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A remote Australian city that will lose its only doctor offers a generous salary and benefits, including free rent and a car, to attract a new doctor.
Julia Creek, Queensland, a city of 500 residents, offers a salary of up to AU $ 680,000 (£ 330,000) – about double the average salary for a GP in Brisbane, the capital.
However, the idyllic image comes with a catch: Julia Creek’s remote location. The city is a 17 -hour drive from Brisbane and seven hours from the nearest major city, Townsville. The successful candidate must also be prepared for the challenges of the outdoors, including extreme heat and tropical insects.
Despite these challenges, Julia Creek offers a unique opportunity for the right candidate. Dr Adam Louws, the outgoing doctor of the town, emphasized the benefits of a quieter pace of life and the chance to develop a broader range of medical skills.
Louws was recruited from Brisbane in 2022, when Julia Creek drew national headlines for the presentation of a salary of AU $ 500,000.
“My mother -in -law sent me a link to this news release stating,” The work of half a million dollars no one wants, “Louws said. “My first thought when I saw it, and I look at it, where is Julia Creek?”
To lure doctors off the grid
Julia Creek is a fast, romantic part of the Australian Outback with broad open spaces and orange sunsets. Children play sports and ride horses. But it is remote – high school means boarding school in the city and the nearest hospital is almost three hours drive away.
Before dr. Louws arrived in 2022, the city did not have a permanent doctor for 15 years, with a timetable of visiting doctors entering short stay. This is a problem that has upset rural towns in Australia and around the world for decades.
Australia lacks general practitioners of 2500 doctors across the country, according to a 2024 government report, with the shortage of the worst in rural areas and is expected to grow. Attracting doctors to rural Australia is made more difficult by the striking distances between the most remote settlements; The vast country is one of the world’s least densely populated.
In the neighboring New Zealand, 5 million people in a country in the size of the United Kingdom live-the distances between distant towns exacerbated the health differences. In the United States, 65 percent of rural areas had a shortage of doctors in primary care in 2023, official figures showed.
For Janene Fegan, the mayor of McKinlay Shire – which includes Julia Creek – meant that the city needs a good point of sale. Ms Fegan was involved in the campaign of the local health service that Dr Louws recruited and offered to promote the town again when the post was advertised in March.
“We actually have a very, very good lifestyle and a very safe lifestyle,” she said. “Yes, there is sometimes distance to travel, but how many people do you hear from escaping from it and getting off the grid?”
The city was not, she added, literally from the net: Julia Creek has electricity and broadband internet.
“You don’t have to stay forever,” Ms Fegan said. “Just give it a chance.”
When the work was advertised in 2022, some health care analysts said the reinforced salary was still not enough to compensate for a solo doctor’s workload.
But dr. Louws said Working Solo urged him to teach medical skills that he would have sent patients “two minutes along the way” to have another practitioner performed when he lived in the city. He also fulfilled a childhood dream to learn to milk dairy cows.
“The money is enough. That is,” Louws said. “One of the things I think people don’t necessarily consider enough about this work is the other things this city has to offer.”
Louws applied three days after the first hearing on Julia Creek for the track, after some research on Wikipedia. Soon he and his wife and four children packed to move.
When he was in the track for six months, Dr. Louws said, he knew nine out of the 10 ‘people in the city named. “It feels like he’s about 60 years ago in time,” he said. “Everyone knows everyone.”
However, at the end of his two -year contract in Julia Creek, the distance from his extended family took a toll and he plans to return to his practice in the city. Dr Louws leaves in May; Applications for his post near Sunday.
He is sorry for leaving the ‘incredible’ city.
“It feels much closer,” the doctor said. “You really have to make a difference.”
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