Annual Rural Doctors’ Conference: Autumn 2009

This year’s Rural Health Week – including the Rural Doctors’ Conference – which aims to raise the profile of rural health issues locally, regionally and nationally, will be held from September 27 to October 3.
The theme chosen by the Institute of Rural Health (IRH), which organises the week, is ‘Reaching Out: Enabling access to services [...]

Malcolm Ward: RCGP Council Elections

Ballot papers are now out for electing the next RCGP UK Council.  Malcolm Ward, chair of the RCGP Rural Forum is standing for a place on the council, and his statement is copied below.  If any other nominees wish to state their intentions for the advancement of rural issues, we will be happy to host [...]

Scottish Centre for Telehealth Conference

All the presentations from February’s SCT conference are now available from here.
Topics include establishing where Scotland is at now with its telehealth strategy, managing long term conditions at home with telemedicine, clinical photography, dementia & telehealth, and involving communities in service redesign.

Rural Practices in Northern Ireland moving towards Federation

Michael Smyth, GP, Northern Ireland writes…
The culmination of a collaborative plan between mostly small rural practices in Northern Ireland was the recent launch of a new action plan by the Northern Ireland Small Practice Association (NISPA).
Over 100 workers and GPs from practices across the province attended the event at the Manor House Hotel, Killadeas.
It’s estimated [...]

NHS24 in Rural/Remote Areas

You may be aware of an excellent source of R&R research – Rural & Remote Health.   Thanks to Gordon Baird, who flagged up an interesting article into how the out-of-hours telephone service NHS24 (similar to NHS Direct in England & Wales) fares for remote & rural communities.  Direct link to the article (including PDF) [...]

Single Handed by Rosie Donovan

Here’s an interesting insight into the work of some of our more remote colleagues.  Granted, this isn’t recent news, but I thought it might tempt readers who’ve not seen this before.
Rosie Donovan is a Scottish photographer who carried out a photo-documentary of the lives of several remote & rural GPs in Scotland.  The exhibition that [...]

Feature Link: Australian College of Rural & Remote Medicine

“ACRRM is the peak professional organisation for Rural and Remote Medicine (RRM) education and training in Australia and leads the world in the development of this discipline. Our members are committed to providing the highest quality of medical care to patients in regional, rural and remote communities throughout Australia.”

Revalidation for Rural Practitioners

The RCGP have just released their Guide to the Revalidation of General Practitioners. It’s a must-read given that the GMC plans to phase in its strategy for relicensing and revalidation in 2009.  Whilst the document itself doesn’t specifically address issues of revalidation in rural/remote practice, there is work going on – including within the RCGP [...]

James Ferguson on Telemedicine

Clip from Lesley Riddoch’s BBC Scotland show on 18 January 2008.  James Ferguson is Consultant in A&E Medicine in Aberdeen, with an interest in telemedicine – he’s part of the team at the Scottish Centre for Telehealth.  He covers topics related to remote medicine, including hospital closures and using technology to reduce the problem of distance.  Recommended [...]

Lesley Riddoch on Telehealth

Lesley Riddoch, an excellent broadcaster on Radio Scotland, interviewed some top names in Telehealth in 2007.  Although it was recorded 2 years ago, the standard of broadcast is high and the programme is more about what telemedicine could eventually achieve.
Those interviewed are: Dr Leonard Witkamp a dermatologist and Director of the Telemedicine Centre in Holland; [...]