Sir, I wish to draw your attention to the rural GP shortage ... Whilst there is more than one cause for this, an important factor is the burden of after hours care causing sleep deprivation, exhaustion and burn out.
In the many smaller rural hospitals unable to distribute this after hours burden amongst several GPs, I believe that it would be possible to implement a system with a remote "1st on-call" doctor/GP able to manage most after hours problems. There would still need to be a local GP available as "2nd on-call" for circumstances unable to be managed remotely, but the overall reduction in after hours calls and sleep deprivation to rural GPs would be of great benefit to themselves and the safety of their patients. The technology is now available to implement this concept, but there are hurdles to overcome: 1) The rural hospital should use _electronic health records_ which can be accessed remotely using _virtual private networking_ - rural hospitals would need this to be set up by IT techies, and nursing and medical staff would need some training to adapt to the new computerised medical record system. 2) There would need to be a "panel" of suitably trained/experienced doctors to be remotely on-call for these smaller rural hospitals. Theoretically it would be possible for all rural hospitals throughout Australia to be covered from 10pm to 8am by remote on-call doctors working shifts in W.A. from 8pm to 2am and then an eastern state from 4am to 10am. This is the concept for which I have no vested interest other than a wish to help rural GPs and their patients. Hoping the idea is of interest. Yours respectfully, Dr John Mackenzie (Monash 1974) Westernport Medical Centre 4 Mornington-Tyabb Rd, Tyabb 3913. - past Chairman MPDGP - past secretary AMA Peninsula subdivision _______________________________________________ Gpcg_talk mailing list [email protected] http://ozdocit.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gpcg_talk
