aussiechica7 said:
whoah
can u tell me a bit about healthcare out there? where's the nearest hospital, how big is it? many GPs? how long is waiting list? where r the nearest specialists, etc.
well to be honest i'm surprised we're in the same category as the remote clinics that are in the same area health service, i would've thought we'd be category 6 (which is what Broome is classed as).
where i'm at (Derby) we have the regional hospital, that status is getting moved to Broome however as Broome gets the tourists, the white fellas and the money. the population in Derby is about 60% Aboriginal, but they probably make up about 90% of hospital presentations/admissions. lots of diabetes here and the sequelae that goes along with it, mostly renal issues.
pretty much i've had to throw all my ideas of what is compatible with life out the window. people walk around with BSLs of 28 and there is a lady in at the moment who was walking/talking/etc with a K around 1.5 for 3 days (she was getting IV K replacement but peeing it out because of ATN after an overdose).
the hospital here has an adult med/surg ward (21 beds + 2 HDU beds), kids ward (8 beds) and maternity (8 beds + level 2/special care nursery). we just moved to a brand new building 3 weeks ago, very flash.
there are 6 GP specialists (anaesthetics, ob/gynae) who staff the hospital and are on call for the ED, plus paediatricians for kids ward. then there are other MOs that work at the Aborginal Health Service in town that does a bit of everything including haemodyalisis.
the MOs at the hospital also visit remote clinics every few weeks.
as for waiting lists, no idea! at the moment there is no permanent surgeon. a locum came in for 2 weeks and we cleared a backlog of general surgical stuff (scopes and cultural circumscisions, mostly). every week there is a visiting specialist surgeon who comes in and does a big list of day cases (eg. eyes, ENT, dental requiring GA, gynae). specialists fly up from Perth.
it's pretty rockin' up here, i really love it. i'm from Sydney and i am so glad i came here rather than stay in Sydney, i'm definitely learning more as there's such variety. there are 3 med students from UWA who are here for the year and they're really glad they came here instead of Broome, they get to see and do heaps more.
