Summary
Six Central West Hospital and Health Service doctors are on the home stretch to become specialist Rural Generalists.
Central West Health Acting Executive Director of Medical Services Dr John Douyere said doctors Mikala Dales, Sarah Jones, Michael Pitt, Keegan Coomer, Anna Nott and Matthew Riggs had passed the final major exam on the path to becoming Rural Generalists.
Six Central West Hospital and Health Service doctors are on the home stretch to become specialist Rural Generalists.
Central West Health Executive Director of Medical Services Dr John Douyere said doctors Mikala Dales, Sarah Jones, Michael Pitt, Keegan Coomer, Anna Nott and Matthew Riggs had passed the final major exam on the path to becoming Rural Generalists.
“This is the final hurdle to achieving Fellowship of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) and is a highly stressful and gruelling undertaking that assesses the doctor’s ability to manage patients independently in a rural and remote context,’’ Dr Douyere said.
“They all have some minor final training assessments to complete which should be finished by January, when they will be eligible to receive their Fellowship.
“This is the culmination of 10-12 years education and training for these doctors and indicates their status as fully qualified specialist Rural Generalists.’’
Dr Douyere said Central West Health had long been regarded as a high-quality location for medical education and training.
“That all six of our doctors passed their final major Fellowship exam at their first attempt was a significant achievement, and I congratulate them all,’’ he said.
“This instance of universal success by our doctors indicates the quality of training, experience and support offered, and the hard work put in individually and as a team to prepare for the assessment.’’
One of the six Fellowship candidates, Dr Mikala Dales, has been a Senior Medical Officer at Blackall Hospital since February 2024 and has a strong interest in rural medicine.
She was born and raised on a cattle property 120 km west of Dalby and, over the past few years, has also worked on her father's breeder block northwest of Longreach where she has her own herd of 100 cows and calves.
She graduated from James Cook University in 2019 and has an Advanced Skill in Internal Medicine.
Dr Dales said she was acutely aware of the challenges and triumphs of rural medicine.
“Being rural born and raised, I always knew that I wanted to work in rural medicine, and it’s always been a dream of mine to specialist as a Rural Generalist,’’ Dr Dales said.
Longreach Hospital Dr Michael Pitt also came to medicine due to a strong rural background.
He was charged by a bull 11 years ago while mustering cattle on a property near Springsure that he was managing.
Initially reluctant to do so, he was subsequently convinced by wife Katie to go to hospital for a check-up.
While scans showed no lasting damage, the incident rattled him enough to rethink a dream he'd had since childhood — becoming a doctor.
“My whole reason for getting into medicine was to be a Rural Generalist. The tipping point was getting to the hospital and seeing the care that I received,’’ he said.
“I had heard about rural generalism on the radio before I’d even applied to study medicine and I thought, ‘that sounds like exactly what I want to do’.
“I still have that exact same goal as when I started.
“As a Rural Generalist we’re not just there to be the doctor and go home.
“People in rural communities really appreciate the rural doctor because they are the jack of all trades.
“Patients can come into the hospital with a broken arm but then be able to come and see you in the GP clinic, so it’s a whole of life medicine, really.
“It’s being able to do a bit of everything. You can fix real issues that are affecting people here and now, delivering antenatal care right through to end of life care and everything in between.
“That’s what drew me to rural generalism in the first place.”