2. The development,
maintenance and enhancement of the skills of rural doctors
Rural practice is a clinical field whose practitioners,
working in a rural or remote environment, are required to be extended
generalists, providing primary, secondary and specialised medical care. Rural
doctors must be able, singly or in a team, to provide a wide variety of local
services appropriate to the needs of rural communities.
Rural practice often includes obstetrics, surgery,
anaesthetics and emergency medicine together with hospital access and care of
the acutely ill. Rural practitioners are much more likely than urban doctors to
be looking after individual patients for all of their medical problems on a
continuing basis and to be caring for other family members. Emergency medical
skills are an absolute minimum requirement, and rural doctors should be assisted
to obtain these so as to perform competently in situations where there is no
access to immediate assistance.
Rural medical skills should include the ability to
minimise the impact of distance on the family and economic life of rural people
caused by non-urgent health care needs. Other skills should be determined
according to the characteristics of the community