KI Docs – Now Recruiting!

Come Work With Us – Boutique Practice, Kangaroo Island, SA

Want to be a ‘KI doc’? We are now recruiting for positions with the KI Medical Clinic team based in Kingscote, Kangaroo Island.

YOU : Dynamic primary care provider, FRACGP or FACRRM, comfortable with provision of office-based medical practice and able to participate in the on-call emergency roster for the Kangaroo Island Hospital. Previous EM experience preferable but you do not have to be a ‘super doc’. There are three docs on call 24/7 – one for EM and one for obs and anaes who can back you up if needed (rarely).

We have positions for both a GP-EM with Obstetrics (one, available immediately) and a GP-EM (one, commencing late 2016 or sooner as one of current Associates relocating for family reasons).

https://vimeo.com/162484883

 

US : We are a work hard, play hard mob. Currently six doctors providing 9-5 in-hours service through the Medical Clinic (15 min appts, mixed billing, supported by practice nurses and visiting specialists).

We have theatre most weeks, catering for urology, gynae, orthopaedic, general surgery, gastroenterology as well as elective/emergency obstetrics and EM. We are well supported by visiting specialists (cardiology, gastroenterology, gynae, paeds, ENT, ophthalmology, general surgery, endocrinology, geriatrics, psychiatry) and have in-house physiotherapy.

The Kangaroo Island Hospital is a 14 bed facility with two birthing beds, a four bedded Emergency Department and co-located RACF (low and high acuity). The view from Hospital beach is back towards the ‘Big Island’ (or Australia). There is pelican feeding every evening at 5pm on the foreshore. Our hospital beds have sea views.

We work a 1:6 on call for EM for the KI Hospital, covering both admitted and non-admitted ED attendances (the latter triaged by RN and then billed as after hours private practice only if doctor required to attend). Currently Country Health SA supply a locum for the hospital 1 week in every 4, giving us a much needed break from the emergency roster and in-patient load.

We take our own X-rays and some of us perform bedside ultrasound…although many of the RNs also have a radiology licence so this is not mandatory. A visiting service provides both X-ray and USS services for elective patients, reported by a radiologist, two days per week.

Three of us participate on the on call anaesthetic roster and currently only one of us practices obstetrics (approx 60 deliveries pa, 24/7 LSCS capable).

https://vimeo.com/162624349

We tend to work only a 3.5 to 4 day week, take up to 8 weeks annual leave and (by negotiation) take a 6 month ‘elective’ every three years (subject to roster being covered).

Of course on call commitments add to this..and a new associate may wish to work longer..but we recognise the value of work-life balance and tend to play the long game by working less and living more. As such the current docs enjoy time off making wine, surfing, sea-kayaking, paddle-boarding, snow boarding, bush walking and farming.

There are generous rural retention allowances (Modified Monash Model , MMM7 – most remote) and yet we are only a short 25 min flight from Adelaide by Rex airlines. There is a ferry crossing controlled by Sealink, allowing car and trailer – this is a somewhat longer journey. The Rural Doctors Workforce of South Australia also offer relocation and other grants.

We currently have one registrar from GPex who is awesome. Several previous registrars (self included) have stayed on and joined the Associateship.

We host two PRCC students from Flinders University each year – these third year students spend the entire third year of their four year graduate-entry degree with us, picking up all the best bits of medicine that a rural practice can offer.

We train for both RACGP and ACRRM, regularly host John Flynn scholars and have a wait list of visiting elective students from Australia and overseas.

Needless to say Kangaroo Island is a boutique practice; we have all the advantages of rurality (heady mix of primary care and hospital work), excellent income and yet are close to the mainland.

The Island is mostly soldier-settler based post WWII – farmers and their families make up much of the 4500 residents, as well as being a favoured holiday location for Adelaide families.

The more recent industry is ecotourism, with international visitors coming to experience our wildlife, our unspoilt and rugged coastline, our fishing, fine wine and of course our food. Tourist numbers are around 200,000 per annum and expected to increase.

 

 

See what Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam has to say about KI !!!

..and check out the ‘Tourism Kangaroo Island’ website here

Interested in trying it out? Shoot us an email [email protected] with resume and references – or perhaps consider visiting Kangaroo Island and doing a locum for a week or so as a ‘taster’

We’d love to hear from you….

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