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@ElsevierAUS
I went there I was so excited. It was the
first placement I was doing in a real
rural Indigenous community and I was
excited to see all the different health
challenges that they face and the way
that I was able to make a difference.
However, when I got there I had a real,
‘oh my goodness, am I still in Australia?’
moment. It was like I’d landed in a third
world country, it was just heart wrenching.
It was so sad to see people who are
Australians not having access to
health care, not having the types of
services that urban Australians have,
and just being so far out of the way.
So, yes it was a two hour flight away
but there were hardly any fruits and
vegetables on the island. The ability
to have a nice house on the island,
the ability to have clothes and shoes
that were appropriate for the weather,
all of those things were just lacking.
It really opened up my eyes to, oh yes,
we really do have a gap and we have this
Close the Gap campaign and it’s there
for a reason, but we really need to be
working on it a lot more than what we are.
We can keep saying that we’re working
to close the gap, but we really do need
to be working to Close the Gap because
it’s just not happening at the moment.
So that was a real moment for me and
I think that is, again, the reason I want
to go rural because, not only do lots of
Indigenous populations and communities
not have access to health services,
there’s also lots of farming and mining
communities that also don’t have access.
So, it goes across the board that we
need more doctors off the east coast of
Australia to go west and if I can be just
one of those GPs that does that, then
at least I’ll have made some difference.
