AddressWagga Wagga is the largest inland city in NSW, situated in the Riverina area just under five hours’ drive southwest of Sydney, four hours’ north from Melbourne, and just under three hours’ drive west from Canberra. It is a lovely and welcoming, family-friendly city with plenty to see and do. Some examples include the city’s museum, art gallery and Civic Theatre, the Wagga Beach, the Wiradjuri walking track encircling the city, the beautiful Botanical Gardens, along with great boutiques, cafes, restaurants and wineries, good schools, and a local university. We are surrounded by stunning countryside in all directions, with the Snowy Mountains and multiple National Parks all within easy reach. There is a regional airport in Wagga which provides regular direct flights to and from Melbourne and Sydney in an hour, and Brisbane in two hours.
The city itself has a population of approximately 65,000 people. WWBH is the major rural referral hospital for the Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD), which services 250,000 people in total across the vast Murrumbidgee area in NSW.
The WWBH ED has over 45000 presentations per year, with a wide variety of cases including general medicine and surgery, obstetrics, orthopaedics, and mental health. Approximately 25% of the ED presentations are paediatrics. One of the many advantages of coming to work in a regional centre is the exposure to rural medicine and procedural skills in a supervised environment, which includes managing significant trauma cases from farming/machinery accidents and MVAs.
WWBH is the regional trauma centre seeing approximately 100 major trauma presentations per year, the regional stroke centre, and the regional PCI centre with 24/7 access to two interventional cardiology labs and interventional radiology services. The ED has 3 resuscitation beds, and acute and subacute / ambulatory care areas. There is a co-located Emergency Department Short Stay Unit (EMU) with 8 monitored beds.
Non vocational ED registrars are rostered to all areas of the ED including EMU, which ensures not only access to the breadth of presentations but makes the most of the opportunities in our procedure rich environment. There is double FACEM cover from 0800-2400 daily with an on-call FACEM overnight.
Opportunities in this role at Wagga include FACEM supervision to complete an ACEM qualification such as the Emergency Medicine Certificate, Diploma and/or the Advanced Diploma. There is an extensive ACEM Emergency Medicine Education and Training (EMET) teaching program in place at WWBH ED called the “WESTEND” teaching program to facilitate this, with fortnightly full day sessions run by local FACEMs and specifically aimed at non vocational mid-grade ED Medical Officers including Rural Generalist and GP trainees. There are 10 hours of paid protected teaching time once a fortnight, along with favourable rostering to attend external courses. There is also the option to do critical care rotations in anaesthesia and ICU, as well as rotations in paediatrics and ultrasound. Research is encouraged and supported by the ED, as is participation in trauma grand rounds and our M&M program. Ongoing career opportunities in the MLHD include transitioning to a permanent ED Career Medical Officer (CMO) and/or a senior ED CMO position which is recognised as a vital role in our local workforce.
WWBH ED also has strong ties to both University of New South Wales and University of Notre Dame Rural Medical Schools, with opportunities to support the student learning experience both within the ED and in an academic post.
