Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip from the ABC current affairs program Four Corners in 2006 shows Dr Kevin Coleman performing a minor procedure on the leg of a female patient. Coleman says he originally moved to Cobar, New South Wales, to practise obstetrics but feels that he has lost a battle to 'maintain procedural services’ and has made the decision to leave the practice. The reporter in voice-over explains that Coleman is the only doctor on call to service the entire shire of Cobar, which covers a huge area and has a population of 7,000. The reporter continues that doctors in the country are overworked and that 'they suffer big burn-out rates’. The clip ends with Coleman saying that he no longer feels that he has a life-saving role in Cobar.

Educational value points

• According to the ABC’s online journal Health Matters, doctors often find the prospect of working in regional areas of Australia unattractive as they usually have to work longer hours and handle a wider variety of complaints than doctors in metropolitan areas. Coleman, for example, claims to work 70–80 hours a week. There is often a lack of resources and limited technology in rural areas. Medical indemnity insurance is higher and doctors are faced with a greater likelihood of being sued for medical negligence because of their wide-ranging responsibilities.

• About 130 rural maternity units were closed between 1996 and 2006, and while in 2002 there were 706 GP obstetricians practising in rural regions, by November 2004 this number had fallen to 657. City practitioners undertaking obstetrics are generally younger than their rural counterparts, and according to the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners the main reasons they are hesitant about practising obstetrics in rural areas are the high cost of personal indemnity insurance, the fear of litigation and excessive work hours.

• To attract health workers to isolated rural areas, governments are offering doctors financial incentives and encouraging students to undertake part of their medical training and placements in regional areas. Specialist training is being offered to Indigenous Australian health workers who are prepared to return to live in their own communities, and medical schools are also being attached to regional universities.

• In November 2006, the Australian Government passed legislation entitling GPs in regional areas who deliver 20 or more babies in a year to a 'procedural payment’ of $17,000, in a bid to improve rural maternity services. In addition, medical groups are lobbying for funding for obstetric training and appropriate locum support.

• Matthew Carney, the journalist narrating the clip, has worked as a reporter and a producer with the ABC and SBS television networks for 15 years, and began working as a journalist for Four Corners in 2005. During his career he has won three Walkley Awards (awards recognising excellence in Australian journalism), one TV Week Logie Award (Australian television industry awards) and a United Nations Media Peace Prize.

• The clip is taken from Four Corners, an ABC network current affairs program that began in August 1961. Four Corners is Australia’s longest-running current affairs program. It has received international recognition and is renowned for investigating media stories in depth.