Katherine Hospital SRMO Term
Starting in 2023 SVH will offer the unique opportunity for our SRMOs to rotate to the Northern Territory for a term in Katherine Hospital.
Katherine Hospital (KH) is a rural hospital offering medical services to a region the size of Victoria. KH has 60 beds, 3 wards (medical, paediatric/post-op, O&G) and a medical day stay unit.
The town of Katherine, 316 km by road from Darwin, is the regional centre with other small townships, 21 Aboriginal communities and many pastoral stations spread across the region. The RAAF Base (Tindal, 15 km from Katherine), is a military air base and civil aviation airfield for Katherine. The region’s population of 21,000 includes 48% Aboriginal people from many different language groups. The region contains some of the Northern Territories most remote communities, and correspondingly the most socioeconomically disadvantaged population, shown to have the poorest health status, and highest mortality and hospitalisation rates in Australia.
Katherine Hospital (KH) is a rural hospital offering medical services to a region the size of Victoria. KH has 60 beds, 3 wards (medical, paediatric/post-op, O&G) and a medical day stay unit.
Important health issues in the region (up to 5 times more prevalent than Australian average) include renal disease, alcohol-related morbidity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease (including rheumatic heart disease) and chronic lung disease. Overcrowded housing, limited public infrastructure and food insecurity are common in remote communities and make controlling infectious diseases difficult.
Primary health care services in the region are predominantly provided through Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services. Katherine West Health Board and Sunrise Health Service have health centres in remote communities west and east of Katherine respectively. Wurli Wurlinjang is the Katherine Aboriginal Health Service and there are 2 General Practices that see the predominance of non-indigenous patients. Neither of these practices bulk bill.
A privately managed renal dialysis unit provides renal dialysis for 64 patients in Katherine and surrounding communities.
The JMO Term
SVH rotations will be based upon the HETI (NSW) term dates. You will predominantly be based in the ED, with the option of exploring time with rural generalists in GP obstetrics, GP anaesthetists and community outreach clinics.
Paid protected teaching time for 2 hours each week on Wednesdays and 1 hour on Friday mornings.
Supervision will be by ED Seniors made up of Senior Rural Generalists with critical care subspecialties and FACEMs. The main Term Supervisor is the Acting Director of Emergency Dr Aruna Shivam (ex-SVH ED registrar), though Dr Kerrie Jones will return to her role as Director shortly and Dr Shivam will continue as a FACEM working between KH and the Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH).
The Important Details:
Currently the Katherine term is only available to PGY3+ JMOs, however we are working with HETI to see if we can get the term accredited for our PGY2 JMOs.
- You will be paid on the KH payroll with NT award pay which has a different (more attractive) salary scale to NSW
- Flights will be reimbursed by the hospital
- Accommodation is provided
- Relocation of your car is offered
- You can take up to 2 weeks of leave during your term and they would encourage you to do so to make the most of your time in the NT.
The term is accredited through PMAS which is the accreditation body (HETI equivalent) for the NT. The term is also accredited for ACRRM and GP special skills training with the required number of paediatric presentations in their regular demographic. Supervision can also be offered for the ACEM EM Certificate/Diploma.
Interested?
Send an email outlining why you would like to be considered for the term to: Jessica.green@svha.org.au