AS he often does, local doctor Andrew Bezzina is spending this weekend away from home teaching other doctors how to manage medical emergencies safely and effectively.
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Dr Bezzina, chair and volunteer of the not-for-profit organisation Emergency Life Support, has spent 23 years as an emergency specialist in the Shoalhaven.
“I’m director of Emergency Medical Training at Shoalhaven Hospital, and use my skills to help doctors working in isolated conditions how to respond to particularly challenging emergencies,” Dr Bezzina said.
He said ELS was established because he and other emergency doctors understood there was a real need for this kind of training, and had an acute appreciation of the apprehension faced by doctors in emergency situations.
“Local GPs can be called upon for any kind of medical emergency, and in isolated and rural regions have little backup.
“ELS endeavours to give these doctors the tools they need to cope.”
Dr Bezzina said the course provided a systemic approach to teaching, and taught doctors procedural skills a level above those taught when they were first learning to be doctors.
“We teach them how to apply those basic skills in a more advanced way.”
Doctors working for ELS – who come from different backgrounds and contribute different skill sets – donate their own time, and all other costs are covered by participants or their parent organisation.
Besides running courses throughout Australia – one of the very first courses was in Mollymook – and New Zealand, teams also go to Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.
“Ideally we’ll do more courses overseas, but that will depend on local funding and sometimes financial support from organisations like AusAID,” Dr Bezzina said.