PERMANENT GP JOB
General Practitioner Vacancy
in Bowen, Whitsundays
Queensland (QLD)
QUEENS BEACH MEDICAL CENTRE
Queens Beach Medical Centre is looking for a new permanent General Practitioner for our extremely busy, accredited medical practice in Bowen. With plenty of clinical variety, the beach at your doorstep and the best of the Whitsundays around you, this is the perfect place to bring up a family.
Queens Beach Medical Centre
41 Murroona St
Bowen, QLD 4805
POSITION:
Full time GP
COMMENCING: ASAP
GOOGLE MAPS:
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GOOGLE EARTH:
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SURGERY OVERVIEW
Queens Beach Medical Centre was opened close to 40 years ago, on the Esplanade at Queens Beach in Bowen. Initially operating out of a small private residence, we eventually outgrew the tiny clinic in 1994 and relocated to a purpose-built surgery in our current location on Murroona Street, and we have been here ever since.
Dr Trezise, our principal and one of the founding doctors, purchased QBMC some 38 years ago and has developed it into a vibrant medical practice with a loyal patient following. Today we are the largest of 4 general practices in the area and have established an extremely strong reputation for being a quality rural general practice that provides exceptional patient care and doctor training.
Ongoing strong patient demand and the pending departure of one of our doctors means that we are looking to recruit an additional one or two doctors who would be happy to commit to providing ongoing health services to our community. We are not currently registered as an RTO but have been in previous years and are looking to become re-accredited as a training facility.
Located only one street back from the beach, our medical practice is within 5 minutes of the recently expanded Bowen Hospital and the town centre. The nearby Bowen Plaza offers Woolworths, Target Country, pharmacy and a variety of independent stores. Locals wanting a full shopping experience routinely visit the neighbouring towns of Airlie Beach or Townsville.
SURGERY OWNERSHIP
We are a doctor owned practice with three of our current GPs in an equal partnership.
OUR DOCTORS
Dr Trezise, MBBS, FACRRM (Associate) – Has been with the practice from its creation 40 years ago. He has exceptional medical knowledge in all areas of general practice and emergency medicine. He has also mentored and supervised many doctors over the last few decades.
Dr Kyi Yin, MBBS, FRACGP (Associate) – Has been an associate of the practice since the day she started with us back in 2011. She became a Fellow with RACGP in 2013 and has a wealth of experience, having worked in many different parts of the world. Dr Yin also has extensive experience in emergency medicine, gained in her role as the SMO of our local hospital, prior to joining us.
MEDICARE STATUS
Bowen is classified as an Outer Regional Area - RA3 or RRMA 6. We are also a District of Workforce Shortage practice and therefore eligible to employ doctors with 19AA and 19AB restrictions. We are not currently a registered training practice however we are planning to have our training status reinstated.
SURGERY LAYOUT
Queens Beach Medical Practice has 4 GP consulting rooms, 2 treatment rooms, a nurse’s station, separate RN office, staff room, Practice Manager’s office and a large reception and waiting area. All consulting rooms have individually controlled aircon and natural lighting. We also have onsite parking out the back of the complex.
SURGERY ROUTINE
Our current surgery opening hours are Monday to Friday: 8.30am to 5.00pm. Due to a doctor shortage we have not been able to open on Saturday mornings however we would like to get back to this one day. Our current appointment schedule is every 15 minutes however we allow for extra squeeze in appointments if need be.
TREATMENT ROOM
Our surgery has 2 treatment rooms. One is fully equipped room for minor ops and procedures (ranging from excisions, venesections, contraceptive insertion & removal etc). The second treatment room is primarily used for carrying out ECGs and Spirometry. We also have a large nurse’s station with 2 patient cubicles. Our RN has her own office in order to see patients to carry out care plans and health assessments,
ADMIN SETUP
We have a full-time Practice Manager and a total of 4 reception staff with 3 receptionists working on a typical day. We are fully computerised using Medical Director and Pracsoft. We are also AGPAL accredited.
NURSING SERVICES
We currently have 3 highly experienced nurses (one RN and 2 ENs). Our RN works closely with the doctors and sees patients 2 days a week to carry out most of our chronic disease care plans (particularly for our diabetics) and Health Assessments (over 75s).
ALLIED HEALTH SERVICES
Bowen has a limited range of visiting Allied Health services such as dentists, a visiting Physiotherapist and Psychologist. Additional services are available in Proserpine, Airlie Beach, Townsville or Mackay.
SPECIALIST SERVICES
Queens Beach Medical Centre does not have any visiting or in-house specialists but, in partnership with our GPs, we have harnessed the full potential of Telehealth Consultations with specialists based in Townsville and Mackay. With daily Telehealth consultations being conducted from our surgery, we have achieved a vast improvement in patient care, reduced travel time for both specialists and patients and better management of a wide range of medical conditions, from mental health to chronic conditions. The combination of visiting specialists to Bowen Hospital, Telehealth consultations and the occasional trip to Townsville or Mackay ensures our patients are receiving a high quality of specialist care.
DIAGNOSTIC SERVICES
We have QML Pathology and Whitsunday Ultrasound located right next door to us.
OTHER CLINICAL SERVICES
Our doctors perform a range of skin excisions and minor procedures.
PATIENT DEMOGRAPHICS
At the 2016 Census Bowen had a population of 10,377 people. Bowen is a small coastal town that enjoys a diversified economy based on mining, farming, fishing and tourism. According to the census 9.2% of Bowen’s population are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. 74.2% were born in Australia. 81.5% of people only speak English with the remainder of 1.5% speaking Mandarin and 1.2% speaking Korean.
From our patient data reports 41.9% of our patient base are Pensioners and 1.4% are DVA patients. This shows we have a high demographic of older people and retirees. Our ATSI patients are at 5%. We also have a lot of back packers and overseas workers from Tonga, Samoa etc that come to Bowen to work on the farms during parts of the year. The “grey nomads” also migrate North to Bowen during the cooler months to escape the cold down south.
BILLING ARRANGEMENTS
We are a mixed billing practice. We bulk bill pensioners and health care card holders. Our standard consult fee is $75.
PATIENT DEMAND
Queens Beach Medical Centre has an ongoing high level of patient demand and we continue to turn patients away on a daily basis. Dr Trezise is usually booked out for 2-3 weeks in advance and his books are currently closed to new patients. The remaining doctors will always have their day booked out up to a day in advance, depending on the time of year and the number of doctors we have on board at the time. We do have reserved appointments which are always booked out that day also.
TOWN/SUBURB FACILITIES
Bowen is located at the Northern end of the Whitsundays. One hour’s drive to the South we have Proserpine and our nearest domestic airport. Two hours to the North is Townsville. Mackay is located two hours drive to the South. Bowen has 3 public and 1 private primary school and 1 public high school.
TOURIST INFORMATION
Bowen is surrounded by some of the nation’s best beaches and is an extremely popular holiday destination for this reason. We have 8+ beaches in Bowen but the most popular and well known is Horseshoe Bay which made the Top 5 on the Guardian Australia Best Regional Beach list in January 2019. We have an amazing golf course which overlooks the ocean. We are then only a 45 min drive to Airlie Beach where you can jump onto a boat to transfer to any of the islands within the Whitsundays or the Barrier Reef. The town is well known for its Bowen Mangoes hence the Big Mango you will see as you hit the township of Bowen.
SKILLS OR INTERESTS SOUGHT
We would ideally prefer a VR GP but are able to accommodate doctors under 19AA or 19AB restrictions.
CIRCUMSTANCES
Queens Beach Medical Centre are looking to fill several GP positions this year. We have the pending departure of one of our doctors who is relocating for family reasons and our principal doctor is looking to eventually scale back his working hours. We have the capacity for 4 full time GPs and are happy to negotiate and be flexible with working hours for each GP.
CONTRACT TERMS
We are offering competitive market rates of pay and aim to be flexible as possible with any incoming doctors to try and accommodate their lifestyle expectations, family needs and clinical interests.
LOCUM TERMS
At this stage we are not looking at locum coverage however we would be happy to consider a locum GP who has a view to a permanent position.
CONTACT:
Alicia Fletcher (Practice Manager)
Queens Beach Medical Centre
Phone: (07) 4785 1533
Email:
Posted: 18th April 2019
Position Reference: DY17097
