Rural GPST workshop 14th and 15th November 2013

Having missed out on this gathering last year due to rota commitments, I was very keen to go this year.  Having been held in the not so remote location of Inverness in 2012, this year it was to be hosted by Western Isles Hospital in Stornoway, on the Isle of Lewis.  The timetable included a visit to the Bristow Search and Rescue Team, who are based at Stornoway Airport; surely not an opportunity for a joyride in a helicopter, I thought.  Well, no actually there was no helicopter ride, the weather put paid to that, but the high winds also ensured a very interesting flight from Inverness.  With wings flapping and the angry sea boiling just a few feet below us, you could tell the locals on the approach to land.  They were the ones reading their papers whilst the visitors were looking out of the windows contemplating the end and hoping it would be over quickly.

We were made very welcome and the course was great, with talks on forensic medicine, the aforementioned Bristow Search and Rescue team and the new role being taken by Western Isles GPs in staffing the hospital Out of Hours .  More than anything else, it was interesting to hear from other trainees, how they were getting on and what challenges and opportunities their different placements were bringing.  Being based in Grantown-on-Spey, I feel a lot less remotely placed than I did last year in Oban, so it was great to catch up with a few old video conferencing faces from last year.  It was a reminder that rural practice is really the most exciting option out there.

Having pestered them to do it for two days, a few of the other trainees agreed to say a few words on camera about their life and work in some of the more remote parts of the region.  Apologies for the level of background noise on some of the clips.  Friendly though they are, I didn't feel I could go into the kitchen of the cafe and ask them to keep the noise down.  Heres a link to the film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCrMOqHWZ7g