Today I worked for money for a living at the PHC (Primary Health Centre) doing General Practice. There are two things of note (well, maybe more than 2, but 2 is all I'm going to mention now) about this. One is how I've been trained in General Practice in inner city UK, and still what I learnt is applicable here far far away from anywhere, and still what I do here feels familiar. (I am acutely aware, though, that I don't know enough about Torres Straight Islander culture and how this influences health - I'm learning from my patients - "Do you speak creole?" one asked me today - "No. Do you speak any Islander languages?" "No".) There is a need for generalists, and if ever you find anyone speaking about being "just a GP" have a wry giggle and point out the error of their ways - in partiular all the good evidence that good quality primary health is essential for a functioning health service.
My second eye opener, though, is having to hand write all my medical notes, my request forms and my prescriptions. It has slowed me down tremendously, which has the knock on effect of making my handwriting worse. (If you're wondering, they do handwriting classes at medical school, to make it look more and more unreadable. It's just before the class on how to swear a hippocratic oath.)
I've been teaching the more junior doctors today on Chronic Disease Management (Wentwest readers would recognise the session!) and part of the message is how much easier computers can make chronic disease management (if used properly by all the team...) while I'm busy dusting off my quill and ink bottle.
Showing posts with label Aboriginal Health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aboriginal Health. Show all posts
Friday, November 10, 2006
Friday, September 22, 2006
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health
Do you intend to retire? I do, one day. Not yet, though. When I get to about 60, which is probably about the same as most people reading this. And we expect one of those nice lives full of leisure - you know, golf, travel, nice red wines, all of that.
Except if you're an Aboriginal Australian. If you're a man, you're life expectancy is 20 years less than mine. You can expect to live until you're about 56. Not much retirement there then. Imagine that being you, and your friends. No retirement, not much fun with the grandchildren.
In health there are measurements made to measure the health of a whole population which reliably reflect how healthy that population is. These are thing like life expectancy, mortality at a given age, the infant death rate. These are all higher for Aboriginal Australians - similar in fact to the developing world. Imagine the number of times you have to go to a child's funeral and multiply that by four. Imagine the number of days off to go to funerals.
Both within countries and across the world, populations with the biggest health needs have the least access. And working in Aboriginal health you can make a difference to people and communities. Why wouldn't you want to do that?
Except if you're an Aboriginal Australian. If you're a man, you're life expectancy is 20 years less than mine. You can expect to live until you're about 56. Not much retirement there then. Imagine that being you, and your friends. No retirement, not much fun with the grandchildren.
In health there are measurements made to measure the health of a whole population which reliably reflect how healthy that population is. These are thing like life expectancy, mortality at a given age, the infant death rate. These are all higher for Aboriginal Australians - similar in fact to the developing world. Imagine the number of times you have to go to a child's funeral and multiply that by four. Imagine the number of days off to go to funerals.
Both within countries and across the world, populations with the biggest health needs have the least access. And working in Aboriginal health you can make a difference to people and communities. Why wouldn't you want to do that?
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