Mudgee, Day 1 - Welcome to Mudgee

You know that the school of life is out to teach you a lesson or two when you discover, just 10 minutes before it's due to leave, that the train that was supposed to take you to your rural town for your placement has been cancelled... And you find yourself stranded at Central Station with an excessive amount of heavy luggage... And your pride won't allow you to call your parents to ask if they can please rescue you... And it's dusk... And cold... Oh, and did I mention that your destination is about 5 (public transport) hours away?

You realise however, that you have indeed learnt life-skills over the years and that you are more resourceful than you imagined, when - one train and two bus rides later - you manage to still make it there before midnight.

And so began my first John Flynn rural placement...

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So where am I exactly? I'm in Mudgee, a town in central New South Wales, about 260km north-west of Sydney. Mudgee has a population of ~ 9000 people and the district is famous for its fine wine (oh the irony of a strict non-drinker being sent to such a place!); gourmet food; and fresh rural produce including cattle, sheep, wheat, olives, fruit, tomatoes, corn, honey and dairy products.

I'm staying at this gorgeous hotel in the "city centre" called the Cobb & Co Court Boutique Hotel, which is deliciously cosy and comfortable. The town itself is very quaint and organised, with typical country town qualities that I could definitely get used to: no traffic (and therefore no traffic lights!), wider roads, close proximity of destinations, no apartment blocks or high-rise buildings, kitsch cafes and quirky little shops. Each house is neatly set on half-acre block of land, with a well-trimmed garden and a white-picket fence: think Lego-land.












My mentor (Dr P) is a GP who, as with most rural GPs, also has training in obstetrics/gyn. Along with a team of five other doctors (as well as nursing and allied health workers), he works at one of the the local medical practices and the district hospital. Originally a Sydney-sider, he moved to Mudgee about 5 years ago for the greater opportunities that rural practice offers GPs to diversify and undertake procedural work.

I started the day by joining Dr P on his quick morning round at the hospital. The doctors at the medical practice have a rotating 24 hour "cas" (ie, casualty department or ED) roster at the hospital - and, of course, whomever they admit while on duty becomes their patient for the duration of the patient's hospital stay. Dr P saw the three patients whom he had admitted the previous day; before we scooted off to the medical practice for his consultations. Because Mudgee is such a small place, it's going to be very hard for me to write about what I saw without disclosing potentially-traceable private information :-| I think I can safely write though that the casemix of patients were very different to what I'd seen on my Inner Sydney GP placements last year. Whereas "tears and smears" were the dominant presentations in the latter; a lot of today's consultations were more acute and serious (some even requiring immediate hospital transfers and admissions). Prac-wise, I was asked to do various examinations and then report back to him; a task that I found concurrently challenging and extremely useful. These opportunities present rare moments where I feel like I may have actually learnt something in the last one and a half years. But I still have such a long way to go, and not just in terms of medical knowledge. Case in point: my mentor is the epitome of the compassionate and considerate listener; he is very giving of himself and, rather than rolling his eyes at those patients who (it seems to me) just come in for a chat or to complain about something trivial, he treats everyone like their's is the most important case to him in the world. I could definitely take a leaf from his book.

Anyway, tonight Dr P is on-call (from home) for all obstetric cases at the hospital and, because I took up his offer to contact me and pick me up on his way to hospital if anything comes up, I'm sort of "on-call" too . He's expecting one birth this week, but he thinks she may hold out till tomorrow. Personally, I have secret hopes for him to get called in tonight (I keep checking my phone every two minutes and am even considering wearing my scrubs to bed :-P)... we'll see.

I'll leave you with some photos of where I'm staying and the surrounding area: