Macksville District Hospital

We caught up with one of our Blugibbon locum doctors in Macksville to hear what he thought about the location for locuming. He spent two weeks at Macksville District Hospital so was able to provide some honest insights into what it’s like on the ground in the ED. 

What was the support for locum doctors like in the department?

The ED Director, Dr Gill, and the nursing staff were great! They helped me immensely during my time there. Other doctors (locum or not) were also very helpful, it is a great team at Macksville!

However I did mainly evening shifts and the support for evening shifts was not great. It is usually busier in the afternoon, but there is usually only one doctor in the whole hospital (inpatient and ED) after 6 pm. There is usually someone on call, but they should only be called if you need something urgently, like in a resus situation where you need an airway person. I didn’t call any on-call person during my shifts. 

What specialists were on call? How was access to imaging etc?

There are no specialties on site at Macksville, apart from admission - you call an on-call admitting doctor. If you need any other specialties, like surgery, orthopaedics, O&G, ENT etc, you need to call Coffs Harbour. There are usually 2-3 transfers to Coffs Harbour per shift. 

There is X-Ray on site, during business hours, but on call 24/7. If you need urgent CT or ultra, the patient will need to go to Coffs.

On average, how many presentations were there to the ED each day? How many were you dealing with?

There are usually about 30 presentations per day to the ED, but there were 50+ ED presentations in a day on one or two of the days while I was there.

How was the travel, logistics and accommodation?

I drove my own car from Brisbane, which took 4-5 hours. I stayed at Nambucca Heads, in a unit organised by the hospital.

What were the best spots in town? Share with us your favourites!

The food choice is limited, but there is a Woolies close by.

There are beaches close by, Shelly beach was my favourite! It’s nice for a jog or for a swim.

Would you go back? If so, why? Would you recommend the location?

Maybe, I wish there were more doctors on evening shifts, even a JHO will be helpful.

Did you take any nice pictures of Macksville or surrounding area during your time there that you would like to share?