Rural and Remote Special Skills Position – ACEM Accredited (for non ED) - Tennant Creek Hospital – Positions available for rotations in 2025

Do you want to practice high acuity medicine, in a young population, as part of a small dynamic team?    80% of your patients will be Indigenous, there are no inpatient teams and you are 500km from the nearest CT scanner!

Tennant Creek is a town of 5000, 500km north of Alice Springs in the vast Northern Territory outback. Tennant Creek hospital is a 20 bed rural hospital with a modern emergency department.  We have 14000 Emergency presentations per year, and 6600 admissions per year reflecting the high acuity of presentations.

A special skills position in Rural and Remote medicine is available which has 6 months accreditation as a Category A Special Skills post for ACEM training. We are happy to take trainees on 3 or 6 month rotations.  We can also combine the rotation with Alice Springs Hospital Emergency Department rotations.

The medicine is incredibly interesting. Rheumatic heart disease, bronchiectasis, chronic liver disease, renal disease, and diabetes are all prevalent, in a young population. Overwhelming sepsis is common. Trauma is also common, with MVAs, truncal and thigh stabbings, and blunt trauma from assault.  You will meet the challenge of becoming an excellent clinician with limited availability of tests.  Patients requiring higher level care are retrieved to Alice Springs Hospital via RFDS and the Central Australian Retrieval Service.

The rewarding work will be a combination of emergency department shifts, inpatient wards, telemedicine, and GP clinics.  Working in a small hospital will provide the opportunity to see your patients’ progress through the wards and back to your GP clinic. There is always a senior generalist (FACRRM) on call for onsite clinical support, but with the ability for the development of independent practice. The MRACC (Medical Retrieval Call Centre) in Alice Springs provide on phone support 24 hours a day. Your colleagues are a combination of FACRRM trainees and rotating residents from Alice Springs Hospital.  Education is both in-house in Tennant Creek and via teleconference to Alice Springs.

Set in the Territory outback there are National Parks offering camping, walking, swimming, canoeing, bike riding and the annual Harmony Desert Festival.  This is a great place to come to expand your horizons, to gain experience if you are thinking of doing voluntary service overseas, or if you are interested in broadening your experience of emergency medicine or Aboriginal health.

For further information or to apply, please contact:

        Dr Anna Fairbairn (ED Staff Specialist Alice Springs Hospital) [email protected]