Episode 95. Remote and Rural Medicine with Dr Etienne Cawood

About 7 million Australians, around 28% of our population, live in rural and remote areas encompassing many diverse locations and communities that in some instances have poor access to the medical services we may take for granted in metropolitan centres. Higher rates of hospitalisations, deaths and injury are reported from remote and rural areas and statistics show that remote and very remote areas experience a greater burden of disease and injury compared to major city populations (about 1.4 times). The practice of medicine in such communities requires a higher level of medical literacy.

On average, people living in remote and very remote areas are younger than those in major cities and 18% of people living in remote and 47% in very remote areas are indigenous (aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people) compared to 1.7% in major cities. Health risk factors such as smoking overweight and obesity, diet, high blood pressure, alcohol consumption and physical activity are just some of the factors influencing health outcomes.

The Doctors, nurses, paramedics and hospital staff working at remote locations must be capable of dealing with a wide range of medical, surgical, obstetric, paediatric and psychiatric conditions that may present as emergencies. Where support help such as tertiary transfer may be hours or days away it takes a special team to come together to manage such difficulties. It was a great pleasure to interview Etienne Cawood who has spent the majority of his medical career working in rural and remote locations throughout the length and breadth of Australia and we him great debt gratitude for his services.

References:

Etienne Cawood :ejcawood@gmail.com

Rural and remote health. aihw.gov.au

Australian College of rural and remote medicine. mycollege.acrrm.org.au

www.jcu.edu.au

To be a guest on the show or provide some feedback, I’d love to hear from you: manager@gihealth.com.au

Dr Luke Crantock MBBS, FRACP, is a gastroenterologist in practice for over 25 years. He is the founder of The Centre for GI Health, based in Melbourne Australia and is passionate about educating General Practitioners and patients on disease prevention and how to manage and improve their digestive health.