With decades of working at Singleton Hospital between them doctors Richard Marshall and Tuan Au want the community to know their hospital is a great place to work and is staffed by highly trained people.
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The two rural generalists/obstetricians are now the among the 'senior' doctors who run their own general practices as well as providing on-call services at the hospital.
This week they along with eight other local doctors gathered in the sensory garden in the hospital grounds to chat about their work at the hospital and some of the difficulties found throughout rural and regional NSW in attracting and retaining doctors.
First up the doctors wanted to talk about the Singleton Argus story (May 3, 2021) regarding four GPs resigning from the hospital due to a number issues including excessive hours and increased workloads due in part to more patients coming from a major housing development at Huntlee.
While agreeing that juggling the work hours of a GP can at times be challenging especially when you are on-call, the group said despite that challenge the wide ranging variety of work they did was the reason they chose first to become doctors and second work in a regional/rural town.
"We have a much broader scope in our practices and you can really use your skills and in our communities," said Dr Marshall.
Dr Au said the doctors were united and helped each other out when required to provide the best possible outcome for their patients.
Singleton Hospital is able to call on four GP/ anaesthetists, Dr Au said .
"We love our work at the hospital, this hospital has great nurses who are highly skilled and I think the community needs to know we are all still working at the hospital," he said.
Among the next generation is Leah Byrne who like the other two doctors is a GP/obstetrician and has worked in Singleton for three years.
The mother of two children said it was a real juggling act with work and family but it was part and parcel of being a GP.
On the other issue of attracting and retaining doctors willing to be on-call at the hospital Dr Marshall said they group was always willing to work on finding a solution to that issue.
"We have found those doctors who originally came from rural areas or who work in Singleton as registrars are more likely to consider working in regional and rural areas. We have two former registrars working at the hospital now so that suggests that maybe one way to solve the problem," he said.
"There definitely needs to be some future planning put into this and we all need to work together to find lasting solutions."
Visiting Singleton on Monday Deputy Premier John Barilaro said in his own electorate the one doctor in Bombala, on the far south coast, is retiring and trying to fill that position for the town's 900 residents is a priority but a huge challenge.
Admitting finding long lasting solutions to medical services in the bush, especially with our international borders closed, will require a great deal of work.
"It is not only the doctors themselves but their partners and families have to be keen on working in rural and regional areas," he said.
"There are many hurdles and it involves everyone - state and federal governments, the medical profession and their training facilities and communities themselves to find solutions."
The Parliamentary Inquiry into Health Outcomes and Access to Health and Hospital Services in Rural, Regional and Remote NSW held its fourth hearing in Wellington this week.
Warrumbungle Shire Council Deputy Mayor Anniello Iannuzzi, who is also a General Practitioner and Visiting Medical Officer, told the inquiry that hospitals in the shire regularly run out of basic medicine and have no regular supplies of blood. Dr Iannuzzi told Labor inquiry committee member Walt Secord that doctors are forced to 'make do' or 'cut corners' and that the quality of hospital equipment being used to treat patients isn't what it should be.