Regional doctor provides harrowing account of heart attack patient unable to be treated

Dan Wilson, a regionally-based doctor currently working in primary care in Maryborough in Victoria, appeared on the Country Viewpoint this week to discuss workforce issues in the Australian regional and rural medical landscape.

Image credit: Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine official website

Wilson was asked whether he had any lived experiences of dealing with regional patients in a state of emergency where access to treatment was scarce.

He told listeners about an intense case he was once tasked with when he had to provide care to a patient who had complained about suffering from chest pains.

It turned out the patient was suffering an active heart attack but was unable to be treated across two regional hospitals - in Bendigo and Ballarat - and had to be airlifted to Melbourne.

"On one call, a patient came through with chest pain, he was worried he was having a heart attack and indeed he was having a heart attack, it was late at night, we have no specialist service here, we needed to get this gentleman urgently to a nearby service," Wilson explained.

"There was unfortunately no capability in the two regional hospitals...Bendigo and Ballarat Health Services at the time for workforce difficulties at the time.

"This gentleman had to be put onto a helicopter and flown all the way down to Melbourne for specialist care and that's a really long time in an airplane when you're having a heart attack, to be honest."

Even though the patient had survived the traumatic ordeal, Wilson said it was one of many different examples highlighting how disadvantaged outback communities are when it comes to accessing basic levels of medical care.

"Some of the further ongoing difficulties is simply getting follow-up appointments to see a regular GP in some of these regions - normally, after a heart attack, you'd want to be seeing your GP within a couple of weeks, in many communities, the wait for your GP is between six and eight weeks," Wilson said.

"There's absolutely an inordinate amount of work there (regional and rural Australia) to serve underprivileged Australians."