When I was at high school I was thinking about doing Medicine & a few of my friend’s laughed at me,
so I end up doing Medicine
which I'm very happy I did.
I was a doctor that wanted to do everything
and found that if I did a specialty I would be probably bored,
so the rural generalist pathway really appealed to me.
I spent a lot of time doing rural placements,
these experiences were all really positive and beneficial and made me kind of commit to the rural generalist pathway,
it’s really set me up well that
that I feel like I could work anywhere in Australia.
It did take me some time to figure out exactly what I wanted to do,
so I tried a few different things so I decided I wanted to do general practice.
I finally fell like I found what I'm meant to be doing.
Training in a regional centre like Townsville has a lot of advantages,
there's a lot of different practices that you can potentially train in
and there's a diversity of skills that you can learn in those training posts.
You do get to see really interesting medicine that is flown out from even more rural areas so it is sort of like a hub for northern Queensland,
so even though you are still rural you still see really complex disease.
Looking even more broadly in our region, I mean it’s not just about Townsville
you’ve got some fantastic regions such as Ayr & Ingham,
Charters Towers where perhaps the diversity of practices even greater.
All experience as a doctor makes you a better doctor
and if you can get that experience in one place where you are seeing all aspects of life.
It’ll be a really good basis for your training.
We’ve also got some fantastic Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander health training posts right here in town,
there’s also Palm Island, which is just a very short flight away.
You do a skin check on someone and you take them through their melanoma journey,
and then you’re doing their skin checks 3-6 months later after you’ve cleared them of a cancer
so I think it’s that continuation in actually seeing someone as a whole.
That has been one of my favourite things about GP, you know if you’re not sure about what’s going on you get to send people home and call them up
a couple of days later and you work things through together and you develop this sort of therapeutic connection with your patients and I really love that.
We have multiple Trauma's here within this community,
dealing with that and getting good outcomes with patients and the families
and seeing the joy that they get from the fact we've been able to save a loved one
and to be able to be involved in someone’s life that closely, you know
it brings it home to heart that this is where I want to be.
When I was doing my primary care time in Community in GP, I had a patient who every appointment he came to, he would bring me a mud crab or two for me,
I can’t think of anywhere else that would happen.
My reef boat tends to be my little sanctuary,
I don’t get phone calls from work, my wife.
We love working the strand together, just love being outdoors exploring tropical Queensland that people travel the world to see.
Magnetic Island has got amazing trails, you can get this sort of vista along the beach
you can grab a cappacino at any of the little bays along the way.
Theres lots to do from the fishing, the camping, theres a bit of hiking around,
the beach is only 15 minutes away, you can take the dog down, throw the frisby around and have a great time.
Drop off the kids, came to work, have half an hour spare so went for a run up the hill
and I got to the top and it was sort of looking out over the city past castle hill,
out to Magnetic Island there and thought this was the most beautiful place in the world.
Throughout the year multiple people driving past the highway, they see a cane fire, they pull off and watch one
so always impresses anyone who is in the burdekin,
you know it's the local fireworks for this region.