A reminder of ‘why we entered this fine profession’

As the healthcare landscape constantly evolves, one GP says it is easy to lose sight of the fundamental purpose of general practice.
 
With advances in medicine, diagnostics and technology, GPs need to embrace change, work smarter and adapt to disruptors.

But according to Dr Justin Coleman, who is presenting at the upcoming RACGP GP25 conference, the essential ingredients remain.
 
‘What made general practice such a profound force for good in the first place [was] tens of thousands of worker bees doing their thing out in the fields to produce the everyday magic of our health system,’ he told newsGP.
 
‘Communities with more GPs – well trained and well supported – do better than communities with more hospitals or wellness gurus.
 
‘Behind that consultation room door lies the most effective 15 minutes our health system has to offer. Few outside our profession comprehend the alchemy.
 
‘The art of the patient relationship combines with the science of therapeutics and ka-boom – lead turns to gold.’
 
Dr Coleman has worked for more than a decade in rural and remote medicine, from remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory including a stint in the Tiwi Islands, and as a practice owner in Victoria.
 
He was previous Director of Education for Northern Territory General Practice Education, and is now a Senior Medical Educator with the RACGP and GP at Inala Indigenous Health Service in Brisbane, on Turrbal and Jagera Country.
 
At GP25 in November, he will deliver a keynote address on what matters most in rural and remote general practice, how the many systems supporting it have improved over the past decade, and what still needs to be done to ensure a strong future.
 
‘Communication technology, retrieval systems and staff training make it easier for a remote doctor to cope during genuine emergencies,’ he said.
 
‘But I’m not sure the less dramatic medicine – the daily GP stuff of managing chronic illness and preventing complications – has kept pace.’
 
Dr Coleman acknowledges that GPs ‘adventurous enough to go bush’ are exposed to a wider range of healthcare unique to rural.
 
And while he says they are attracted to the better supported and subsidised environment of towns with a small hospital where they can ‘ply their hard-earned’ obstetrics, anaesthetics or emergency skills, he believes it can leave rural communities with less ‘solid GP’ work.
 
‘That repeated endeavour, more than emergency management, is what keeps communities alive and healthy,’ he said.
 
Dr Coleman’s kids joined him and his partner in the first two NT communities they lived in, which ‘grounded them beautifully’, as well as providing the family with an entry point into the community outside the clinic.
 
Their third stint – three years as doctor and school principal – was after the kids left home.
 
Working as part of a remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community extended him both as a doctor and outside the role, and to this day, he has never been bored.
 
‘It is endlessly fascinating,’ he said.
 
‘The learning curve begins steep – my entire GP training was 500 km from the nearest registrar. After 24 years in the game the curve flattens, but every week still produces a new character or a situation I haven’t faced before.
 
‘Health and wellness are more complex concepts than I ever understood while I was training.’
 
‘Some days you’re just nurturing someone through desperate life circumstances, unable to make a dint in health against stacked odds. But you chip away, which helps them chip away, and before you know it they have more energy and can focus on the things that really matter to them, like caring for family.’
 
Looking forward to GP25, Dr Coleman says the event will serve as ‘a gathering point’ for ideas, enthusiasm and replenishment.
 
‘A place to recharge and reconnect, reminding us why we entered this fine profession in the first place,’ he said.
 
‘Of the thousand things on offer at GP25, [attendees can] collect a handful of medical pearls, a warm memory of someone you knew years ago, and a surprising idea about a new medical skill from a random conversation in the lunch queue.
 
‘You will return to work nourished: a better clinician with a refreshed perspective on the difference you can make to people’s lives.’
 
GP25 takes place in Brisbane, on Turrbal and Jagera Country, from 14–16 November. Early bird registrations close on Monday 27 October at 11.59 pm. More information about registration, pre-conference workshops and the full program are available on the GP25 website.
 
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health GP25 GP–patient relationship rural general practice