The lack of health professionals in rural and remote communities is leaving some Australians without access to much needed, immediate care.
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In Katherine and the surrounding communities there is a chronic shortage of physiotherapists, Blue Sky Therapies founder Michael Kokinos said, leaving some people with long-standing chronic illnesses untreated.
Swapping out the comforts of city life, physiotherapists Steph Ikonomidis and Enad Samain, have been working where demand is highest.
From Alice Springs to Narrabri in NSW, the couple have been exposed to a multitude of diverse challenges, which only come from working remote.
Now, they are in Katherine to widen the scope of accessibility to outlying communities in the region.
"Everywhere we have worked we have seen the struggle for physios," Ms Ikonomidis said.
"People seem to be drawn to cities because there is a fear there isn't support or there is nothing to do (in remote areas), but it is quite the opposite, there is a beauty to being here."
Our friends think we are crazy, but working remote is so eye opening.
- Physiotherapist, Steph Ikonomidis
The couple will be stepping up to take on the the long running physio clinic, Blue Sky Therapies, which began in 2005.
Servicing both the town, and communities through the NDIS, the couple are working towards a healthier, more mobile Katherine.
"Part of our mission is to go out to communities where they don't see health professionals like physios on a regular basis," Mr Samain said.
"The health stats in Katherine are not that great, there are lots of different issues affecting people, and we wanted to go to a place that desperately needed health promotion.
"Physio isn't the answer to everything, it's one tool in the health system to help people improve their life."
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Both equally passionate about health and helping people, the pair are looking forward to the challenge of working in a small town with diverse needs.
"When you are in a remote area it is a challenge, it is not like you're in a major city where you have other specialists and services to turn to," Ms Ikonomidis said.
"Sometimes it can be frustrating because you don't always have everything at your finger tips, but that spurs on a level of creative thinking for strategies to help a person.
"For me that rise to the challenge is exciting."
Katherine has long struggled in the battle to entice and retain working professionals.
Highly transient, organisations and the NT Government have tried every trick in the book, from offering generous salaries, subsidised accommodation and professional development.
Heather Keighley, the executive manager of workforce and outreach for the Northern Territory Primary Health Network said there are two main barriers to recruiting health professionals to the NT.
"[It is] mainly due to our small population and the capacity to grow our own, and the fact that many school leavers in the NT go interstate for their university courses," she said.
"Most allied health courses aren't fully available in the NT, again due to our numbers and demand, and there is a lack of experienced and stable workforce for long-term mentoring and support especially in the regional and remote centres."
The Rural Workforce Agency NT, a branch within the NT PHN, provides recruitment, retention, and education support to the primary health care workforce in the Northern Territory.
"NT PHN has been working closely with Blue Sky Therapies to help fill a staffing shortage, with two new physiotherapists recruited by NT PHN starting this week at Blue Sky Therapies," Ms Keighley said.
"We're delighted to have been able to source these two highly-qualified health professionals to service the Katherine community."
The NT PHN's Rural Workforce Agency NT branch is also addressing health workforce shortages and maldistribution of labour in regional, rural and remote Australia through its Primary Health Care Workforce Strategy.
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