It’s a typically hot, humid afternoon on remote Thursday Island when Dr Sandi Dawson receives a call-out for a medical emergency that, even by Torres Strait standards, is unusual. In the six years she’s been working here as a Rural Generalist (a GP with specialist training), she’s become accustomed to responding to calls for out-of-the-ordinary medical situations, including, she suspects, some of the highest numbers of coconut and coconut tree related injuries in Australia. This time the patient has been injured by a turtle while hunting.
What follows is a complicated expedition to an outer island via helicopter, boat and dinghy. And then she must do the same trip in reverse with the patient in tow.
Despite the relatively slow pace of life in the community of around 3000 people, Sandi’s workdays are far from quiet. She works across all hospital departments, in her GP rooms and travels to many of the outer islands of the archipelago for fortnightly clinics. She also works part-time as a Retrieval Consultant for LifeFlight in Townsville, and she travels with the Thursday Island retrieval helicopter.
Sandi, 38, is part of a small but dedicated cohort of women doctors working in rural and remote locations across Australia.
The state of healthcare outside our cities is facing a two-pronged dilemma with startling statistics. Studies from the National Rural Health Alliance show that people living in remote areas have a lower life expectancy than citydwellers – 14.1 years lower for males and 12.4 years lower for females. And they
