Armidale Hospital is a 150-bed acute care facility providing medical, surgical and obstetric services to the New England region. The hospital has an emergency department, operating theatres, intensive care unit and oncology unit.
The town of Armidale is located in the New England area of NSW which is known for its beautiful scenery and diverse range of outdoor activities. There are also many restaurants and cafes catering to different tastes. Some local attractions include Canberra Nature Park, Lake Burley Griffin and Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve.
It would be beneficial for doctors wanting to work at Armidale Hospital to have experience in rural medicine as well as working with Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander peoples (ATSI). This position would suit someone who enjoys being part of a small community where they can really get to know their patients.
I only worked night shifts, which did not tend to be too busy. After the first few hours, things tended to quiet down. The main issue was the lack of support. There is no FACEM on call, should things go south. In theory the escalation is to the relevant specialty consultants (medicine, surgery, O&G), however in my experience these consultants were not happy to take on the role that would normally be filled by an ED consultant. The other escalation is to the retrieval consultant in Tamworth, who was excellent the one time I needed support with a critically unwell patient. There is no ICU in Armidale, with the only two high dependancy beds being the two resus beds in ED. Armidale is a referral hospital for smaller district hospitals, and they can sometimes try to off-load their sick patients to Armidale before calling the bigger tertiary centres. I found I had to do quite a lot of triage of referrals overnight, and refused a couple of patients who clearly needed ICU level care. The nursing staff I worked with were all generally excellent.
I was a locum orthopaedic consultant for a week. Armidale is a lovely region with a nice new hospital and committed doctors and nurses. My week included one day of clinic, and being on call for orthopaedic emergencies for he full 7 days. I was supported by two registrars and a JMO.
# Armidale NSW O&G - Smaller unit with 2 Franzcogs on their way to retirement and the rest are GP/Obs - Approx 420-450 births/yr - Very supportive of junior staff, suitable for SRMO PGY3 with O&G experience - You may need to do all the RMO tasks as well like discharge summaries, scripts - On weekends, you also assist the surgical Registrar with ward rounds -. Pretty chilled role overall but well paid. - Had us stay at Estelle Kramer Motel which is perfect for a little family, 2bedrm self contained unit.
workload was good, nice working environment. Really good midwife team in O&G. mon-fri: you work in O&G weekend cover: help general surgery/ ortho - this was very variable, and I definitely enjoyed this aspect least. accommodation: organised with airbnb, very easy and nice. would recommend the role to other doctors. to do around armidale: nice cafes, walks. cons of armidale: if you came by yourself for a prolonged period, could be a bit lonely.