Scotland: Enquiry into Out of Hours Cover

The Scottish Parliament’s Health and Sport Committee is inviting submissions to an enquiry regarding out of hours care provision in rural areas of Scotland.
In particular, they are keen to hear views on the following questions:

What do you think is the most sustainable and cost-effective way to provide adequate out-of-hours services in rural areas?
What are your [...]

Study: Rural Placements for UK Medical Students

It’s increasingly recognised that rural practice can offer undergraduate medical students excellent learning opportunities, with higher-than-average satisfaction compared with their urban counterparts.  There can be many reasons for this, not least that students are often forced into immersing themselves in the local community, as a rural placement will normally involve staying within the locality, instead [...]

African Health Placement (part 2)

A couple of days ago we linked to a video from the African Health Placement project.  Here’s part 2.

Rural Health Placements in South Africa

This video comes from South Africa, where opportunities for doctors – including from the UK – appear to be available.  The African Health Placements project is a collaboration between the Foundation for Professional Development and the Rural Health Initiative.
If you have some spare time coming up and fancy a bit of rural hospital practice, check [...]

Northern Territory Remote & Rural Training

Australia has a well developed rural training programme, and several established networks by which this is organised.
This video, recently published on YouTube shows how the rural GP training programme is delivered in the Northern Territory – including ways in which opportunities are provided for medical students.

Tips for Teleconferencing

The RCGP Rural Forum regularly uses teleconferencing to link up members from across the UK.  It saves money and time, and is particularly useful for rural practitioners who would have prohibitively long journeys out of their practice area to attend meetings.
Teleconferencing is widely used for other purposes too – and its use is likely to [...]

View from Australia

Rural practice is alive and kicking down under.  There are many similarities between UK and Auzzie general practice, however the extremes of remoteness are more widespread in Australia.  As a result, there are many innovative projects ongoing to reduce the effect of peripherality, and improve access to healthcare.
The Royal Australian College of GPs has its [...]

150 members and counting!

Since the weekend, we have over 150 members signed up to the Rural Forum.  We’re pleased to see such an enthusiastic response, and will be emailing you soon to formally welcome you to the Forum.
If you haven’t yet signed up, see here for further details.

Dr John Macleod: Eulogy

Dr James Douglas, a GP in Fort William, made the following eulogy speech at Dr Macleod’s funeral.  He has kindly given his permission for this to be made available here.
Dr John MacLeod 1935 – 2009
I first met John and Lorna in 1977 when I came to North Uist as a young doctor on the University [...]

Report from Gregynog 2009 Rural Doctors’ Conference

Dr Malcolm Ward, Chair of the RCGP Rural Forum, has just returned from the Annual Rural Doctors’ Conference in Gregynog, Wales.  He sends this report…
Thanks to Montgomeryshire Medical Society and the Institute of Rural Health, Gregynog Hall has been host to the Annual Rural Doctors’ conference since 1990. It was the first time I have [...]