The fascinating story of Katherine’s Dr Tarun Patel is being used to encourage others to increase their training.
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The Wurli Wurlinjang Aboriginal Health Service medico is urging doctors who wish to become GPs to sign up to the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine.
ACRRM is one of only two colleges accredited to offer GP training on behalf of the Australian Government’s Australian General Practice Training Program.
“Being a doctor in rural and remote Australia is an extremely rewarding career” ACRRM president, Associate Professor Ruth Stewart, said.
“The variety of clinical work is immensely interesting, and the close connection to your local healthcare team — and your community and patients — is very fulfilling.”
Dr Patel is one of the registrars involved in professional development in procedural skills like Anaesthetics, Obstetrics, Surgery and Emergency Medicine, to non-procedural skills like Mental Health, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, Paediatrics, Internal Medicine, Palliative Medicine and Public Health.
For Dr Tarun Patel, Australia's 'Top End' is a long way from Auckland, New Zealand — where he spent much of his childhood at his parents' grocery store in the bustling suburb of Mt Eden.
Yet training as a GP in the Northern Territory has brought him much closer to realising his own inner strength.
It has driven him to try things out of his comfort zone — including recent GP training placements in remote Australia.
Last year, Tarun was working as a GP Registrar at Nhulunbuy in the NT's remote Arnhem Land. Now he is based at Katherine with the Wurli Wurlinjang Aboriginal Health Service.
He is undertaking GP training through the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM), which will lead to Fellowship of ACRRM (a 'FACRRM') — one of only two specialist General Practice qualifications in Australia.
Prior to going north, he undertook clinical training placements in metropolitan and coastal NSW, completing rotations in everything from Intensive Care to Psychiatry.
"I have really enjoyed my rural medical training" he says.
"There is a wonderful sense of community in the bush, and I have been given hands-on training opportunities I would not otherwise have had.
"You're not just a cog in a machine, you know all the hospital and practice staff, and people tend to look out for you a bit more.
"All in all, I've been a lot happier in my rural placements compared with my time training in the city hospitals."
Tarun chose to undertake GP training in the Northern Territory not only because it seemed to be "the most adventurous option", but also for the scope of training it could provide.
"I wanted to be a doctor who was multi-skilled and resourceful in challenging environments" he says.
"I felt it would be good to stretch myself and see whether I could cope in a place that was difficult."
While the first six months at Nhulunbuy were a steep learning curve, Tarun found he had more resilience than he'd expected.
"I had been anxious about working in such a different environment, and feared I would be working relatively unsupported — but I actually had a fantastic group of colleagues who were really competent doctors and inspiring mentors.
"You quickly learn what you should attempt yourself, and when to call for help — and the nice thing about training in a rural setting is that your colleagues are always generous with their time and support."
A critical situation at the local hospital one Saturday morning demonstrated to Tarun that he could rise to the challenges of remote medical work.
"A staff member — one of the ward nurses and a friend — suffered a spontaneous collapsed lung, and I was the only doctor working in the Emergency Department at the time. Going through the initial management of that was very challenging, but it ended up being a good educational experience for me."
He adds that his work this year in Katherine is "brilliant".
"Wurli Wurlinjang runs a very popular medical service — my colleagues and I might see 50 or more patients on a busy day.
"In the second half of my year in Katherine, I'll also be working part-time at the hospital. After that, I'm hoping to do additional training in Paediatrics and perhaps also Internal Medicine."
The three hour drive to Darwin and its international airport also meant that, over Easter, Tarun could get back to New Zealand to see his family.
Another recent patient presentation at Wurli Wurlinjang gave Tarun increased confidence in his ability.
"A mother came in with her daughter, who seemed unusually restless and couldn't sit still. As I sat there chatting to mum, it clicked with me as to what might be wrong.
"There's a condition called 'chorea' which I'd heard about at medical school but had never actually seen. It's a feature of rheumatic fever where the body attacks the heart and part of the brain.
"The only reason I picked up on it was because I'd seen this little girl before, without those symptoms. In any other situation I would probably have just thought she was full of beans! I was very glad we referred her to hospital, because rheumatic fever can have life-long complications."
In wanting to increase his knowledge, Tarun fell back on an expression he'd once heard that seemed apt for his situation.
"I thought 'If you are going to be a bear, be a grizzly'. I knew I was going rural and remote, and I wanted to be able to practise Medicine more widely, including in developing countries — so I figured 'Why not do the most relevant training?'
"I got the sense that ACRRM was a bit more focused on acute and critical care, and that it would equip me with a broader set of skills.”
In Katherine, Tarun is a regular attendee at the town's gym and pool, and he and other local health staff occasionally go for a Sunday morning run to the iconic Katherine Gorge.
"That's a nice thing about living and working here — you end up spending social time with more senior colleagues, specialists and those from other health disciplines" he says.
"It doesn't seem to happen so much in the city, but you all become really good friends in these smaller places."