GUNNEDAH has welcomed a new emergency doctor to the region.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Earlier this month, Dr Michael Livingston, his wife Rachel and their daughter Lillybelle relocated to the North West after an eight-month stint working in rural WA.
There, Dr Livingston was the only doctor in a 500km radius.
His time at the mining town of Southern Cross, home to just 762 people and about 225km west of Kalgoorlie, saw him dealing with major mining and roadtrip accidents.
It is, Dr Livingston says, a town of not many people, but is home to “10 billion” flies.
Dr Livingston worked at the town’s tiny rural hospital, dealing with everything from the emergency cases
he has been well trained in, to Aboriginal health issues and mental health issues.
But the family found the isolation tough and thought it was time for a change.
“We found Gunnedah by chance,” Dr Livingston says. He had no idea where Gunnedah, or Tamworth, was, but after some explanation, flew with Rachel and Lillybelle to Tamworth and visited Gunnedah.
He attended an Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine event in Sydney, where he heard about a job at the Gunnedah Rural Health Centre.One of the main reasons Dr Livingston picked Gunnedah was its proximity to Tamworth and the reputation of the teaching hospital here.
He has been looking to expand his skills and potentially train in obstetrics to cater to the many young and expanding families in the region.
“The facilities here are amazing,” Dr Livingston said. “The town feels like it’s got prospects.”
Mrs Livingston said on their brief visit to Gunnedah, they thought people were very friendly.
“We also went up to Porcupine Reserve and it was just beautiful,” she said.
“We didn’t look anywhere else after that. We kind of fell in love with it.”
Though it is still a long distance from Dr Livingston’s home country of Scotland, and Mrs Livingston’s home country of England, the green countryside reminded them both of the UK.
Dr Livingston will work full-time as a GP at Gunnedah Rural Health Centre and with the hospital emergency department, with potential work in Tamworth on the horizon.
And both he and his wife have other plans for Gunnedah.
Dr Livingston would like to learn to fly, and Rachel would like to join roller derby.