4 March 2024

Something in the Ayr

For General Practice (GP) Registrar, Dr Ashleigh Attard, there is no place like home.  After receiving hands-on GP training and experience practising in regional and remote clinics across Northern Queensland, Dr Attard returned home to complete her final GP practice placement in Ayr.  Ashleigh said, the decision to move home to service the community was an easy one.  “I thought it would be nice to come back and work at home, in a community that I'm familiar with,” she said. “I wanted to give back to the community where I've lived my whole life and all my family still lives here. It was an easy decision to make.”  During the 18-month placement at Outback Family Medicine, Ashleigh received support, supervision and training from her cousin, an experienced GP working at the practice.  “I had that family connection to the workplace already and it was a great environment to do my training in,” she said. “My cousin was a great mentor. The practice has really great patients and staff.”  Working as a GP Registrar in a rural community, Dr Attard gained a wide scope of practice providing continuity of care to patients with diverse clinical presentations.  “I see a lot of patients across the spectrum from young to old,” she said. “I look after the Home Hill Nursing Home and I have a lot of patients that I go to visit once a week.  “I have lots of antenatal, and I'm involved in the antenatal care of some of my friends from school who are having babies.  “You really get immersed in the community, and you will know so much more about your patients, and you feel like you really are making a difference in people’s lives definitely more so in a rural town.” 

29 February 2024

Bridging the gap

After witnessing the negative impacts that the transience of General Practitioners (GP) had on the Mackay community, Dr Kate Bialy wanted to bridge the primary care gap.  In 2019, Dr Bialy fellowed from GP training and began working at a clinic in Mackay.              “My husband and I wanted to go where we could be of the most help, and we noticed there was high transience and turnover of people in the medical sphere here,” she said. “When it comes to continuity of care in medicine high turnover creates a huge gap.  “I started working at Health on Central in Mackay essentially as soon as I fellowed from GP Training.”  Five years later, Kate continues to make a positive impact on the health outcomes of her patients at Health on Central.  Dr Bialy said, providing primary healthcare services to the Mackay community is extremely rewarding.        “Being able to practise as a GP is a lifelong dream of mine,” Kate said. “Working as a GP in a regional town is extremely rewarding; seeing my patient’s health improve is the biggest highlight.”  “If you are keen to make a difference in a big way to a small community, it’s very easy to do that in regional medicine.” 

27 February 2024

Adventure Calls in Tropical Island Paradise

Enticed by a tropical adventure, Dr Joshua Baker travelled almost 5,000 kilometres across Australia to seek out the rural medicine experience in Far North Queensland. Reality more than met his expectations and prompted a permanent switch from the Outback to the Tropics.  “It always was a plan to head to Cairns in the year following internship back home in Western Australia,” Dr Baker says. “The whole ‘Rainforest meets the reef’ lifestyle really appealed to me. I wanted to spend some time up here and I guess I just haven’t left!” Dr Baker says.  While completing his junior doctor years at Cairns Hospital, Dr Baker got a glimpse of the general practice scene in the Cape and Torres region and was immediately drawn to it.  “When I saw GPs there, I thought they had the best job in the world. You’re getting to do a diverse range of clinical work in the emergency department in the hospital and out in remote clinics. These guys are at the forefront of primary care.” 

23 February 2024

A warm welcome to Orthopaedics in the Tropics

23 February 2024

Going the distance

22 February 2024

An abundance of opportunity in regional Northern Queensland