Beyond the Black Stump: A NSW Road Trip...

Sorry dear readers about the lack of posts last month, but I have been kept busy with some different activities around Dubbo...

Last week I took a road trip with a colleague around western NSW with the purpose of visiting the new hospital at Tamworth ahead of its opening next month. This was to get ideas and advice, as we are now planing the construction of a new hospital at Dubbo, including a $150M emergency department. Over the next few months I will be visiting other recently opened or about to open emergency departments to help plan the layout etc of our new one. I also took the oppurtunity to stop at some of the smaller hospitals and health services in our catchment area to meet the GPs there and look at their facilities. On the map above we started at Dubbo, 7 O'clock on the red ring, and travelled counter clockwise around it. We first stopped at Dunedoo and met the staff there and looked around their hospital before travelling through to Coolah to look around the hospital there. We stopped for lunch their and then headed northwest past the black stump...

Most people in Australasia will be aware of the colloquialism "beyond the black stump" which means someone lives in the middle of nowhere. This is the site of the original black stump outside Coolah which gave rise to the saying.

We traveled on past hundreds of kilometers of varying countryside, which was nice as I had formed the impression that most of the greater NSW area was barren red dirt, but a lot of it is arable farmland with a mixture of grazing stock...

We arrived in Tamworth by nightfall, and then met the staff at the emergency department the next morning, where we discussed several issues facing healthcare in our areas before taking a tour of their new department. I can remember taking the walk-through of the new department at Waikato before it opened. It is very odd to walk through a space so empty and still which you know will never be that way again once it opens. Here are a few pictures...

Above and below: Views of the nurses and doctors stations in the main acute areas.

Below: The treatment cubicles in the acute areas.

After our tour we set off for home, travelling from Tamowrth at the top of the loop left towards Gunnedah, then through Coonabarabran and Gilgandra before making it home again at night fall...

We did encounter a few minor obstacles on the way - it is never comfortable rounding a bend to find cattle strolling across the road...

So May was a fairly busy month, punctuated by some different tasks rather than the daily grind on the ED floor. Having experiences like this and opportunities to be involved in creating a new department and taking on more leadership roles really makes the job worthwhile as it is something which most people don't get to do as early on in their career, so it makes one feel a valued part of the team. In the coming months we are going to visit St George in Sydney, and Wagga. 

Hopefully I will be able to share some pictures of the progress at WBP this month.

What a month...

As I slump into an arm chair and reach for a bottle of chilled water amidst the inferno that is the 40 degree city of Dubbo, I reflect on what a strained month it has been. A month of highs and lows, of days where I've felt energized and dynamic and days when I've felt worn down and tired.

Willoughby's death is still keenly painful, as the reality slowly sinks in. Thank you to all those who sent their kind condolences.

The building project, as almost all large builds do, is spiraling over time and over budget despite a sterling effort on the part of all involved with the project to keep things on track. Several containers of building materials, inc stone, cornicing, domes, and cupolas have taken months longer to arrive than anticipated, as have the windows and kitchen, which means that there has not been a lot that the builders could do without them on site. We are now looking at a shift in date of January/February, opening for business in April; and the chapel is in peril due to budget over-runs.

But it's not been all bad news. I received a promotion at work, to Deputy Director, which had me elated for several days, because it was sure recognition of all the effort I have put in over the last two years.

Tonight I flew back home to NZ, flying close to Willowbrook as we came in to land at Hamilton...

The green makes a nice change from the views out of the plane window leaving Dubbo...

Peter will be coming over to Dubbo this year for Christmas. So he shall get to enjoy the sweltering desert in the height of summer. I shall be back in NZ again for my birthday in January. Hopefully we will be able to celebrate it in the manor. I will share some more pictures of the progress when I get back to Dubbo.

Dubbo Chronicles. No 13...

Well, it's probably time for another Dubbo update, as a lot has happened over the past few months!

At present the NSW forest fires have died down, but they did get close enough to spread a veil of smoke over Dubbo (see the photo above). The temperatures don't show any signs of letting up however, with the past few weeks being in the 30s (90F). It is sure to only get hotter in the months ahead.

Meanwhile I have accepted a promotion at work, to Director of Emergency Medicine Training, with which comes quite a bit more work and will see me staying in Dubbo for at least 3 years. Peter and I talked about it, and it was an offer too good to refuse. The past 9 months have flown by, and we are sure that the next 28 will do the same. I am going to start flying back to NZ more next year – aiming to return every 6 weeks for a long weekend.

With my promotion comes some additional training, so I am off to Melbourne for a couple of days next week which will be nice, and I am also going down to Adelaide later this month for a conference, which I am really looking forward to. Peter is flying over from NZ to meet me there, and we are both hoping to catch up with Ms Millie from The Laurel Hedge.

I've also received my first formal invitation to a party, which luckily is the night before I fly off to Adelaide. ..

The dress code is 'Formal Chic' – luckily I still have some of the clothes that I bought in London with me. There is not a lot of call for black tie in Dubbo – the last time I went to an event in Dubbo I was well over-dressed, but then as Oscar Wilde said...

This year will also be the first Christmas that Peter and I have been apart since we were married, which will be rather odd. It is always my favourite time of year for so many reasons. Still, the plan is for me to work this Christmas in Dubbo, so that I can have next Christmas to return to NZ, where Peter and I can celebrate our first Christmas in WBP, surrounded by our extended family and friends.

The Cat's out of the Bag...

Well, I guess it's time to let the cat out of the bag and say that I am leaving NZ and Willowbrook behind...

Now that I have my fellowship, I am off to greener pastures (in all reality, probably browner pastures) and crossing over to Millie's side of the ditch to work in Australia for a year.

This is in part because I think it will be a great experience working in a rural environment (having worked in the same tertiary hospital for the last 10 years; and with construction on Willowbrook looking like it will start in the next 3 months, I have chosen to exploit the significant pay disparity between Aussi and NZ, for a little while at least.

Above: Dubbo Main Street

I am going to be based in a town called Dubbo, in rural NSW. I am not sure what it is like as a place to live or what leisure options will be open to me, but I am sure I will make a go of it.

Peter is going to stay here and look after the gardens and farm. That will be a little hard on both of us, but we are agreed that this is a sensible thing to do, and I know that every opportunity has an expiry date.

Dubbo is famous for its Zoo...

and its rodeos and cowboys...

Beyond that I am not sure what to expect. It will be a busy job I'm sure, as Dubbo Base Hospital, where I will be working, has 24 ''feeder hospitals'' and services a catchment population of 300,000 people.

Never fear dear readers -with Peter's photographic help and the marvels of the interweb I will continue to blog about Willowbrook et cetera whilst over there.

Ad Victorem Spolias...

 

I am very please to announce that I passed my specialist exams and can now turn my full attention once again to Willowbrook; to getting the gardens back in order, getting the building underway, and blogging all the while. Please drop by this weekend to take a peek at the new look blog. Til then I leave you with some triumphal imagery fitting my current state of elation.

The Triumphs of Caesar (below) are a series of nine large paintings by the Italian renaissance painter Andrea Mantegna. They were painted between 1486 and 1505 for the Ducal Palace, Mantua. They depict the triumphal military procession of Julius Caesar celebrating his victory in the Gallic Wars...

Felicitous News...

... Well, almost! I received news from the college that I have passed the written component of my fellowship exam. It was quite a surprise, as I had had a vague sense of unease that the news would be disappointing. However, it was not - so onwards and upwards. The clinicals are in Melbourne in 47 days (oh of course I'm counting). So [almost] every spare minute of the next 6 weeks will be spent honing my examination, diagnostic and therapeutic skills ready to give it my best shot.

BTW - Big shout out to Millie. Congrats on your next big step. Familiar territories yet new challenges!

20 Days til the Big Day...

I had my 'mock exam' yesterday - an 8 hour practice for the real thing in just under 3 weeks. My head at the moment feels like the blackboard above - over stuffed and disorganised. I know I've read everything, but trying to recall every detail that must be included is so difficult. The more I put in the more that falls out the other end!

I wouldn't say that yesterday was a wake up call, but I am redoubling my efforts in this sprint towards the finish line. I am also conscious of the fact that having shared my endeavours with you, my dear readers, that there will be a sense of embarrassment and shame should I fail!

So, no more blogging until after 15 February. However, I do have quite a few lovely posts to share afterwards.

À la prochaine fois,

David.

Study Blues....

Today marks my first day in part-time employment! I am stepping down from my full-time work at the hospital after 10 years, to work half time (from 60 to 30 hours/week). I have my last professional exams in February (FACEM) and I have been studying for them for the last year, but in these last few months the pressure is really on.

I have dedicated myself more to them for the past 3 months. Somedays, as I look around the house it looks like a scene from Grey Gardens: my usually pedantic, borderline OCD, house-proud standards relaxing a bit as I sink into a quagmire of textbooks and paper...

Time does evaporate. Willowbrook Park has consumed any spare time I have had over the last 2 years. When I look back through the blog, there are posts about things which I had forgotten had happened. I can't remember what happened last year, let alone 10 years ago. Med school seems a distant memory. It is hard to believe that this November will be my 10th anniversary of qualifying as a Doctor, my 7th year of training as an Emergency and Trauma Specialist, and the 5th anniversary of my Ordination as a Priest in the Anglican Chruch.

I am looking forward to putting the study behind me next year, and getting back to a life on the land, taking up all the interests I have been putting off (fencing, learning the cello, equine eventing and social hunts, throwing pottery, reading all the leisure books that people have given me over the past year or so, and perhaps blogging a bit more (or at least blogging without feeling guilty (hard to know whether it will be as fun without the guilt!). We have also decided to postpone the start of building the Manor until after my exams (as Peter knows there would be no way I could leave the project to run itself and concentrate on exams when there was something far more exciting to do).

So, over the next 6 months there may be a few less posts at Willowbrook, but I'll still be following all your blogs when I have some spare, guilt-free time!