Helping Kids in the Cape
It’s 7am on Thursday Island. Dr Richard Heazlewood and his small team of specialists prepare for clinic. Among them – Tropical Medical Training (TMT) GP Registrar Aileen Underhill. In the third of her four-years with TMT, Aileen is loving her time with the paediatric outreach program.
“Back in the ’80s Dr Heazlewood saw that there was a need for kids all over the Atherton Tablelands, around Cape York and into the Torres Strait to have access to a doctor with a specialist interest in children’s health, so he set up the outreach program,” Aileen says. Based in Cairns and run through Cairns Base Hospital, the program has given Aileen the opportunity to explore her interest in paediatrics and learn on-the-job.
“I’ve learnt so much from my supervisor, Dr Heazlewood.” Aileen says. “He trained as a GP before sub-specialising in paediatrics. It’s been fantastic having him here to consult. I get to see my own patients and do my own thing but he’s here to go to for a second opinion. It’s also been great seeing many of the kids we treat more than once. We’ve been able to build relationships and they learn to trust you.”
It’s 2pm on Thursday Island. The team has attended to 25 children and now make their way to the Horn Island ferry. Then it’s a charter plane back to Cairns. At this stage Aileen isn’t sure if she wants to specialise in paediatrics, but she is sure that becoming a GP in a rural area is her next step. “Even growing up I had such good experiences with my own GP, I was inspired to study medicine,” Aileen recalls. “But I was also interested in teaching, so I took a job at a boarding school. When I enjoyed doing the first-aid more than the teaching, I realised medicine was my calling.”
Aileen started her six-year undergraduate course in the first cohort of medical students at James Cook University in Townsville in 2000. She completed the first four years in Townsville and the last two clinical years at Cairns Base Hospital, where she stayed on for her internship. Having already decided she wanted to be a rural GP, Aileen joined the TMT program in 2007.
“Going to work in General Practice by yourself, with your own patients, is completely different from working in a hospital, where you work as a team and you have someone supervising you most of the time,” Aileen says. “TMT offers you support and education about everything from explaining how Medicare works all the way through to clinical diagnosis.”
“They coordinate our training and make sure we fulfil all of the criteria to become a GP. And I’m not talking about just passing the exams, it’s about making sure you’re going to be a good GP because you’ve had the right training.”
As well as doing their medical practice, the GP Registrars come together regularly for workshops and teaching in small groups. “I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to meet others who are doing the same training as me,” says Aileen. “It’s important networking not only with the teachers but also with the other registrars. They’re your future colleagues.”
For other medical graduates considering joining TMT, Aileen has this advice. “Go for it – it’s a unique area up here with an amazing range of places to practise. From the rainforest to the desert out west, all the way up to Thursday Island and down to the Whitsundays, there’s an incredible range of jobs to suit different people.”
