Emergency Medicine Network 4

Why Tamworth Hospital?

Tamworth is the regional referral centre for the New South Wales North West—an area geographically the same size as Tasmania, and serving a population well in excess of 200,000. The cost of rent and house prices, the cache of good schools, cafes and restaurants, together with an enthusiastic local sporting community makes Tamworth incredibly affordable and a great place to live. The virtues of country life are matched with World-Class Critical Care delivery at the hospital, overseen by FACEMs involved in the ED and the Retrieval Service.

Emergency Advanced Trainees will have access to 6 months of Anaesthetics, 3/6month rotations in ICU and 6 months of Retrieval Medicine. There are consultants on shift between 7.00am - 12.00am every day, with a pro-active and highly supportive on-call service overnight. The case-mix includes rural trauma, snake envenomations, a large number of critically ill children and late-presenting illness (country people are tough) - as well as the usual run-of-the-mill stuff. The Emergency Department sees in excess of 43,000 presentations per annum. 27% are paediatric presentations and a 25% admission rate.

We have a comprehensive education program with protected teaching days (10 hours of ED education per fortnight) with access to interdisciplinary SIMs on every education day. Affiliated with the University of Newcastle, we also have access to high fidelity SIM labs at their Tamworth Education Centre. We are known for our comprehensive Primary Exam Revision program and our Primary Exam Viva Course held twice a year.  Currently we are ACEM accredited for 18 months ED time, and 18 months non-ED (ICU, Anaesthetics, Retrieval Medicine, General Medicine) as well as fulfilling the Paediatric Emergency Portfolio (PEP).

Be sure to ask people who have worked in Tamworth how they found it.

For more information, please contact:

Dr Geetha Gokul Naidu
Director of Emergency Medicine Training
ED Staff Specialist
Geetha.GokulNaidu@health.nsw.gov.au