Dr Abby Harwood

My first experience with 'ruralism' was when I was around 10 years old and my family moved to a mining town in Irian Jaya (Western New Guinea). The town doctor was an Australian GP who managed everything – literally everything. The closest hospital was a one-hour helicopter flight and then a three-hour flight away.

Fast forward to fifth year medicine in university, I took the opportunity to spend half of my General Medicine rotation in Bunbury, in the first pilot project that eventually led to the Rural Clinical School. And loved it. Then in final year, we all did a rural GP rotation which I, once again, thoroughly enjoyed.

I applied for the Rural Training Scheme of the GP training program in my intern year, to commence in PGY 2. My intern and PGY 2 years were spent at Royal Perth Hospital and rural/outer metro hospitals. I completed 11 months of ED in those two years and went on to do my Dip Obs and did over 200 deliveries in that 6-month term. I headed off to Karratha-Dampier for my first GP term and ended up staying there for 15 months before training to go to Kenya for work. During PGY 5 I did 6 months of advanced skills in Paediatrics at the now Perth Children’s Hospital and 6 months of advanced skills in Emergency Medicine at Fremantle Hospital. Subsequently, I finished my training in PGY 6 at Derby Regional Hospital where, as a District Medical Officer, I shared the on-call roster for ED, Paeds, Obs and RFDS retrievals.

Being a rural generalist provides variety and an experience like no other in your professional career! 

Photo: Dr Abby Harwood