John Kramer, a GP in Woolgoolga, north of Coffs Harbour, was one of Kevin Rudd’s 1,000 ‘best and brightest’ asked to participate in the recent 2020 Summit in Canberra. He attended as part of “Towards the Future of Rural Industry and Communities” stream and he has published an article in Australian Doctor about his experience. You need to be a registered GP to access the Australian Doctor website and see the whole article, so after contacting John and Australian Doctor to get permission, I’ve excerpted some of the article. John writes:
“The Rural Group learnt a new phrase that seemed to resonate with most. ‘Easy Entry, Gracious Exit’ is the term coined by NSW Rural Doctors Network CEO Dr Ian Cameron, another 2020 summiteer, to describe the process by which a pre-determined entity, such as a division of general practice or local government, takes responsibility for all aspects of practice management. This frees the GP to see patients and attend to related duties. The doctor has no need to locate premises, hire or fire staff, do BAS statements, etc…. This could well become the model of general practice in most parts of rural and remote Australia.
“Another issue I felt obliged to highlight was the parlous state of the Pacific Highwayon the NSW north coast. I travel on it daily and pass an ever increasing number of crosses marking the sites of fatal accidents. Only two weeks ago two semi-trailers collided between Coffs Harbour and Woolgoolga and one driver was killed. Such accidents are regular events. At the current rate it will take until 2020 or longer to achieve the required divided dual carriageway and town bypasses from Newcastle to Tweed Heads. How many more people will die or be seriously injured remains to be seen.
”....We were all asked to deliver our ‘big idea’ in our
groups. This was difficult because most of us had several big ideas. In the end
I drew on my own clinical frustrations of trying to help families of children
with significant learning and behavioural disorders. These are the children with
ADHD, autism, dyslexia, oppositional defiant disorder and so forth — perhaps 10%
of all children in Australia.
“I advocated
for a comprehensive assessment of learning and behaviour in the year before
starting school in addition to the current assessments of hearing, vision and
dentition. To me it makes much more sense to identify these children before they
enter the school system, in order to provide the necessary interventions to
ameliorate these conditions….While this is not a purely rural issue, it is even worse
in the country due to the lack of many allied health and specialist services,
not to mention GPs.
”....Despite discussing such major concerns, the mood was one of great optimism. We sensed that the doors of our Federal Government have been thrown open and we are being asked for our advice. One can but hope this situation lasts indefinitely. The proof of the government’s good intentions will be in the results. For the moment we should stay engaged and be ready to offer further advice when the realities of government, budgets and competing concerns intrude. Meanwhile it’s a case of ‘watch this space’.”
You can find the full article at http://www.australiandoctor.com.au/articles/b9/0c055eb9.asp
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