Over the past months I’ve been keeping all our stakeholders informed on what we are doing as an organisation to strengthen our rural communities in this time of great change. You may be aware that RWAV is focusing its resources in the core areas of recruitment and retention.

Another change is our renewed focus on the recruitment of Australian Trained Doctors (Registrars) and International Medical Graduate Hospital Doctors.  Also, we will provide more focused support to recruited doctors in their first 12 months in practice.  RWAV recruited doctors will soon have access to Orientation and Relocation services that will help with our doctors’ transition from one practice to another.  The new services will commence in the coming months.

The axiom, “The only thing constant in life is change” is certainly true.  Although change takes us out of our comfort zone it is vital that we adapt to our changing environment and work together to do things better.

Claire Austin
RWAV Chief Executive

Our future health practitioners called for professional development opportunities to encourage equality between rurally trained health professionals and their urban counterparts.

The multidisciplinary team theme was very evident.  Today’s students ‘get it’ - they are taught multidisciplinary teamwork and they think, feel and act it.

National Rural Health Students’ Network Co-Chairs and medical students Fiona Langelaan and Luke Smith said, “Chronic workforce shortages do not apply to medical professionals alone. Young doctors don’t want to consider working in rural and remote communities unless they have the support of strong primary health care teams and visiting specialists. The students are overwhelmingly calling for all health disciplines to be given similar incentives so rural and remote health workforce shortages can be addressed in a more holistic manner.”

Also on hand to answer questions was Maryanne Daquila, RACGP Manager, Assessment Services and Amy Jaspers, Manager, Education Evaluation.

Peter Lee Medical Workforce Consultant, North East Victorian Division of General Practice reflected on the day.

“It was a very useful meeting. The opportunity to present and discuss ‘coalface’ problems with the RACGP, MPBV and the AMC was a rare and invaluable opportunity.”

Do you practice procedural medicine in RRMAs 2 – 7?  Do you practice emergency medicine in RRMAs 3 – 7?  If you answered yes to either of these questions then you may be eligible for up to $20,000 per financial year to maintain or upgrade your skills.

The ‘Training for Rural & Remote Procedural GPs’ program is part of the Commonwealth Government’s Strengthening Medicare package and is administered by Australian College for Rural and Remote Medicine (ACCRM).

To find out more about the program contact ACRRM’s TRRPGP Team or phone (freecall) 1800 223 226.

Proceeds from these books have been donated to the Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund and have contributed nearly $80,000.00 from the sale of the first two books, ‘Red Alert’ and ‘Of Fires and Flooding Plains’. 

Ian Needham producer and printer of the books talks about the latest edition.

“After much thought we have published a third book, ‘ Gippsland’s Four Fires’, that records the events of January and February this year.

“We publish the book with a great deal of sensitivity because of the toll of the various events. However the reality is that the money raised last time provided some well-needed support for people affected by the fires”, Ian said.

The money raised allows the Gippsland Emergency Relief to provide funds for different types of emergencies. The latest book includes photos provided by a range of people that deliberately avoid any personal images. The book is available from LV Printers (reception@lvprinters.com) for $20, including postage, handling and GST.