Emergency skills workshop for rural GPs

"Bendigo Health hosts emergency skills workshop for regional doctors"

The emergency skills workshop focused on CPR for children.

More than 50 doctors from around the Loddon Mallee region focused on their paediatric CPR and regional anaesthesia techniques at an Bendigo Health emergency skills workshop on Saturday.

The workshop provides practical training to help improve emergency care in rural areas.

Bendigo Health Emergency Department deputy director Simon Smith said having access to the training was important for rural doctors.

"This program gives us the ability to work with multiple doctors at one time with the idea that they can use these skills to look after patients in specific site or get them to a larger site like Bendigo," he said.

"We've recently opened a dedicated paediatric hub at the hospital, so providing rural GPs with better paediatric skills will benefit the patient before they're admitted here."

Regional anaesthesia will enable GPs to provide more effective pain relief for regional patients, or those being transported to regional centres.

"Often patient in regional areas need a transfer when they have a significant illness," Dr Smith said.

"Rather than opioids medication, there are safer methods to get patients in a more comfortable state to get them to a Bendigo emergency department."

The workshop provides practical training to help improve emergency care in rural areas.

Castlemaine GP Emily Girdwood said the training was a great opportunity to spend time with Bendigo specialists.

"This training ensures our skills are up to date and facilitating the relations with Bendigo (practioners) helps," she said.

Dr Girdwood said Castlemaine's population is growing meaning more paediatric and elderly patients.

"Castlemaine's immunisation rate is relatively low, so we are more children who are unwell," she said.

"The other extreme is that we have a lot more people retiring to Castlemaine. So we need to ensure our management of unwell older patients is up to date."