through this part of the NT, and there are pictures of masked nurses and patients in the waiting area at Robinson.
This did not stop a big contingent attending the Rodeo.
Borroloola has just hosted the annual Rodeo, with people from all over the Gulf country coming to compete in activities that most city folk have never seen, like bull dogging (riding alongside a bull, jumping off your horse to force the bull to the ground. We saw only one success in a series of 8!) and rough riding, and various very impressive forms of roping cattle. There were families of white and aboriginal people sitting in shade under the trees, or shade structures ( often a tarpaulin stretched from the car to a pole), all enjoying a happy time, with kids dressed in boots and big hats, and grandmothers petting the little ones. The music at night was, well, loud, and people certainly had a drink- but the competitions started up each day at 7 am, in the fog that characterises the weather here now in the early morning,with competitors hard at it.
This area suffers from intermittent medical workforce supply, both doctors and nurses.The physical resources are also stretched.And yet, good work happens here, with improvements in the standard of health in many areas as time goes by.The doctors from IWGP are happy to be part of this trend.
Like more informaton? Check these hot links-
http://www.bushtel.nt.gov.au/northern_territory/region2/shire_id11/community_display?comm_num=722
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/02/1994630.htm?section=australia)
DR. LINDA MANN – In Borroloola 2007
I am the third of the doctors from IWGP supporting medical care in the remote town of Borroloola in Northern Territory 1000km SE of Darwin. The nearest X-ray is Katherine, 700 km away). We add to the excellent work being done by the Remote Area Nurses and the intermittent visits of the District Medical Officers (also doctors). I saw patients there: only about 10 or 12 a day, but for as long as an hour, sorting out their very complex medical needs, and trying to access as much help as possible in a resource poor environment, I got to undertake emergency medicine and even obstetrics: but what counted most was the very same skills I use in Sydney, namely knowledge, listening, analysis, planning and following up details to help people with everyday problems. I also managed to see the countryside, both working (see picture) and not. I went deep sea fishing and took home 14 fish (amazing how good freshly caught fish smell), walking, helicopter travelling and took lots of photos. So when some of us are away for a period of time, we may be working with the good folk in the Territory. Linda
