TWO prominent Renmark doctors were recently recognised for a combined seven decades of service to the health of local residents.
Renmark Medical Clinic partner GPs Dr Chris Muecke and Dr Paul Smith both received awards for 35 years of service at the Rural Doctor Workforce Agency Long Service Medal Dinner earlier this month.
Dr Smith began his work at the clinic in August 1985, closely followed by Dr Muecke in January 1986.
Dr Muecke said he and Dr Smith were grateful to be acknowledged.
“It’s great to be recognised for the work we’ve put in,” he said.
“It’s really the community that has helped to keep me in rural GP all this time.”
Dr Smith said being a rural GP had been very rewarding.
“Generally country patients are more tolerant and are better patients to look after than city patients too,” he said.
“When we first came up here all GPs did obstetrics or anaesthetics or both, whereas nowadays a lot of the GPs don’t do any of the procedural stuff, unless they are doing accident and emergency work.
“Obstetrics was really great because you delivered babies and got to look after the babies and the families, which is one of the best things about rural GP, I think.”
Dr Smith said the incorporation of technology had been one of the most significant changes to the sector since the two doctors started.
“When we first started we didn’t have any mobile phones, and we didn’t even have a pager,” he said.
“We had to stay home when we were on call, and if we had to go anywhere we had let someone know.”
Dr Muecke said the practice was yet to own computers when he moved to Renmark in 1986.
“We only had paper records and a computer was introduced shortly after we got here,” he said.
“We just had paper mail – you’d come back from two weeks of holidays and have a whole crate of mail to go through.
“You still get that to some extent these days, but instead we are mainly just inundated with emails all the time.
“I think we spend a lot more time doing things now then we used to because it is way more complex.”
Dr Muecke said although rural healthcare continues to struggle to maintain staff levels, he was optimistic about the future.
“There’s always been an issue with country GP,” he said.
“When we first arrived the practice had seven or eight doctors, and we’ve maintained those numbers more or less, although we did get down to only four doctors at one stage.
“It’s always been a struggle to replace people for 35 years… but you have to be hopeful for the future.”